OneGov Creates Leverage, But Optimization Creates Savings
The General Services Administration’s OneGov initiative is built around a simple but powerful idea: Leverage the federal government’s collective buying power to negotiate better pricing on widely used platforms, including enterprise tools from providers such as ServiceNow, Salesforce and Microsoft.
That’s a meaningful first step. Agencies can reduce costs on core platforms they already depend on.
But the real financial and operational impact comes next.
What I often see is agencies continuing to pay for overlapping tools — niche applications or legacy systems — even after securing discounted access to platforms that already provide similar capabilities. In other words, they save money on licenses but miss the larger opportunity to eliminate software redundancy.
OneGov creates the moment to ask a bigger question: Are we fully using what we already own?
READ MORE: AI-enabled platforms are transforming government.
Start With a Software Inventory to Identify Redundancy
If you’re an agency IT leader, the first step is straightforward: Take inventory.
This sounds simple, but it’s often revealing. Like subscription services in our personal lives, individual software costs may seem small in isolation. But across an enterprise environment, they add up quickly — especially when multiple tools perform similar functions.
A full inventory should include:
- All active software subscriptions
- Core platforms and their licensed modules
- Business processes tied to each tool
- Overlapping or duplicative capabilities
This is where many agencies uncover hidden inefficiencies. In some cases, they’re paying for capabilities that already exist within platforms they’ve standardized on through OneGov agreements.
Expand Platform Utilization to Reduce Software Redundancy
Take a platform such as ServiceNow as an example. Many agencies use it primarily for IT service management. But today, it offers a wide range of capabilities — from HR workflows to customer service and case management.
That raises an important consideration: If your agency is already investing in a platform with broad functionality, why maintain separate tools for adjacent use cases?
This isn’t just about cost reduction, it’s about simplification.
By consolidating onto fewer enterprise platforms, agencies can:
- Reduce integration complexity
- Streamline workflows
- Improve data visibility across systems
- Strengthen governance and security
And they can do so using tools they’ve already procured at favorable rates through OneGov.
DIVE DEEPER: Federal procurement can help to ensure supply chain security.
Redesign Processes to Support IT Consolidation
Of course, realizing these benefits requires more than identifying overlap. It often involves rethinking how work gets done.
That means evaluating business processes and asking:
- Can this workflow be migrated to an existing platform?
- Are we maintaining tools out of habit rather than necessity?
- Where can we standardize across teams or departments?
In many cases, the answer isn’t just to remove a tool, it’s to redesign the process behind it.
This is where agencies can benefit from structured assessments and guided workshops that map workflows to platform capabilities. The goal is to align technology investments with mission outcomes, not just maintain the status quo.
Turn OneGov Into a Platform Consolidation Strategy
OneGov gives federal agencies a powerful head start. It lowers the cost barrier for adopting enterprise platforms and establishes a foundation for modernization.
But the agencies that see the greatest return will be those that treat OneGov as a catalyst, not a finish line.
By taking inventory, identifying redundancy and fully leveraging existing platforms, agencies can move beyond incremental savings and achieve meaningful transformation.
Ultimately, the question isn’t just what did we buy through OneGov, it’s how well are we using it.
