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Contract Awards

GSA Schedules’ Summer Diet

GSA decided it’s high time that 24 multiple award schedules shrink all the way down to one.

To accomplish this, GSA is conducting an analysis across all Schedules, which include 10 million commercial products and services that bring in more than $31 billion in sales annually. Public feedback can be provided on the consolidation through a recently released request for information (RFI); it asks the public to weight in on the contents as well as clauses and provisions being considered. (Nextgov, June 2019)

According to Stephanie Shutt, director of the MAS Program Management Office, streamlining terms and conditions will make if it far easier for vendors to work with the government and vice versa. (ibid)

The current plan is a single schedule for services and products that are “mapped to the current government-wide category structure.” Special Item Numbers (which help identify products) are also falling under review. New SINs will follow shortly and as with the MAS, will be open for public comment. (ibid) We’ve also heard rumors that GSA will be dispensing with SINs all together, and will instead use NAICS codes.

Big changes! Give us a call with any questions about the RFI or how your current contract might be affected.

COMET Commeth!

The General Services Administration (GSA) has released the second and much sought after piece of the IT services procurement known as COMET. The solicitation aims to create a multiple-award blanket purchase agreement (BPA) on top of IT schedule 70.

GSA plans to make between 10 and 12 awards with a minimum of 25 percent set aside for small businesses. The BPA will require a host of IT services, including operations and maintenance, cloud and the continued development, and support of the acquisition systems portal beta.SAM.gov. GSA’s goal is a three-step evaluation approach, including an in-person technical challenge.

In April, GSA issued the RFP for the first and substantially smaller piece of COMET focused on architecture, engineering, and advisory support. (FedBizOpps)

Have questions about COMET and how your company fits in? Give us a call at 301-913-5000.

Self Certification — No More ;-(

The 2015 National Defense Authorization Act mandated that the Small Business Administration (SBA) discontinue self-certification of women-owned and other small businesses. In 2020, SBA plans to finalize a self-certification rule that closes a loophole allowing participants in the SBA’s Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) program to self-certify. (Federal News Network, June 2019)

Approximately one-quarter of all federal contracts are held by small businesses, which over the past six years has helped federal agencies to  exceed  SBA’s governmentwide small business contracting goal. This year’s spending of more than $120 billion on small business contracts surpasses last year’s spending by nearly $15 billion.

The Government Accountability Office reported in March that almost 40 percent of WOSB-certified businesses were ineligible. Meanwhile, SBA’s Office of Inspector General June 2018 audit found 89 percent of sole-source (50 out of 56 contracts) did not meet all program criteria. Basically, there is currently no way to know if the contracts, listed in the chart below, were actually eligible for the sole-source awards. (ibid)

Rob Wong, SBA’s associate administrator of the Office of Government promotes a formal certification to  give the program some much-needed integrity. Wong said, “simply put, the wrong companies were receiving our contracts, we want to make sure that, if a company receives a contract through these programs, they’re actually eligible to receive it.” (ibid)

SBA has subsequently published a proposed rule in the Federal Register eliminating self-certification and providing a free online certification application to WOSB. Comments on the proposed rule are being accepted until July 15. In Wong’s opinion, it is high time to streamline the vetting process for the many other set-aside programs, all of which have different sets of eligibility criteria. Wong feels that going to three formal certifications for 8(a), Historically Underutilized Business Zones, women-owned, and service-disabled veterans will unify the processes. The rule with set-aside screening is expected to take a year for the changes to take effect. (ibid)

Do you have questions about the new certification process and how it may affect your current contract or an upcoming opportunity? Give us a call at 301-913-5000.

Submit Your Schedule 36 ERM Demos Now

GSA is accepting demos for the revised the Schedule 36 Electronic Records Management (ERM) Vendor Demo Process. (GSA Interact, June 4, 2019)

This month, GSA updated the original September 2018 notice regarding ERM demos, removing the GSA-recorded demo option. Vendors interested in participating in the demo presentation process must now record their presentations and provide its link to GSA. Once the demo presentation is approved, GSA will post the link to their Discovery tool. (ibid)

Discovery allows customers to explore GSA services contracts, vendors, and vendor contract history. Customers use this information to determine whether a GSA contract meets their needs. Within the next few months, Discovery should be loaded with current ERM vendor contract information.; at that time, contract holders will be notified. While the tool is being updated, vendors may submit their demo link via email to RecordsManagement@gsa.gov.

GSA wants vendors to create demos for the following:

  • ERM.010.L1.02. Determine if the electronic message can be placed under records management control
  • ERM.020.L1.02. Manage the metadata of an electronic message record throughout the lifecycle
  • ERM.030.L1.02. Dispose of approved electronic message records (ibid)

For additional information regarding the use cases, please see Records Express and the Federal Electronic Records Modernization Initiative (FERMI) website. (ibid)

GSA Guidelines for Demos

Technical

  • All scenarios should last no longer than five minutes, with an introduction of up to five minutes. Maximum running time for each demo should be no more than 20 minutes; shorter demos are encouraged.
  • GSA strongly encourages Section 508 compliance for all vendor demos.

Content

  • Data must be included at the beginning of the demo presentation
  • The types of electronic messages to address are email, SMS/MMS, and chat messages
  • Include as much automation as possible as agencies are looking to reduce the number of steps for end users to manage their electronic messages. Be certain to describe where people are involved in managing electronic messages.
  • Traditional, Hosted, Embedded and ERMaas are the types of approaches to records management.
  • Do not mention competitor names in your demo presentation.
  • Do not mention federal or commercial customers or reveal, in any way, other customers, for any reason. (ibid)

NARA/GSA Demo Submission, Review, and Approval

The submitted link or pdf should allow access to all updated or new video demos in the future. Please keep in mind that before any new demos are added to a vendor’s site or channel, they must be submitted to recordsmanagement@gsa.gov for review. Once approved, vendors can add the demo to their site/channel. Unauthorized demos will be removed from Discovery. GSA is asking for vendors to submit their demos as soon as possible. (ibid)

Release of the Vendor Demo Videos

  • Video on Demand
  • Hyperlinks to the Use Cases will be posted to GSA’s Discovery Tool
  • There may be a short period of time between the video approval and the video being posted on Discovery. GSA reserves the right to post videos in the order they are received.

Questions about these guidelines? Give us a call at 301-913-5000.

 

Training to Go FAST!

GSA recently announced that it will be holding a Federal Acquisition Service Training (FAST) Conference in Atlanta April 12 – 16, 2020. This event will promote constructive dialogue and facilitate an environment where the government and industry can come together to be educated on GSA’s contracting programs. (Federal News Network, May 2019)

The FAST conference is expected to provide many hours of procurement training, as well as providing GSA, government agencies, and industry with an opportunity to share information on key program initiatives, acquisition policies, commercial capabilities, and commercial marketplace trends. It will provide a forum to bring together all of GSA’s agency customers and industry partners under one roof to collaborate, educate and network. (ibid)

Have questions about the FAST conference and whether you should attend? Give us a call at 301-913-5000, and we can discuss it with you.