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Last Call for GSA Schedule 75

The General Services Administration announced this week that it will suspend consideration of new offers for GSA Schedule 75 for office supplies on October 1, 2010. This GSA Schedule 75 suspension will last through October 2012.

“Any office supply company considering a GSA Schedule 75 must stop thinking and start acting,” said EZGSA president Scott Orbach. “Vendors have got to act fast. There is no time for proposal errors or submission delays for office supply companies interested in doing business with the federal government before 2013.”

According to Orbach, keeping annual GSA Schedule sales over $25,000 and compliance with GSA regulations will also be essential for all current GSA Schedule 75 holders.

“Current Schedule 75 holders have to realize that if they fail to meet GSA’s annual sales requirements or don’t have their Terms and Conditions or GSA Advantage catalog uploaded onto GSA e-Library, they risk loss of their schedules. With no opportunity to replace them, they risk being locked out of the federal marketplace for up to two years.”

Orbach believes that the suspension of GSA Schedule 75 may be a harbinger of things to come. “The current economic climate has increased the popularity of GSA Schedules, as vendors look to the federal government as the biggest and most reliable customer in the world. We’ve already seen the MOBIS acquisition center informing vendors that their backlog of GSA Schedule proposals is triple their historical level, without corresponding growth in the GSA workforce,” says Orbach.

“We can expect backlogs to spread throughout all the GSA Schedule acquisition centers, and we may see more suspensions like Schedule 75,”concluded Orbach. “GSA Schedule holders have to make sure that their Schedule is compliant with all current GSA requirements and they need to be aware of when their contracts are set to expire.”

Delays at MOBIS

The overwhelming demand for GSA Schedules is taking its toll on the Acquisition Centers. MOBIS has been advising vendors that their workload has tripled since last year. While they typically have 120 – 150 offers in process for award, they currently have over 400 offers.

It comes as no surprise that GSA has not tripled the workforce to accommodate the increased volume. Naturally the longer queue has slowed consideration of all offers. The MOBIS team is currently negotiating and awarding offers that they received in January. Contracting officers are overworked, vendors are losing sales (and patience), and agencies lose their choice of suppliers.

We don’t expect to see GSA triple the MOBIS staff anytime soon. So expect delays to continue for some time.

One thing that has not changed at MOBIS is their stringent standards for accepting prior Statements of Work (“SOWs”). Projects must be limited to MOBIS services. If any part of the SOW strays outside of MOBIS the entire project is permanently disqualified and the offer may be rejected. Correct presentation of the SOWs has always been critical to a successful award. With the added workloads, a disqualified SOW will lead to rejection, rework, and return of your replacement offer to the rear of the MOBIS’s growing queue. Each time you are rejected, the process starts over. Aside from your additional efforts to resubmit, you lose time, and untold opportunities.

So before you submit your MOBIS offer, review your past projects very carefully. Better still, have someone outside your company, who is experienced in GSA’s standards, review your projects.

A few hours of assistance can really speed your MOBIS Schedule through Auburn, and get you selling faster.

Feds Increased Small Business Contracts

Small businesses won a record $96.8 billion in federal prime contracts in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 (Oct. 1, 2008-Sept. 30, 2009), an increase of more than $3 billion from FY 2008, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s fourth annual small business procurement scorecard released today. This dollar amount represents 21.89 percent of all federal spending – an improvement over FY2008. Additionally, performance in each of the government’s socioeconomic subcategories increased for FY2009.

“Small businesses received a record $96.8 billion in federal contracts in 2009.
There was an increase in both dollars and contracting share for every small business category. This represents real progress, but not enough, we must reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that the 23 percent goal is met and exceeded,” SBA Administrator Karen Mills said. “Federal contracts awarded to small businesses are a ‘win-win’ – providing small businesses with the opportunity to grow and create jobs, and offering innovative services and essential goods to the government at great value to the taxpayers.”

