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GSA Schedule contract

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.

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.

 

GSA’s New Rules!

GSA has issued a final rule amending the following parts of  the GSA Acquisition Regulation (GSAR):

  • Part 515, Contracting by Negotiation,
  • Part 538 Federal Supply Schedule Contracting
  • GSAR Part 552, Solicitation Provisions and Contract Clauses (GSA Interact, June 3, 2019)

The above changes were enacted to clarify, update, streamline and incorporate existing Federal Supply Schedule contract administration policies and procedures. The final rule became effective on May 23, 2019. (ibid)

Changes include the following:

  • deletion of 85 obsolete/duplicative clauses and provisions (see GSA Order ADP 29800.12B Change 100)
  • incorporation of 30 “new” clauses and provisions into GSAR.
  • reincorporation of four GSA Schedules program clauses and provisions (previously removed from GSAR in a rewrite) into GSAR.
  • updating 10 existing GSA Schedules program clauses and provisions to reflect current references and practices. (ibid)

The above changes will be part of GSA’s new Consolidated Schedule solicitation. More information to follow in the coming months.

If you have questions about the GSAR rule amendments will affect your contracts, give us a call at 301-913-5000.

 

Price Inconsistencies on Schedule 70? Nah…

GSA’s IG audit of GSA schedules in 2016 found large price discrepancies between identical items. For instance, the cost of one of Sharp’s 70-inch LED Smart TVs showed prices ranging from $1,597 to $3,000. The audit also turned up prices much lower on commercial products. In addition, from August 2014 to July 2015, most IT schedule purchases were for top-selling items priced higher than the lowest IT schedule price, completely defeating the purpose of the Schedules program. (Nextgov, May 21, 2019)

Recommendations to correct the disparities include:

  • Verify prices for identical IT schedule items by price analysis
  • Improve price protection for IT schedule reseller contracts by setting controls
  • Ensure contracting officers receive accurate and complete information around manufacturers’ commercial sales practices (ibid)

Per the review by the IG, the Federal Acquisition Service has taken “appropriate corrective actions” to address these price inconsistencies.

Questions about IT Schedule or other GSA Schedule pricing? Give us a call at 301-913-5000.

GSA’s New Cool Tool

GSA has launched the Contract Awarded Labor Category (CALC) tool to make it easier for agencies to determine hourly rates for various labor categories. CALC allows purchasers to analyize labor category pricing on more than 5,000 recent GSA contracts. The new tool will make it far easier for contracting officers to determine accurate labor rates while conducting market analysis. (Federal Times, May 14, 2019) 

CALC works by searching awarded prices on GSA’s professional services schedules, such as:

  • Mission Oriented Business Integrated Services (MOBIS)
  • Environmental
  • Logistics Worldwide (LOGWORLD)
  • Professional Engineering Schedule
  • Language
  • Advertising and Integrated Marketing Schedules (AIMS)
  • Consolidated Schedule (ibid)

CALC cannot yet compare labor categories to those already awarded showing where rates fall; however, future versions will likely include this capability.(ibid)

Questions about how your labor rates stack up against other vendors? Give us a call at 301-913-5000.