Program Benefits

Overview:

STRATUS is a Cloud Services program consisting of a series of Basic Ordering Agreements (BOAs, FAR 16.703) designed to quickly connect government to commercial IT services and solutions, maximize competition enabling collective buying power, improve Enterprise Data Management, and elevate customer experience and overall acquisition value for the USDA and our external partners.

STRATUS goes beyond procurement—a game-changer. Drive smarter procurement decisions, slash administrative burdens, and unlock enterprise-wide IT efficiency.

For your agency’s IT procurement needs, STRATUS represents enterprise value, greater transparency, and unmatched IT procurement results.

Enterprise Value: Redefining Cost with a Holistic Value Approach:

• Increased Value and reduced Cost to the American Taxpayer: STRATUS total cost of ownership (TCO) provides:
  • Enhanced visibility into USDA procurement
  • Vendor consolidation opportunities
  • Long-term strategic alignment
  • Reduced administrative burden in your IT procurement
• Enterprise-Level Data Insights: Unlike other vehicles, STRATUS makes your data work for you. STRATUS utilizes USDA’s Enterprise Cloud Vendor Management program (ECVM) to consolidate and analyze STRATUS procurement data to identify trends, enhance agreements to the benefit of your organization, and optimize enterprise buys.
• Strategic Procurement: The STRATUS Team includes procurement experts to meet your organization’s procurement maturity where it is and will help create and execute your agency’s strategic vision. The STRATUS approach is already helping to centralize IT procurement at USDA—reducing silos, aligning with enterprise goals, and creating enterprise purchasing opportunities to maximize the buying power of the USDA.
• Operational Efficiency: Consolidating smaller purchases into Enterprise purchases minimizes administrative overhead, streamlines task order management, and reduces costs.
• Customer-Centric Engagement: The STRATUS Team tailors procurement strategies to align with your Agency’s mission, leveraging a competitive vendor list for long-term value.
• Future-Proofing: STRATUS adapts to evolving technology and procurement needs, annually on-ramping new vendors into our vetted vendors to keep pace with the latest available technologies.

Greater Transparency: Enterprise Cloud Vendor Management

The Enterprise Cloud Vendor Management (ECVM) program provides STRATUS customers with the data analytics necessary to take full control of their spending and IT consumption. ECVM provides custom tools which consolidate and visualize IT governance, invoicing, and cloud consumption data so STRATUS customers can get a full picture of their whole portfolio at a glance to identify cost-reducing insights quickly.

ECVM gives STRATUS Customers:

• Cost optimization tools: Ability to monitor unit metrics and conduct activity-based costing. Monitors resource usage and identify optimization opportunities.
• Financial transparency: Provides accurate data on resource usage and cloud service costs.
• Agility: Data-based decisions driven by business value of cloud and take advantage of the variable cost model of the CSPs.
• Improved collaboration: Promotes communication between IT, financial, and business departments through unified data.
• Shared responsibility: Teams can track and allocate cloud spend to specific projects.

Not a STRATUS customer yet? ECVM provides prospective STRATUS Customers with estimates of their current spend on STRATUS, so you can make the best choice for your agency and your budget.

Unmatched Results:

STRATUS is committed to providing exceptional service to our partners at USDA, across the Federal Government, and in the private sector to connect agencies to the technology they need quickly and cost effectively.

Direct relationship with Cloud Service Providers 

• STRATUS offer more than a contract vehicle we offer a range of support services
  • FedRamp Authorization
  • Vendor Relationship Management
  • Automatic cost and asset data tracking
  • Simplified reporting process
  • Robust data tools for invoicing and usage
  • Program Management
  • Training and Support
  • Increased volume discounts
• No hidden fees or mark-ups
• Large selection of vendors, with new vendors added annually
• Access fees and caps are designed to be competitive with commonly used Government-wide Acquisition vehicles (GWACs)
• Flexible purchasing through STRATUS Assisted Acquisition (SAA) or Delegated Procurement Authority (DPA) for USDA