Small Business Goaling Summary Report

Small Businesses
2009 Goal 23%
2009 Percentage 21.89%
2009 Contract Dollars $96.8 billion
2008 Percentage 21.5%
2008 Contract Dollars $93.2 billion

Women Owned Small Business
2009 Goal 5%
2009 Percentage 3.68%
2009 Contract Dollars $16.3 billion
2008 Percentage 3.40%
2008 Contract Dollars $14.7 billion

Small Disadvantaged Businesses
2009 Goal 5%
2009 Percentage 7.57%
2009 Contract Dollars $33.5 billion
2008 Percentage 6.76%
2008 Contract Dollars $29.3 billion

Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business
2009 Goal 3%
2009 Percentage 1.98%
2009 Contract Dollars $8.8 billion
2008 Percentage 1.49%
2008 Contract Dollars $6.4 billion

HUBZone
2009 Goal 3%
2009 Percentage 2.81%
2009 Contract Dollars $12.4 billion
2008 Percentage 2.34%
2008 Contract Dollars $10.1 billion

SBA is required to report to the President and Congress on achievements by federal agencies and departments against their annual goal to ensure greater accountability. The small business Procurement Scorecard fulfills that requirement by providing an assessment of federal achievement in prime contracting and subcontracting to small businesses by the 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies. It also measures progress that departments are making to ensure small business opportunities remain an integral part of their acquisition of goods and services to meet mission objectives.
The fourth annual Scorecard is an assessment tool (1) to measure how well federal agencies reach their small business and socio-economic prime contracting and subcontracting goals, (2) provide accurate and transparent contracting data and (3) report agency-specific progress. The prime and subcontracting component goals include goals for small businesses, small businesses owned by women, small disadvantaged businesses, service-disabled veteran owned small businesses, and small businesses in located in HUBZones.

As it does every year, the SBA has closely examined federal procurement reporting and data to ensure the greatest level of transparency possible.
After identifying anomalies in initial reports, the SBA has worked collaboratively – and will continue to work – with agencies across the government to correct as many data issues as possible, and improve the integrity of all small business federal contracting reporting moving forward.

The Recovery Act and small business contracting

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provided additional resources to federal agencies in fiscal year 2009, providing additional opportunities for small businesses to win federal contracts. Through early August, small businesses have secured over 30 percent of Recovery Act Contracts. This preliminary data underscores the priority the Administration and the SBA have placed on increasing small businesses access to federal contracts so that they can grow and create jobs.

About the Scorecard

SBA graded 24 agencies on each of the individual prime contracting goals established by Congress and used a new A+ through F letter grade system rather than the previous red, yellow, and green ratings. The new scorecard format was implemented this year to provide greater clarity and transparency on how well each agency is doing in meeting its individual small business prime contracting goals.

Each federal agency has a different small business contracting goal, determined annually in consultation with SBA. SBA ensures that the sum total
of all of the goals meets the 23 percent target established by law.

Each agency’s overall grade will show an A+ for agencies that meet or exceed 120 percent of their goals, an A for those between 100 percent and 119 percent, a B for 90 to 99 percent, a C for 80 to 89 percent, a D for 70 to 79 percent and an F for less than 70 percent. An agency’s overall grade was comprised of three quantitative measures: prime contracts (80 percent), subcontracts (10 percent) and its progress plan for meeting goals (10 percent).

The scorecards released today by SBA, as well as a detailed explanation of the new scorecard methodology, is available online:

http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/goals/index.html.

As part of its ongoing efforts to increase access to contracting opportunities for small businesses, the SBA is continuing to work with federal agency procurement staff to strengthen the integrity of contracting data, including providing tools to facilitate public review of data, improvements to systems and training to improve accuracy.

DoD Contracting Cutbacks Could Mean New Opportunities for GSA Schedule Holders

The news of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ announcement that the Pentagon will dissolve the U.S. Joint Forces Command and cut thousands of defense contractors from DoD payroll sparked opinions ranging from outrage to full fledged support of Gibbs’ efforts to cut “wasteful spending” by the U.S. military.

Yet, one important question has yet to be asked by America’s most prominent pundits; how will these cutbacks on DoD’s civilian contractors impact the government contracting market as a whole?

Scott Orbach, host of “Gateway to Government Sales” on Federal News Radio and president of EZGSA, believes that the federal marketplace will remain strong in the face of DoD’s contracting cutbacks, especially for contractors that currently have GSA Schedules.

