GSA Schedules | The Contracting Education Academy

September 20, 2019 By cs

How GSA is changing government buying

The General Services Administration (GSA) and its components manage a significant portfolio of the government’s spending, delivering the best value on goods and services for government, among other integral functions.

As GSA administrator and the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, respectively, Emily Murphy and Alan Thomas have worked closely to spearhead a period of significant procurement reform, including combining the two-dozen multiple award schedules into one and experimenting with a government online shopping portal.

Federal Times sat down with Murphy and Thomas to discuss how the change has been a team effort and their vision for the future of the agency.

Read this interview at: https://www.federaltimes.com/acquisition/2019/09/12/acquiring-the-right-mindset-how-gsa-is-changing-government-buying/

September 9, 2019 By cs

The danger in GSA’s online marketplaces

A little commentary from the General Services Administration on our website urges government buyers to use the agency’s multiple-award schedule contracts.

The venerable MAS contracts generate about $45 billion in annual sales.

Over the years, GSA has continually tinkered with the awards schedules to keep the program relevant. Now it’s about to collapse the 24 individual schedules into one. GSA will release the new consolidated schedule and its terms and conditions on Oct. 1, with a goal of moving all vendors to one schedule by the end of fiscal 2020. GSA let industry know about the consolidated schedule plan late last year.

No change in federal procurement is ever simple.

Center Law Group’s Barbara Kinosky, whom I’ve interviewed from time to time, wrote this about the consolidation: “We understand modifications to add the new consolidated [special item numbers] will not be accepted after Sept. 30 until sometime in mid-January 2020 after contractors have accepted the mass modification incorporating the new consolidated schedule terms and conditions.”

See what I mean?

Once the conversion is done, buyers and sellers will, in theory, have a simpler, more uniform contracting system to deal with. The consolidation is one of many updates and improvements GSA is making to modernize the MAS and the supporting tools like e-modification.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2019/08/the-danger-in-gsas-online-marketplaces/

August 28, 2019 By cs

GSA extends a pilot to save the government millions

The General Services Administration (GSA) decided to extend its Transaction Data Reporting (TDR) pilot through fiscal year 2020, a program GSA has said saves the government millions, according to a recent news release.

The TDR rule allowed GSA to remove “complex and burdensome” tracking and disclosure requirements mandated on contractors, in addition to asking contractors to electronically report specific procurement data, like prices paid, quantity and product description. The rule requires monthly reporting of transaction sales data from governmentwide contracts, which the GSA wrote increases transparency. GSA estimated when it made the initial announcement about the new rule in 2016 that it would save the government around $29 million a year.

“This rule also supports the government’s shift towards category management by centrally collecting and analyzing information on what federal agencies are buying and how much they are paying,” the GSA wrote in 2016. “This new transparency helps the government leverage its vast buying power and drives competition.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/acquisition/gsa/2019/08/19/gsa-extends-a-pilot-to-save-the-government-millions/

August 16, 2019 By AMK

The 4 cornerstones of government acquisition reform

The General Services Administration’s strategy for improving the federal marketplace in the coming years will rely on approximately 25 reforms, according to agency officials, but a handful of those will serve as the central points to shore up the rest of the strategy.

“We are trying to simplify the buying and selling process,” said Alan Thomas, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, at a July 24 Association for Federal Information Resources Management event.

According to Thomas, four of those simplification initiatives will serve as cornerstones, meaning that they are central to and tied in with the success of the other “stones” around them:

Development of an enterprisewide contract writing system.
Managing catalog data.
Consolidating the Multiple Award Schedule program.
Progressing on a commercial platform initiative.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/acquisition/2019/07/24/government-acquisition-reform-to-rely-on-4-cornerstones/

April 4, 2019 By AMK

Management imperatives for schedules consolidation

In November, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced that it will be consolidating all its multiple award schedules (MAS) into a single schedule for best value commercial solutions.

As many of you know, the Coalition for Government Procurement has been a strong advocate for the single schedule concept, which will help to reduce costs for both government and industry stakeholders, as well as increase competition and customer access to best value solutions.

The single schedule concept is a game changer, providing GSA with a tremendous opportunity to inject much-needed consistency into the MAS program. Currently, the structure of the schedules program — which features 24 separate schedules and corresponding contract scopes — limits flexibility and hampers the ability of the program to deliver best value solutions consistent with the commercial market. Moreover, these separate contract scopes, which raise artificial barriers and stove-pipes, further promote what is perhaps the most enduring challenge associated with the MAS program: Inconsistent contract negotiation, award and management across GSA’s centers and contracting officers.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2019/03/management-imperatives-for-schedules-consolidation/

The General Services Administration (GSA) and its components manage a significant portfolio of the government’s spending, delivering the best value on goods and services for government, among other integral functions.

A little commentary from the General Services Administration on our website urges government buyers to use the agency’s multiple-award schedule contracts.

The General Services Administration (GSA) decided to extend its Transaction Data Reporting (TDR) pilot through fiscal year 2020, a program GSA has said saves the government millions, according to a recent news release.

The General Services Administration’s strategy for improving the federal marketplace in the coming years will rely on approximately 25 reforms, according to agency officials, but a handful of those will serve as the central points to shore up the rest of the strategy.

In November, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced that it will be consolidating all its multiple award schedules (MAS) into a single schedule for best value commercial solutions.

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