A copy of the records on contracts.ocp.dc.gov, the website where DC's Office of Contracting and Procurement publishes contracts, purchase orders and payments, as we pulled them. About this source. Not a complete record of District contracting or spending.
The technology and software the District buys, as far as its own commodity codes show. Contracts and purchase orders are counted separately and never added together.
Tick or untick a group; every number on the page follows.
Every contract and purchase order on DC's site carries a commodity code from the NIGP list, a standard catalogue of goods and services used by state and local governments. The first three digits are the class ("208: computer software for microcomputers"); the full seven-digit code names the item. This page counts only records whose codes are listed below: no keyword search, no categories of our own. Contracts and purchase orders are never added together, because an order can be placed under a contract and would count the same purchase twice.
Class descriptions are from the District's NIGP class list; item descriptions are as DC's contract pages show them. Counts here are per code and don't change with the ticks.
These classes are mostly not technology, but a few of their item codes plainly are, so those codes are taken on their own. The explorers can't filter on item codes, so these groups aren't in the explorer links.
Classes that hold some technology purchases but more of other things, and item codes whose names mention computers, software or the web but describe something else.
Agency names as on DC's site, with abbreviations filled in (see the About page). Some agencies, DC Public Schools and the Chief Financial Officer among them, hold large technology orders but few or no listed contracts. A contract shared by several agencies is listed under the combined name.
Names as spelled on DC's site. Contracts and orders spell the same company differently ("Carahsoft Technology Corporation", "CARAHSOFT TECHNOLOGY CORP"), so they are listed separately. The vendor is whoever holds the contract, often a reseller rather than the software maker.
District fiscal years run 1 October to 30 September: FY2026 ended 30 September 2026. Contracts are placed in the year their base period starts; orders in the fiscal year DC's site gives them. No contract option period on DC's site starts before FY2021, so earlier years show orders only.
One row per contract. Click a contract number to open its periods, payments, orders and documents. “Base amount” is what the base period authorises: a ceiling, not spending. Option periods are not counted (why).
The code is whatever was entered with the record, and it can be wrong. Software licences turn up under consulting (918) and library and subscription services (956); copier service turns up under computer maintenance (939); one contract for IBM software licences is coded as a professional licence renewal. How much this matters is measured below.
This is a known problem. In April 2019 the District's Inspector General found that OCTO had not reviewed about $152 million in technology requisitions, partly because agencies could pick non-technology commodity codes and so skip its review (OIG report 18-1-19TO; see How DC buys).
Each record is counted once. A contract can carry several codes. Like the rest of the site, this page uses the codes DC's search listing shows for each option period. An option period is in if any of its codes is in a ticked group. A purchase order has one code. A contract counts once in the totals however many option periods it has, and its dollars are its base-period amount only.
The contract's own page on DC's site can list more codes than the search listing does. Some contracts carry a code from the class groups only on their own page (for example CW93000, Emphasys software, listed under consulting). They are counted only if a listing code puts them in a group.
The vendor is whoever holds the contract, often a reseller. The vendor and supplier tables show sellers, not software makers: Carahsoft, for example, is the vendor on DC's contracts for Acquia's Drupal licences (CW86957) and Salesforce licences (CW92708).
Purchase orders from four large technology sellers show the same thing. The share of each one's order dollars in the codes ticked above:
The same records in the contracts and purchase-order explorers, to filter further, chart and download. The explorers filter on three-digit classes only, so the links cover only the whole-class groups you have ticked.