Imagination is the forefather of reimagining. The Federal bureaucracy imagined a perfect purchasing world with GSA in 1949. Per the GSA website https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/mission-and-background/our-missions-evolution.
“Former President Harry Truman established GSA on July 1, 1949, to streamline the administrative work of the federal government. GSA consolidated the National Archives Establishment, the Federal Works Agency, the Public Buildings Administration, the Bureau of Federal Supply, the Office of Contract Settlement, and the War Assets Administration into one federal agency tasked with administering supplies and providing workplaces for federal employees. GSA’s original mission was to dispose of war surplus goods, manage and store government records, handle emergency preparedness, and stockpile strategic supplies for wartime. GSA also regulated the sale of various office supplies to federal agencies and managed some unusual operations, such as hemp plantations in South America.”
A noble use of bureaucracy. Did this activity then transcend the mission of agencies for each of them to begin the administering their own supplies and workplaces? I was part of the OEM world in the 80’s, 90’s and beyond. Before VARs, before large IDIQ contracts. We sold directly, installed alone, used new employees or staffing companies for overflow, and as an OEM and delivered innovation to the US Government. Technology was our focus, government just a customer. Then came the Federal Systems Divisions of companies, then the restrictions on access, then the employment of specialized GOVCON experts. What happened? When did I lose my ability to walk the halls of the agencies and offer value in person?
As a purveyor of services to the GOVCON community GARDANT GLOBAL lost many , many, customers to DOGE and the government shutdowns. DOGE reimagined procurement and has attempted to restore GSA to its place in the GOVCON universe. This positioning by DOGE took away the CIO-SP contracts, took away Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) FISRT SOURCE III, and ended many agency contracts. GARDANT spent months with clients perfecting the messaging, creating the solutions, and submitting pages and pages of content in support of our GOVCON Primes to the contracting officers. Now… does the government turn to GSA? Turn to AI? Turn to OTAs?
We are in full agreement that change was needed. However, GARDANT lost most of our revenue in the first half of 2025. We had to reimagine our business… We did. We now offer Consulting Support Services in the continuation of our mission to support GOVCON, but we now offer some of these services online through SELLTOGOVERNMENT.COM the new GARDANT GLOBAL Online community. Check it out… Sign up and let us discuss and support your reimagined GOVCON.
A community online for the GOVCON community!