Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined 35 federal agencies' mainframe computer procurements during the 3.5 fiscal year period ending March 1989.
GAO found that: (1) the agencies obligated $1.9 billion for mainframe and mainframe peripheral equipment procurements; (2) 82 percent of the total value of the procurements required compatibility with existing systems; (3) 64 percent of the value of the compatibility procurements, or 52 percent of all procurements, involved a single computer manufacturer; (4) that computer manufacturer was the single largest vendor with a 47-percent share of the total federal market, and the next largest had a vendor 20-percent share of the federal market; (5) almost 60 percent of the total value of all procurements involved only one vendor; (6) the agencies had a total of 3,225 procurements for mainframe and mainframe peripherals, with over 90 percent requiring some type of compatibility; and (7) vendors supplied the requested brand-name equipment in 68 percent of the compatibility procurements involving the largest vendor.
