David J. Barram, Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA), is here to help! Since coming to GSA nearly four years ago, Administrator Barram has been stressing great customer service. In fact, he told his GSA workforce that he'd settle for nothing less than "thrilling" GSA's customers. And, to prove his point, he took on the onerous task of providing logistics support to the U.S. Census Bureau for Census 2000.

How Big is the Problem?

Imagine that you're setting up a home office for yourself. You'll need a room, furniture, lighting fixtures, telephones, electrical outlets, computer equipment, and supplies. You'll need to work with construction engineers, electricians, telephone support personnel, salespeople, and suppliers. And, you'll need lots of time, money, and patience.

Now, imagine that you need to provide equipment, supplies, telecommunications, logistics support, and office space for the 800,000 people who will be working on Census 2000! This has been the challenge facing the 1,200 GSA and Census employees and their 1,000 commercial vendor partners who two years ago formed the largest public-private partnership arrangement ever undertaken by Federal agencies in peacetime.