Federal obligations in computer systems design services (NAICS 541512)

What computer systems design services covers

NAICS 541512 covers establishments that plan and design computer systems that combine hardware, software, and communication technologies. On USAspending.gov the code tags contract awards classified as that systems-design work: architecture, integration, and related services. It is not a count of servers, not a software-license total, and not a headcount of federal IT staff.

Custom application writing is 541511. Day-to-day operation of computer facilities is 541513. Residual IT services land in 541519. Packaged software publishing is 511210. A single agency IT program can split dollars across those codes. The $186.6 billion figure is only the slice tagged 541512. Treating it as all federal IT contracting will miss the neighboring lines.

How to read $186.6 billion in IT obligations

USAspending.gov records obligations on contract awards. Systems-design work often sits on IDIQs and government-wide acquisition vehicles with many task orders. Each order can add to $186,580,391,036.03. This packet has no fiscal-year split, so the headline is the industry aggregate, not an annual IT budget and not an outlay total.

Outlays are payments against invoices. Cloud or labor-hour work may bill monthly while the obligation was recorded at award or at each task order. Quote $186.6 billion as USAspending contract obligations coded to computer systems design services.

31,620 awards as services volume

The 31,620 award records fit a professional-IT-services pattern: many task orders rather than a few production lots. The count is not a count of systems deployed. One vehicle can generate hundreds of rows. Compared with 541519, which shows even more award records in this dataset, 541512 is the systems-design slice rather than the catch-all computer-services bucket. The industry page lists the awards behind the count.

Systems design is planning and integrating hardware, software, and communications, as tagged 541512. It is the IT NAICS people quote when they mean everything. Everything is larger. USAspending awards tagged 541512 show $186,580,391,036.03 in obligations on 31,620 records. Custom programming, facilities management, other computer services, and software publishers are other pages with other facts. A single modernization can touch all of them. This guide reports 541512 only. The 31,620 award count is task-order volume, not systems deployed. Cite USAspending, obligations, and computer systems design services. Keep outlays out. Keep grants out when they lack NAICS. The industry page is the award list under $186.6 billion.

What 541512 leaves out

Assistance awards often lack NAICS and are outside this total. Hardware manufacturing (for example wireless communications equipment) is a manufacturing NAICS, not systems design. R&D codes capture research contracts, not production IT operations. Grants to digitize a state system, if they are assistance, will not appear here.

SpendingVault aggregates USAspending.gov contract data. The $186,580,391,036.03 total and the 31,620 award count can move after corrections. Use the live industry page as current.

Using the systems-design industry page

Open the COMPUTER SYSTEMS DESIGN SERVICES industry page for the award list under the headline. Place 541512 next to 541511, 541513, 541519, and 511210 on All industries without combining the totals. Cite obligations, not outlays, and keep the 31,620 award count with the dollar figure.

Citing systems design without calling it all IT

A complete sentence is: USAspending.gov contract awards coded NAICS 541512 show $186,580,391,036.03 in obligations across 31,620 awards. Then name the neighbors you are not including: custom programming, facilities management, other computer services, and software publishers. Their dollars are not in this packet.

Systems-design vehicles generate many task orders, which is why 31,620 records sit under the total. That is not 31,620 systems. Keep obligations distinct from outlays. If a program office coded some integration work as 541519 instead, those dollars will not appear here even if the statement of work looks similar.

Systems design is the NAICS people use as a synonym for federal IT even when the award file says otherwise. The $186,580,391,036.03 total is not a synonym. It is awards tagged 541512. An agency can buy the same program as custom code, residual other computer services, publisher licenses, and facilities management on four other lines. Those lines are not in this packet and must not be added here.

The 31,620 award count is consistent with task-order IT vehicles. It is also consistent with many small design actions. This guide cannot tell those stories apart without the industry table. What it can say is that obligations, not outlays, are the published field, and that assistance-funded IT often has no NAICS at all.

Questions

How much is obligated on NAICS 541512 computer systems design?

USAspending.gov contract awards coded NAICS 541512 show $186,580,391,036.03 in obligations across 31,620 awards. That figure is obligations, not outlays, for computer systems design services only. USAspending.gov records the amount as contract obligations, not outlays, on awards tagged NAICS 541512.

Is systems design the same as custom programming?

No. Custom computer programming is NAICS 541511. Systems design is 541512. This table’s $186,580,391,036.03 does not include awards tagged 541511 unless they were also coded 541512, which would be a coding choice on the award.

Does 541512 include software licenses from publishers?

Packaged software publishing is NAICS 511210. Systems design is planning and integrating systems. License buys tagged 511210 are not inside the $186,580,391,036.03 total. Treat the 31,620 figure as an award-record count, including orders and modifications, not as a physical inventory of products or sites.

Are IT grants in the 31,620 awards?

The 31,620 figure counts contract award records tagged 541512. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS and are generally excluded. This industry table is a contracting cut. This guide does not add a fiscal-year split. Quote the live industry page if you need the current award list under COMPUTER SYSTEMS DESIGN SERVICES.