multiple award contract | The Contracting Education Academy

December 30, 2019 By cs

Federal contracting moves that will ripple beyond 2019

The past year has been long and significant in just about every respect, and government contracting is no exception.

The year was defined by one big, controversial procurement; the ongoing shift to buy more IT products and services through the General Services Administration; that agency’s consolidation of its major contracts on the Multiple Award Schedules; and a new cybersecurity standard that has the defense contracting community holding its breath.

Before 2019 comes to a close, Nextgov spoke with federal contracting experts Chris Cornillie, federal technology market analyst for Bloomberg Government, and analysts at The Pulse of GovCon, a market intelligence firm.

Top of mind for Cornillie was arguably the biggest contract — and upset — of the year. The Defense Department’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, contract is projected to be worth up to $10 billion over up to 10 years, as a single provider builds a “war cloud” for use across the services.

The Defense Department started the JEDI contract two years ago, a process stretched out further by bid protests and lawsuits. Constant drama surrounded this contract—including a salacious dossier, a last-minute recusal from the secretary of defense and statements from the president—and the award announcement was no exception.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2019/12/federal-contracting-moves-will-ripple-beyond-2019/162025/

October 17, 2019 By cs

GSA takes first major step in schedules consolidation journey

The General Services Administration has taken the first major step in consolidating its 24 different schedules into one consolidated offering, checking off phase one of its overhaul of the Multiple Award Schedules program, and outlining deliverables for the second and final stages next year.

In phase one of the consolidation, GSA completed a review of the schedule contracts and reduced about two-thirds of the number of Special Item Numbers (SINs) as part of a move to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

Phase one of the consolidation will only impact vendors who are applying for a schedule for the first time. But for phases two and three, which will take place next year, GSA is working with industry partners to ease the transition for current schedule holders.

Stephanie Shutt, director of GSA’s Multiple Awards Schedules (MAS) Program Office, said the rise of duplicative schedules led to industry partners getting onto multiple contracts in the same program and offering the same products in multiple places.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition/2019/10/gsa-takes-first-major-step-in-schedules-consolidation-journey/

October 10, 2019 By cs

It’s finally here: GSA’s new consolidated schedule

On Oct. 1, the General Services Administration published a much-anticipated solicitation that will begin to merge 24 multiple-award schedules into a single contracting vehicle to streamline acquisition operations and make it easier for companies to do business with the federal government.

The consolidation will occur in phases through fiscal year 2020. Initially, only new contracts will be put on the consolidated schedule. GSA said agencies, which purchase about $31 billion in goods and services every year through the schedules, should not experience disruptions in their purchasing during the transition.

“We’ve worked hard to make sure our new terms and conditions will meet the needs of our customers, and also streamline and eliminate duplicate contracts,” said Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Alan Thomas in a press release. “[Multiple award schedule] consolidation is a triple win—good for federal agencies, industry partners and our acquisition workforce.”

Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel at the Professional Services Council, said the new schedule will “change the market dynamics a little bit for the companies” because they will have to separate themselves from other competition. However, his members are overall “very pleased” with consolidating the schedules, he said.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2019/10/gsa-released-consolidated-schedule-solicitation/160290/

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/

The past year has been long and significant in just about every respect, and government contracting is no exception.

The General Services Administration has taken the first major step in consolidating its 24 different schedules into one consolidated offering, checking off phase one of its overhaul of the Multiple Award Schedules program, and outlining deliverables for the second and final stages next year.

On Oct. 1, the General Services Administration published a much-anticipated solicitation that will begin to merge 24 multiple-award schedules into a single contracting vehicle to streamline acquisition operations and make it easier for companies to do business with the federal government.

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.

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