United States Department of Agriculture

Marketing and Regulatory Programs

Agricultural Marketing Service 

Directive AMS 3220.1 2/14/2013

ACQUISITION OF IT WORKSTATIONS AND PRINTERS

1. PURPOSE

This Directive establishes the policy for AMS acquisitions of workstations and printers 

by all programs and staff offices.

2. POLICY

Leverage Economy of Scale. The President, through Executive Order 13589, and the 

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) through Memorandum 12-10, set the 

expectation that all Federal agencies will purchase common information technology (IT)

equipment at the lowest unit-cost possible by standardizing equipment configurations and 

coordinating the timing of purchases to leverage the buying power of the Government. 

Towards this end, AMS programs are standardizing their workstation configurations by 

user role and will use the roles and baseline equipment configurations defined by the 

Information Technology Functional Committee and distributed by ITS Directive 907,

AMS Workstation and Printer Acquisition Specifications, to minimize the cost of 

workstation and printer acquisition and maintenance.

3. WORKSTATION ACQUISITION POLICY

a. One Workstation Device per Employee. AMS managers will typically assign 

only one workstation device to each employee. Managers will assign a laptop 

computer to employees that require a fully functional mobile workstation device. 

A dockable laptop computer is often the best choice for meeting the in-office and 

mobile computing needs of AMS users. When a dockable laptop computer is 

assigned to an employee, the purchase and assignment of a desktop computer to 

that same employee is not authorized. Exceptions to this policy will be approved,

in writing, by the Deputy Administrator or Associate Administrator. The 

assignment of a mobile cellular phone is permitted in addition to the use of a 

workstation computer, as is the use of two monitors to expand the amount of 

visible on-screen work space.

b. System Life Expectations for Acquisition Planning. For acquisition planning 

purposes, assume that the system life of a laptop is 3 years, the system life of a 

desktop workstation is 4 years, and the system life of a printer is 5 years.

c. Workstation Acquisition Process. On a pre-determined, regular schedule, 

programs will be contacted to determine the number of workstation units for each 

user role they wish to purchase, the delivery location for the units, and the 

accounting code for each set of workstation units. All program orders will be 

combined and quotations received from approved sources to obtain the highest 

volume discount.

Distribution: AMS Originating Office: ITS/OCIO
Page 2

d. Approval of Workstation Acquisition Exceptions. Requests to deviate from 

the defined workstation configurations or to acquire workstations outside of this 

acquisition process must be justified in writing and accompanied by an approved 

waiver issued by the Agency Chief Information Officer.

4. PRINTER ACQUISITION POLICY

a. Printer Acquisition Policy - Use Networked and Multi-function Printers 

Instead of Personal Printers. Printers will be acquired in a manner to minimize 

the total cost of ownership, including the cost of ink and toner. Cost comparisons 

have shown that shared printers have a lower cost per printed page than several 

smaller personal printers. Therefore, a shared network printer will be used in 

offices with more than one employee when that office has a local area network. 

Additionally, if that office normally uses a fax machine and/or a document 

scanner, a multi-purpose printer will be purchased in place of a separate printer, 

fax machine, and flatbed scanner. In larger offices, plan on an employee to 

printer ratio of about 10 to 1, adjusting for utilization factors and office layout 

accessibility. Generally, printers will be replaced every 5 years to take advantage 

of advances in power management and printing efficiency.

b. Printer Acquisition Process. Programs will acquire printers in accordance with 

the policy of this Directive, provided that they consolidate printer purchases 

across the program or with other programs to leverage the lowest per-unit cost

possible.

c. Approval of Printer Acquisition Exceptions. The use of personal printers by 

supervisors and other exceptions to this policy must be approved by the 

immediate supervisor of the employee requesting the exception.

d. Use Smart Printer Configurations. Whenever possible, configure printers by 

default to print on both sides of the paper and use toner-saver printer settings to 

reduce the rate of toner consumption. Finally, print judiciously - the lowest cost 

printed page is the one you never print.

5. INQUIRIES

a. For more information about the acquisition of and standards for workstations and 

printers in AMS, contact the Office of the CIO at 202-720-1234.

b. This Directive is located in the ITS Directives library listed on the ITS home page 

at http://agnis/sites/it/default.aspx

/s/

Douglas C. Bailey

Chief Information Officer