Competitive Sourcing Remains Hot Button Issue
OMB initiatives are credited with pushing significant grow in federal IT outsourcing. A report prepared by a private sector research firm predicts IT outsourcing will increase from $12.2 billion in FY2005 to $17.6 billion in FY2010. According to the report, OMB's Lines of Business (LoB) initiative is one of the key drivers that "will continue to compel agencies to spend on IT outsourcing."

The report explains that the "Encouraged by the Bush Administration's management agenda and proven cost savings, federal agencies have, for the most part, accepted the need for competitive sourcing." However, despite "the executive priority and proven cost savings to agencies, competitive sourcing remains a hot-button issue."

Although the report rightly emphasizes the benefits of competitive sourcing and the importance of new OMB initiatives, the report doesn't cite the history of OMB's directives to agencies to transfer their PKI work to the private sector. A December 2004 OMB Memorandum explained, "Previous OMB guidance instructed agencies to move to commercial managed services for public key infrastructure (PKI) and electronic signatures. A move to a commercial service from a government operated one will save time and money."

Full agency compliance with the OMB Memorandum is essential for securely and efficiently managing federal PKI and eAuthentication services.