Information Technology: A Statistical Study of Acquisition Time (Letter
Report, 03/13/95, GAO/AIMD-95-65).

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed federal information
technology (IT) acquisitions to determine how various factors affect the
IT acquisition process.

GAO found that: (1) the average time taken to complete an IT acquisition
varies according to the procurement type, dollar value, and whether a
bid protest is filed; (2) hardware, software, maintenance, and support
services are the major types of IT resources being acquired; (3)
contracts under $250,000 take an average of 158 days to award, while
contracts $25 million or more take 669 days to award; (4) most
procurements are awarded either as sole source or full and open
competition contracts; (5) the average time taken to award IT contracts
increases as the contract value increases; (6) protested contracts take
longer to award than nonprotested contracts in every dollar strata; (7)
large dollar contracts are much more likely to be protested; and (8)
other factors such as competition type and evaluation methods also
increase contract award time.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  AIMD-95-65
     TITLE:  Information Technology: A Statistical Study of Acquisition 
             Time
      DATE:  03/13/95
   SUBJECT:  ADP procurement
             Federal procurement
             Management information systems
             Information resources management
             Strategic information systems planning
             Contract award
             Bid protests
             Contract costs
             Procurement evaluation
             Procurement regulation
IDENTIFIER:  Federal Acquisition Computer Network
             