“DoD will be realigning to other objectives and a substantial portion of the freed-up funds will end up going to GSA Schedule holders. Many DoD contractors are providing products and services that the Pentagon can already get from GSA Schedules, with GSA prices being more reasonable for both the DoD and the American taxpayer,” said Orbach.

Orbach also predicted that many DoD contractors would find new opportunities in the federal marketplace after the Pentagon’s cutback goals are achieved.

“What DoD contractors have to understand is that there are many federal agencies that are still in need of their products and services,” Orbach stated. “For example, Homeland Security and the State Department need security personnel and translation services just as much as the DoD.”

“There’s still over $110 billion in government contract opportunities available before the end of FY 2010, so the time is now for DoD contractors to shift their focus beyond the military and towards the federal marketplace as a whole.”

GSA Turnaround Trends

During EZGSA’s weekly production meetings, a few items continue to pop up time and again. One issue in particular should be of interest to two different classes of our clients: those who are in the midst of working on their GSA Schedule proposals as well as those who have their proposals already submitted to GSA but not awarded. This issue is turnaround time from submission to award at the GSA acquisition offices.

The current economic climate is being blamed for many things, but most analysts believe that as business owners experience difficulty selling to the commercial marketplace, they turn to government buyers. Of course, the GSA Schedules promote the most efficient method of selling to the federal government, and subsequently, submissions to all GSA acquisition centers have increased tremendously.

We wanted to update you about the following trends in some of the various GSA acquisition centers so that you can be better prepared for a realistic timeline with regard to your own submission.

Auburn, WA. Contracting Officers in Auburn seem to be experiencing large workloads. Those COs dealing specifically with MOBIS contracts have had to become stringent in ensuring that past project descriptions match exactly the Statements of Work (SOWs) from the ordering agency or company. Your EZGSA proposal specialist will work with you to ensure that only appropriate projects with air-tight SOWs are submitted to GSA, thereby helping to decrease rejection possibilities.
Ft. Worth, TX. This acquisition center (e.g., Schedules 84 and 56) currently has an unprecedented backlog. Getting a proposal assigned to a Contracting Officer is now taking a month instead of a week, and once it has been assigned, our proposal specialists are being told that their offer is behind 40 (!) others.
Oak Brook, IL. This center deals with Veterans Administration (medical equipment and services) multiple award schedules. Currently, we are experiencing difficulty communicating with any Contracting Officers at the VA and have found some to be completely nonresponsive.
New York, NY. Service schedule submissions to New York (e.g. 738X) are one of the bright spots in the GSA universe. Responsive COs and better than average turnaround times mean that submissions move right along. However, product schedule submissions to New York (e.g. Schedule 75) seem to be entering limbo. COs are not responding to emails or phone calls, and we have seen little, if any, movement for either modifications or new proposals.
Kansas City, MO. The center responsible for determining a possible contractor’s fiscal responsibility (where your Form 527 goes for analysis) has also slowed tremendously over the past few months, and communication has been difficult.
Arlington, VA (and other acquisition centers handling Schedule 70). No problems here right now. The Contracting Officers are working efficiently and within the 90 day turnaround.

For the first time in EZGSA’s ten-year history, we have a full 33 percent of our current proposals submitted to GSA. What does this mean to you, our client? When a Contracting Officer (who is obviously pressed for time and bending under a very large workload) finally contacts us about a Schedule submission, we will shift all resources to fulfill their demands as soon as possible. A Contracting Officer’s request will take priority over everything else we are working on. Pre-empting in-house proposals for an already-submitted proposal may cause a small expansion of previously set timelines for submission.

We thank you for continuing to work with us to achieve your ultimate goal — the award of a GSA Schedule contract that always maintains your best interests. If you have any questions or comments about this issue, please feel free to contact us. We will continue to update you as new trends become evident.

Last Call for GSA Schedule 75

Delays at MOBIS

Feds Increased Small Business Contracts

DoD Contracting Cutbacks Could Mean New Opportunities for GSA Schedule Holders

GSA Turnaround Trends

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