(a) OMB expects agencies to effectively manage contract spending through a balance of Government-wide, agency-wide, and local contracts; to reduce unnecessary contract duplication and cost avoidance; and to continue achievement of statutory small business goals and other statutory socioeconomic requirements (e.g., AbilityOne and Federal Prison Industries). Information about category management, including who the designated category managers are, and copies of OMB memos can be found on the Category Management, AoAs & Business Cases page on the GSA Acquisition Portal available at https://insite.gsa.gov/acquisitionportal.

(b) The contract tiered maturity model is a category management tool that can be used by agencies to evaluate their progress in aligning common spend with category management principles, in acquisition planning and market research, and in support of other actions and decisions:

(1) Tier 3 - Spend through best practice solutions.

(2) Tier 2 - Spend through multi-agency solutions or government-wide solutions that are not best practice solutions.

(3) Tier 1 - Spend through agency-wide mandatory use solutions.

(4) Tier 0 - Spend not aligned to category management principles.