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Author: laura long

Can Alliant 2 Be “Newer, Better” ?

GSA has finally put us all out of our Alliant 2 Small Business misery. Last week they canceled the acquisition contract. The original award was wrought with confusion, protests, and court disputes, so cancellation isn’t that surprising. (Nextgov, July 2, 2020)

However, GSA promises that the small business IT instrument will live on in a newer, better solicitation. Keep your eyes peeled for the larger and newly structured solicitation. No word yet on the release date of the new solicitation. (ibid)

Laura Stanton, acting GSA Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Information Technology when announcing the cancelation said, “The needs of our customer agencies, small business partners, and industry partners are rapidly evolving, GSA is committed to finding ways for our GWACs to reflect the current IT marketplace so that we can maximize the opportunities for small and women-owned, HUBzone, service-disables veteran-owned, and 8(a) small businesses to contract with the government for cybersecurity, emerging technology, and IT supply chain risk management needs.”

Stanton also said, “we are working to expand the number of master contract awards to highly qualified small businesses on our GWACs, while focusing on technology requirements that support our customer agencies for future mission success.” (ibid)

Questions about the cancellation and or the upcoming solicitation? Give us a call.

New E-Commerce Platform

The 2018 Defense Authorization Act requires the government to utilize a new e-commerce platform. Well, after several protests, several solicitation rewrites, and the COVID-19 pandemic, we now have the proof-of-concept phase, with three vendors: Amazon Business, Overstock.com, and Fischer Scientific will allow access to their e-commerce sites with micropurchases of $10,000 or less. By awarding a contract to three vendors, GSA hopes to ensure pricing competition and high service levels. (Federal News Network, June 29, 2020)

During the 30 day proof-of-concept phase, agencies receive access to order from vendors’ e-commerce platforms for testing and stakeholder feedback. Participating agencies include Veterans Affairs, Justice and Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency, and GSA. Additional agencies may join in the coming months.

However, contractors are still questioning the apparent two sets of rules for micropurchases; those made under e-commerce and those made from other platforms, such as GSA Advantage. They believe transparency to be vital as well as understanding the pilot parameters. Remaining questions include e-marketplace conflict of interest issues, restriction on platform provider uses of third party transactional data, and how country of origin and counterfeit products are handled.” (ibid)

Not sure how government agencies ordering from e-commerce platforms will affect your ability to do business with them? Give us a call.

New SIN for Office Admin Services

Under the new Multiple Award Schedule, GSA is changing the Special Item Numbers (SINs) in the Office Management and Human Capital large categories. GSA’s Northeast and Caribbean Supply and Acquisition Center and the Office of Customer and Stakeholder Engagement (CASE) are adding the new NACIS-based SIN56110 for Office Administrative Services. In addition, GSA is combining the two current SINs for Human Resources Line of Business into SIN 541612LOB. These changes all take effect on 1 July 2020. (GSA Interact June 24, 2020)

SIN 56110 will make it easier for searching and identifying specific support services to meet mission-critical needs. These services include a range of day-to-day activities, such as office administrative support, data entry, payroll administration, recordkeeping, travel preparation, scheduling, meeting management, purchasing supplies, and logistics.

To better meet agency needs, GSA is merging two SINs of the consolidated schedule, into one new SIN. The two SINs 541612OPM and 541612PSSC will be combined into 541612LOB. This new SIN provides technology solutions in support of other SINs in the Human Capital category. This category may include software, technology, systems, and related solutions. To be a function under this SIN, the services and products offered must support one or more of the 15 functions/54 sub-functions in the human capital lifecycle. To obtain a list of theses functions, visit the Human Capital Business Reference Model (HCBRM).

GSA is holding a webinar tomorrow, Friday, 26 June 2020, to review details and answer your questions. The link to join the webinar is https://meet.gsa.gov/r2newsins/. (ibid)

Questions about the Office Management and Human Capital large categories? Give us a call.

Migrate to MAS — Or Else!

This is a time-sensitive reminder that before you submit changes to your catalog through SIP/EDI, migrating to MAS is essential. Even if you have updated your Text File information, you must make sure the migration step has been completed for all of your contracts. (GSA, June 16, 2020)

GSA is deleting all legacy catalogs (product and service) from Advantage, on July 31, 2020. You can continue to use the migrate to MAS function in SIP. Additionally, Catalogs pending approval in CORS should not be impacted by the deletion of legacy catalogs.

Beginning 1 July 2020 updates to legacy catalogs will no longer be allowed. They may only be made once you sign the MAS Mass Mod and migrate your catalog to MAS SINs. (ibid)

Need some help with your contract migration? Give us a call.

Oh, the Things beta.sam.gov Can Do!

In January, FedBizOpps moved to beta.SAM.gov. What was once in FBO can now be found under Contract Opportunities in beta.SAM.gov. (GSA Interact, June 9, 2020)

Users can now save “contract opportunity” searches and receive emails when changes occur, which saves time from having to constantly search to see if changes have occurred. The set up for these notifications as well as other frequently asked questions are found under FAQS.

If you are looking for information about NAICS code or PSC, instructions including detailed videos may be found here. In addition, there are instructions for searching by place of performance in this video. (ibid)

Some major improvements, still in the development stages are:

  • Updated keyword search to allow phrase searches. This includes entering phrases in the search bar and obtaining focused results. This function will remove the current requirement of entering multiple terms in quotation marks, which can lead to unrelated results.
  • Development site improvements. The use of micro frontends allows for a superior experience as it minimizes interruptions by allowing individual systems parts to be upgraded rather than the entire site.
  • Future improvements. Look for enhancement to beta.SAM.gov, such as scheduling future searches and the option for filtering federal organization below sub-tier. Additionally, the ability to search for multiple states in a single search is on the horizon. (ibid)

For additional help, videos go to the beta.SAM.gov learning center. Assistance may also be found at the Federal Service Desk from 8 AM to 8 PM EST Monday through Friday at FSD.gov.

Feeling a little overwhelmed by beta.SAM.gov? Give us a call.