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Tag: Schedule refreshes

Schedule 736: Enhancement Proposal

GSA Region 2 FAS Intends to Re-organize 736 for Usability

GSA has proposed enhancements to Schedule 736 to make it more customer-friendly and offer greater visibility to occupations and categories under the schedule. The Schedule will be streamlined to two SINs, one for Wage-Grade Occupations (736-1) and one for Professional Labor Categories (736-5).

Vendors under 736-2 through 736-4 will be consolidated under the two primary SINs based on current offerings. The three redundant SINs will be deleted after the migration. The solicitation will be updated to reflect current regulations regarding temp help. It will also include a new ordering guide for customers.

Vendors who offer both Wage-Grade Occupations and Professional Labor Categories will be required to separate out their offerings, as well as create and submit a new pricelist to facilitate the changes. This can be done through eMod. Prices and labor categories should not change at this time.

The SIN descriptions will be enhanced to show the entire List of Occupational Categories based on the DOL Occupations Directory.

The goal is to increase schedule use in a time when full time hiring is greatly decreased.

What do you think of the changes?

GSA issues RFI to reevaluate schedule 70

It may be “Soft”ware but GSA is coming hard

In late October, GSA issued a Request for Information (RFI) about a proposal to change the way agencies buy software under IT Schedule 70. The proposal would support compliance with the MEGABYTE Act of 2015, and improve federal management of $6 billion worth of software.

The proposed changes mostly impact term licenses, perpetual licenses, and software maintenance. Term software licenses would be “Redefined so that they are only applicable to software that is provisioned and executed from the ‘user’s servers, computing end-points, or other designated computing devices where the user has the right to load or deploy software,’” GSA stated. “Additionally, the requirement to convert term licenses into perpetual licenses has been modified so that it is only required when an offeror offers the same conversions to their commercial customers.”

There will be two pathways towards perpetual licenses: “Option 1 contemplates software vendors that will embed software identification tags in their software products that are consistent with the ISO/IEC 19970-2 standard,” the RFI states. “Option 2 contemplates software vendors that will allow incumbent software licensees a right to transfer or move perpetual licenses to a new licensee for a previously negotiated fee. It is intended that these new asset management rights and features are voluntary, meaning that software vendors who wish to offer them may optionally include them on their schedule contract.”

And there might be a new SIN for software maintenance! “Software maintenance-as-a-product, henceforth, will be the maintenance that software vendors charge for on an annual basis…Under the current software maintenance SIN structures, it is impossible to differentiate a software purchase from an annual software maintenance purchase. Providing software maintenance-as-a-product with its own SIN identifier allows the federal government to better manage software as an asset and appropriately track categories of spend by differentiating between software licenses and software maintenance.”

Exciting! If you have any questions or worries about your Schedule 70 products, feel free to call your EZGSA proposal specialist or anyone at our office at 301-913-5000.

Keep it Under Lock and Data Key

GSA officials announced plans to rebrand Special Item Number 520-20 on September 20th. The SIN will act as the official Data Breach Response and Identity Protection Services offering on the Professional Services Schedule. GSA hopes that this move will offer industries and agencies more flexibility and responsiveness.

Ordering offices will “now have the ability to obtain specifically what is needed for their immediate situation,” explained Stephanie Kenitzer, professional services category community manager.

The new SIN offers “identity monitoring and notification of Personally Identifiable Information and Protected Health Information, identity theft insurance and identity restoration services, and protect (safeguard) the confidentiality of PII and PHI.”

The changes will occur with the next solicitation refresh, projected for mid-October.

When a competitive number of vendors are on schedule, GSA plans to swap identity protection services from the current blanket agreements to the SIN.

For more information see the official statement.

Helping the Feds to secure civilian networks: new Schedule 70 SIN is on its way!

So there are some BIG things going on with this new CDM Special Item Number (SIN). Get used to SIN 132-44, especially if your company works in cybersecurity, because it is here to stay. Released as a Schedule 70 SIN jointly between GSA and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — has this happened before? — the SIN will be useful in the government’s quest to strengthen and automate computer network monitoring, certainly an important topic with recent international hacking incidents.

Before you submit your proposal for 132-44, you must receive approval from DHS to qualify for the CDM Approved Products List. To achieve this, an entire package must be submitted, including 508 Testing results, counterfeit avoidance and mitigation, and insider threat management (among other items). Once the product qualifies, you may submit a proposal to add the SIN. EULAs (end user license agreements) and Letters of Supply will be required, as necessary.

Adding the new SIN should provide better access to products, services, and new commercial offerings. It also means increased visibility for CDM tools, flexibility in contract durations, and cost efficiency. Although we haven’t heard yet, it also means that GSA will be refreshing Schedule 70 sooner rather than later, with all the attendant Rapid Action Mods following.

Subcategories for the SIN include: managing what is on the network; managing who is on the network; managing what is happening on the network; and emerging tools and technology.

Please note: the TDR pilot does NOT apply to this SIN.

The new SIN comes about from a cybersecurity review two years ago and the upcoming expiration of a BPA resulting from that review. Like any SIN on a GSA Schedule, 132-44 can be added via modification by those already holding a contract and can also be awarded as a stand alone SIN when appropriate.

For more information about the new SIN, please contact your EZGSA account manager or call us at 301-913-5000.

Welcome to the Jun(GSA)le

GSA opening up to businesses and industry partners

Jack St. John, Chief of Staff at GSA, has released a statement promising GSA will be more business friendly by improving industry partnerships, streamlining acquisitions, and easing the onus  of regulations. He announced that GSA will make Transactional Data Reporting optional and asked for public comment in reexamining the policy.

Also of interest to many of our clients, Schedule 75 for Office Supplies and Services will reopen, making a significant statement about increased access to dynamic pricing and innovation from the competitive marketplace. St. John further outlined GSA’s goals for uniting and simplifying the Professional Services Schedule (PSS) to increase the efficiency of the contract for agencies and industry partners. The suggested PSS solicitation is available to read and open for comment until May 26.

You can read more about it here or contact EZGSA at 301-913-5000 or mbotello@ezgsa.com