GSA Schedules | The Contracting Education Academy

May 29, 2018 By cs

GSA announces $2.5 billion modernization of federal payroll and leave systems

The General Services Administration (GSA) has issued a pre-solicitation notice seeking contractors to upgrade the payroll systems serving 2.2 million civilian federal employees.

Companies holding GSA IT Schedule 70 contracts, SINs 132-40 and 132-51, will be eligible to compete for one or more blanket purchase agreements off of which agencies can order services, according to the May 17 notice. The blanket purchase agreements will last for 10-13 years and are expected to have a ceiling of more than $2.5 billion.

In addition to modernizing payroll services, the “NewPay” initiative will encompass work schedule and leave management systems. The goal is “to shift operations and maintenance of payroll functions to innovative commercial solutions using the Software as a Service (SaaS) model,” GSA said in its announcement of the pre-solicitation notice. “This will enable agencies to focus more resources on core mission priorities and deploy modern and secure work schedule, leave management and payroll solutions to support a modern workforce.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/contracting/2018/05/gsa-announces-25-billion-modernization-federal-payroll-and-leave-systems/148326

May 24, 2018 By cs

Murphy plans to reconstruct GSA schedules as part of governmentwide reform

As part of the Trump administration’s emphasis on reducing duplication and using shared services to overhaul the federal government’s IT infrastructure, General Services Administration head Emily Murphy is looking to reshape the procurement schedules the government buys from.

The GSA administrator said at the Coalition for Government Procurement’s spring training conference last Wednesday that the agency is currently looking at the ways it could potentially transform its primary contract vehicles to make it easier for federal leaders to buy and contractors to enter the market.

“Do we need all of the schedules we have or could we reduce duplication within GSA by combining the schedules?” she said. “Are there ways to have unpriced schedules, for example through services? If we had vigorous competition at the task order level or the price level, we could instead, at the contract level, be focusing on the technical qualifications and the services we offer.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/murphy-plans-reconstruct-gsa-schedules-part-reform/

March 9, 2018 By cs

GSA’s IT modernization efforts will take a village

As the General Services Administration leads the acquisition piece of the federal IT modernization puzzle, it’s become apparent to some officials that the agency’s tech acquisition team can’t alone bring about such a large-scale transformation.

Rather, “it takes a village to really solve some of these problems,” said Bill Zielinski, deputy assistant commissioner for Office of Information Technology Category in GSA’s acquisition arm. “I don’t look at it as, ‘How am I going to build and maintain a highly technical skilled staff.’ I look it as the idea that we are working as a broader community to be able to bring the right talent to the table to solve the challenges.”

Grappling with uncertain budgets, talent gaps and the opening stages of a massive technology upgrade in the federal government, Zielinski said plans to tackle those challenges have to reflect the changing nature of technology and the interdependence of GSA’s acquisition teams to achieve their goals.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/gsas-modernization-efforts-will-take-village/

March 7, 2018 By cs

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 1, 2018 By cs

Urban Myths: Are GSA’s prices fair and reasonable?

Over the years, some have questioned whether GSA Schedule prices are fair and reasonable, and such concerns have led to the General Services Administration launching efforts, such as Transactional Data Reporting and horizontal pricing analysis, to demonstrate that it is dedicated to offering its customers “competitive” (however defined) prices.

Now comes an MBA Professional Report published by the Naval Postgraduate School, which provides a business case analysis comparing GSA Advantage to Amazon Business from the standpoint of prices and processes. The study was completed in response to a request from the Air Force, which is considering entering into a pilot with Amazon Business in order to strategically source micro-purchases using an online platform.

The results of the study may be surprising in light of the recent legislative activity and discussions surrounding online acquisition options for government. They also might inform those who cast a skeptical eye toward the value and vitality of the GSA Schedules Program. The authors gathered data on the top 60 commercially available items purchased by the Air Force using government purchase cards (GPCs) and compared the acquisition outcomes on GSA Advantage and Amazon Business.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/commentary/2018/01/urban-myths-are-gsas-prices-fair-and-reasonable/

The General Services Administration (GSA) has issued a pre-solicitation notice seeking contractors to upgrade the payroll systems serving 2.2 million civilian federal employees.

As part of the Trump administration’s emphasis on reducing duplication and using shared services to overhaul the federal government’s IT infrastructure, General Services Administration head Emily Murphy is looking to reshape the procurement schedules the government buys from.

As the General Services Administration leads the acquisition piece of the federal IT modernization puzzle, it’s become apparent to some officials that the agency’s tech acquisition team can’t alone bring about such a large-scale transformation.

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.

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