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Selling to the government

Time For a Facelift

All businesses contracting with the U.S. government must obtain a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number. The DUNS number system, managed by Dun & Bradstreet since 1962, was opened to competitive bidding last year and has since been awarded to Ernst & Young.  (Nextgov, March 2019)

The award is for a one-year base period with four one-year options, making the contract total worth $41.8 million if all options are exercised. (ibid)

Over the next few months, the DUNS will be phased out and replaced by the System for Award Management Managed Identifier or SAMMI number. GSA is working on the standards for the new system with an interagency working group. (ibid)

With the new entity validation service, users provide their registration information at SAM.gov and that information is validated against the Ernst & Young data, with no charge to the contractor. The government has unlimited rights to the data in perpetuity. Besides having a safe and secure method for validating entities, the process will be simplified for those seeking contract awards. In addition, the new system will create a workaround for the proprietary nature of the validation services, which have been viewed by many as monopolistic. (ibid)

Have questions about the new validation service? Give us a call at 301-913-5000 and we can explain it.

 

DoE Bureaucracy Hard at Work

In fiscal year 2016, the General Accounting Office (GAO) conducted an audit of 28 entities to address issues with Department of Energy (DoE) contractor oversight. DoE, including it’s National Nuclear Security Administration, is the largest federal civilian contracting agency, spending about 90 percent of its appropriations on contracts with companies, universities, and others for federal research and development,  production, and engineering. (GAO, March 12, 2019)

After reviewing contracting and subcontracting data and documents, analyzing regulations, and interviewing federal officials and contractor representatives, GAO found: DoE awards about $23.6 billion in prime contracts with about 30 percent ($6.9 billion) of that total going to subcontractors in the form of universities, different companies, or entities; almost all 28 primes were also subs; subcontractors totaled nearly 3,000; and subcontractor complexity makes it difficult to figure out the relationship between the various parties. (ibid)

More than $3.4 billion in subcontract costs (over a ten year period) were never audited. Because the statute of limitations is six years (according to the Contract Disputes Act), many unallowable costs may not be recovered. (ibid)

GAO made six recommendations, including that DoE develop procedures requiring local offices to verify completion of subcontract audits and that DoE independently review subcontractor ownership information to identify potential conflicts of interest. DoE agreed with all recommendations except to independently review subcontractor ownership information. (ibid) Huh. Wonder why.

Buh-Bye FBO

GSA is migrating FedBizOpps FBO.gov website to beta.SAM.gov by the end of this year, according to Vicky Niblett, the deputy assistant commissioner for the Integrated Acquisition Environment (IAE) in the Federal Acquisition Service. Changes on the new website will include login.gov added to the registration process, Wage Determination Online WDOL.gov, as well as ‘federal hierarchy,’ an internal process through which appropriate roles can be assigned to federal government workers. (FederalNewsNetwork, February 25, 2019)

In related news, the SAM legacy systems are at the end of their product life and are scheduled to be retired with the functions transferred to the GSA cloud business platform over the next one to three years. There will no new open RFP solicited for this work. The incumbent will continue to perform the sole source contract. (ibid)

Questions about the new website? We are always available to discuss any concerns you may have. Give us a call at 301-913-5000.

Wireless Mobility Solutions on Schedule 70

GSA has worked with a government-wide mobility expert team to develop a mobile strategy for the federal government. The goals: make purchases more simple, provide additional supplier competition with better pricing, and keep current with mobility changes. From this effort, we have new SIN 132-53 on Schedule 70, wireless mobility solutions (WMS), which replaces the expiring  Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI) BPA. (GSA.gov February 14, 2019Despite expiration of the FSSI mobility BPAs, GSA said on its website that agencies can still exercise extension options under existing agreements until 2023. (Fedscoop February 14, 2019)

WMS SIN includes 11 new service categories:

  • Wireless Carrier Services
  • Other Mobility End-Point Infrastructure – Mobility infrastructure
  • Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS)
  • Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM)
  • Mobile Backend-as-a-Service (MBaaS)
  • Telecom Expense Management (TEM)
  • Mobile Application Vetting
  • Mobile Threat Protection (MTP)
  • Mobile Identity Management
  • Internet of Things (loT)
  • Other/Mobile Services (ibid)

The federal government spends nearly $1 billion dollars annually on wireless carrier services, according to GSA.gov,  approximately 40-50 percent of the agencies’ total cost of ownership for mobility. Other mobility costs can include services related to mobile security, enterprise mobility management, mobile applications management, and mobile integration into the agency enterprise. These additional services can add up to an incremental $700-$800 million a year or nearly $2 billion dollars in total. (GSA.gov February 14, 2019)

The enhanced WMS SIN is now available for use by agency customers and industry partners. (ibid)

Questions about providing mobility services to the government or getting your Schedule 70? Give us a call at 301-913-5000  and we can walk you through it.

Whole Lot of Spending Going On

In 2018, the US government made history, in more ways than one. Yes, the shutdown beginning in December of 2018 marked the longest in history, but according to Bloomberg Government, spending by agencies was also the highest in history. Nearly $64.7 billion was spent on IT contracts alone in fiscal 2018, an almost 10 percent jump over 2017 spending. (Nextgov January 29, 2019)

Both defense and civilian agencies tremendously increased IT spending. Defense IT spending increased by about 12 percent, to $33.8 billion. Civilian agencies increased IT spending by about 6.6 percent, to $30.8 billion. Veterans Affairs, Treasury, State, and Education all experienced double-digit spending growth.  IT spending grew in the past year in the following areas (ibid):

  • Tehnology services
  • Cybersecurity
  • Cloud Services
  • Digital Services
  • Software Development
  • Data Analytics
  • Artificial Intelligence

What is the takeaway from the spending increases? Our government relies heavily on its IT contractors! Expect the spending trend to continue increasing over the coming years.

Want to learn more about contracting with the government? Give us a call at 301-913-5000.