MAS | The Contracting Education Academy

October 4, 2019 By cs

GSA finishes schedule consolidation on deadline

The General Services Administration hit its deadline to consolidate 24 acquisition schedules into one set of terms and conditions for products and services.

The Multiple Award Schedules Consolidation is the part of the agency’s Federal Marketplace Strategy intended to modernize acquisition for federal, state and local governments. GSA released the newly consolidated schedule solicitation Monday evening, Sept. 30, on FedBizOpps.

“This is an important first step toward our goal of simplifying the experience for customers, suppliers, and GSA’s acquisition workforce,” said Emily Murphy, GSA administrator, in the announcement.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/gsa-schedules-consolidation-complete/

October 3, 2019 By cs

Schedules consolidation: Congratulations — phase I and the end of the beginning!

Oct. 1st marked the beginning of a new era for the General Services Administration’s Multiple Award Schedule program.

On that date, Phase I of MAS Consolidation will end with the issuance of a new, consolidated solicitation for the single schedule.

Phase I included a host of interrelated tasks necessary to develop a single solicitation covering the entire scope of the MAS program. Among the tasks to be accomplished were:

Reviewing every term and condition in each of the 24 solicitations;
Mapping duplicate Special Item Numbers (SINs) across current solicitations; and,
Using North American Industry Classification System codes to reduce the current 900 SINs on 24 schedules down to approximately 300 SINs on a single solicitation.

In addition, GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service was tasked to use Category Management to reorganize offerings across the single solicitation.

The completion of these activities represents a significant step forward in shaping the 21st-century MAS program. They also represent just a part of the effort. For example, FAS has evolved systems updates to accommodate the issuance of the single solicitation. Likewise, GSA has recognized the importance of training and outreach to GSA acquisition staff, customer agencies, and industry partners in terms of promoting a successful consolidation.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2019/09/schedules-consolidation-congratulations-phase-i-and-the-end-of-the-beginning/

September 26, 2019 By cs

Watchdog warns on GSA’s contracting data trial

The General Services Administration’s watchdog again raised concerns over plans to move ahead with a three-year Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) pilot program, at the expense of two other contract provisions it says helps federal buyers save money.

This is the case that GSA made for Transactional Data Reporting when it issued a proposed rule in 2015 to capture transactional data on procurements across all of its government-wide acquisition vehicles.

In comments on the GSA’s strategy to extend its TDR pilot for another year after its planned conclusion this December, the GSA Office of Inspector General said it remains concerned TDR could cripple the agency’s buying schedules, which include IT Schedule 70, because it has yet to produce useable pricing data. The comments were dated July 26 but publicly released this week.

GSA’s TDR pilot collects pricing data from vendor volunteers, including prices paid by government customers, for products and services sold under agency contracts. It hopes the data gathered could level out pricing for federal buyers. When it was launched, the GSA OIG characterized the pilot as “the most significant change to GSA’s Multiple Award Schedules Program in over 20 years.” However, it warned at the beginning of the pilot and again in recent comments that the effort had produced no significant measurable pricing data federal agencies could use.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2019/08/28/watchdog-warns-pricing-trial-rockwell.aspx

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/

The General Services Administration hit its deadline to consolidate 24 acquisition schedules into one set of terms and conditions for products and services.

Oct. 1st marked the beginning of a new era for the General Services Administration’s Multiple Award Schedule program.

The General Services Administration’s watchdog again raised concerns over plans to move ahead with a three-year Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) pilot program, at the expense of two other contract provisions it says helps federal buyers save money.

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.

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