FSS | The Contracting Education Academy

February 18, 2020 By cs

GSA praised for progress on contracting schedule consolidation

As the second phase of the General Services Administration’s merger of 24 multiple-award schedules into a single contracting vehicle started at the end of January, experts applauded the progress the agency has made.

Initially, GSA put only new contracts on the consolidated schedule when it was first published in October. Then on Friday, GSA started the process of restructuring the terms and conditions of current contracts so that they are in sync with those on the new, single contracting vehicle. Contractors have until July 31 to accept the changes. Agencies purchase about $31 billion in goods and services every year through the schedules, and GSA assured them they should not experience disruptions throughout the merger.

“We’re right on track with [the multiple award schedule] consolidation,” GSA Administrator Emily Murphy said in a recent press release. “Moving to a single schedule is good for federal agencies, our industry partners, and our acquisition workforce. It’s a key piece of the picture for making it easier to deliver solutions.“

The Professional Services Council, a trade organization that has over 400 member companies that contract with the federal government, “applauds GSA’s continued progress in phase two of the multiple award schedules consolidation to meet the critical milestones needed to modernize the GSA schedules program,” said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel. “PSC has long supported a single schedule that will make it easier for contractors to offer products, services, and solutions, and for agencies to find these offerings.”

GSA announced its plans for the consolidation in November 2018 after many vendors and federal buyers complained about the different terms and conditions for contracts across schedules that led to inconsistencies in the contracting process, Nextgov reported. In addition to making the process for obtaining more than 10 million commercial products easier, the agency wanted to lower the entry barrier for small businesses, technology start-ups and others that might want to contract with the government.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/02/gsa-praised-progress-contracting-schedule-consolidation/162837/

February 21, 2019 By AMK

Agencies may evaluate contractor responsibility under FSS orders

Contractor responsibility is to be considered before every federal contract award, but what about task orders issued under an Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contract? Are contractors still subject to responsibility inquiries when competing for orders?

According to GAO, the answer is, “yes.”

Dehler Manufacturing Company, Inc., B-416819 et al. (Comp. Gen. Dec. 19, 2018), involved a procurement by the Army to provide furnishings for barracks at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. The Solicitation, which contemplated the award of a task order, required prospective contractors to hold FSS contacts that included furnishings. Award was to be made on a low-price technically-acceptable basis. Proposals were to be evaluated on a number of factors, including past performance.

Dehler timely submitted a response to the solicitation. During the Army’s evaluation of past performance, it obtained information from the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS). Of the five PPIRS reports the Army obtained for Dehler, four categorized Dehler’s performance as either “Marginal” or “Unsatisfactory.” Consequently, the Army concluded Dehler’s past performance was unacceptable and eliminated it from consideration.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/gaobidprotests/agencies-may-evaluate-contractor-responsibility-under-fss-orders-says-gao/

October 2, 2018 By AMK

GSA introducing options to help automate agency contact centers

Come the new fiscal year, agencies will have access to a set of automated contact center technologies and services through a new special item number on the General Services Administration’s IT Schedule 70.

The Automated Contact Center Solutions SIN—numbered 132-20—“provides a deep pool of pre-vetted vendors with a diverse set of contact center solutions,” according to a notice on GSA’s Interact site.

The special category will include vendors offering the latest in automation technology, including artificial intelligence, chatbots, voice and speech recognition, text-to-speech and more.

Managing citizen engagement through the various lines of contact—phone, email, web portals and in-person meetings—if a difficult task. GSA’s own Federal Acquisition Service receives close to 1 million calls a year, according to CenturyLink, which holds a $1.3 million contract to manage the service’s contact center.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/09/gsa-introducing-options-help-automate-agency-contact-centers/151325/

March 7, 2018 By AMK

GSA says rule change will simplify Schedule buys, reduce proliferation of multiple-award contracts

The General Services Administration believes it’s fixed at least one of the reasons behind a proliferation of overlapping indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) multiple award contracts across the government.

Until now, there was no way for agencies to buy products and services from GSA’s Schedules program while simultaneously getting the ancillary services and goods they might need to actually make use of them.

A change to the General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation (GSAR), published last month, lets agencies buy what are known as “order level materials” (OLMs) via the schedules themselves. Previously, officials said, acquisition often had to undertake two contracting actions if they wanted to buy ancillary services from the schedules.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/acquisition-policy/2018/02/gsa-says-rule-change-will-simplify-schedule-buys-reduce-proliferation-of-multiple-award-contracts/

February 20, 2018 By AMK

New GSA administrator seeks to shine light where the shadows of federal procurement live

The General Services Administration is exploring how it can add more transparency to the procurement process, particularly with its $35 billion schedules program.

Since its inception, GSA’s schedules program has been hidden behind a wall where only vendors with a contract could see the solicitations and awards. The lack of transparency about what happens on those “members-only” contracts has frustrated good government groups, the media and vendors who aren’t on the contracts, but may want to join.

So GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, who was confirmed by the Senate about two months ago, has made transparency one of her four goals and is seeking not just an agency solution to this challenge, but one that would work governmentwide.

“It was one of the first conversations I had with the Office of Management and Budget. I’ve had conversations with the Office of Governmentwide Policy. I’ve had conversations with the Office of General Counsel and the Federal Acquisition Service. They are looking at all of it and are supposed to coming back to me with options on we can try and be more transparent,” Murphy said in an exclusive interview with Federal News Radio. “I think this needs to be addressed not just in the microcosm of the GSA schedules. If we are looking at task orders, we need to be looking across government and making sure we are not disadvantaging the schedules program versus other programs, and we are not putting our vendors or our customers at a competitive disadvantage. At the end of the day, it’s their data.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/acquisition-policy/2018/02/new-gsa-administrator-seeks-to-shine-light-where-the-shadows-of-federal-procurement-live/

As the second phase of the General Services Administration’s merger of 24 multiple-award schedules into a single contracting vehicle started at the end of January, experts applauded the progress the agency has made.

Contractor responsibility is to be considered before every federal contract award, but what about task orders issued under an Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contract? Are contractors still subject to responsibility inquiries when competing for orders?

Come the new fiscal year, agencies will have access to a set of automated contact center technologies and services through a new special item number on the General Services Administration’s IT Schedule 70.

The General Services Administration believes it’s fixed at least one of the reasons behind a proliferation of overlapping indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) multiple award contracts across the government.

The General Services Administration is exploring how it can add more transparency to the procurement process, particularly with its $35 billion schedules program.

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