MAS | The Contracting Education Academy

April 4, 2019 By cs

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/

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/

July 21, 2017 By cs

Number of multiple award contracts drop — Will OMB’s new requirements continue the trend?

Efforts to stop the proliferation of multiple award contracts have found limited success. Data from Bloomberg Government shows that while the number of MACs governmentwide — Defense Department and civilian agencies — have dropped since 2012, there still are more than 2,600.

The total number of MACs have dropped by 239 in the five years since the Office of Management and Budget implemented the requirement to submit a business case for any new multiple award contract that will be worth more than $50 million over the life of the vehicle.

The 8 percent reduction comes as spending on MACs increased by $5 billion in 2016, as compared to 2015. Bloomberg Government reported in April that spending on these contract vehicles increased to $111 billion last fiscal year from $106 billion the year before.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2017/06/multipleawardcontractsdrop/

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 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.

Efforts to stop the proliferation of multiple award contracts have found limited success. Data from Bloomberg Government shows that while the number of MACs governmentwide — Defense Department and civilian agencies — have dropped since 2012, there still are more than 2,600.

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