A Conflict of Interest

Trump International Hotel in the historic
Post Office Pavilion -Washington D.C

The historic Post Office Pavilion in Washington, DC is at the center of a hot procurement debate. Since 2012, the building is under lease by the Trump Organization to operate a luxury hotel. With Jan. 20^th looming over the United States as we wait for President-Elect Trump’s inauguration, Mr. Trump’s business ties with the General Services Administration are coming to the forefront of the debate.

The Post Office lease between the GSA and the Trump Organization is a 60-year, $180 million-dollar deal that is now at the center of constitutional scrutiny. Contract language is clear: “No ... elected official of the Government of the United States ... shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom....”(top of page 103 Ground Lease) . As things stand right now, not only would Mr. Trump profit and be in clear violation of this contractual clause, there are other delineating factors to consider; Mr. Trump will now be the individual in charge of appointing a new GSA administrator, a person who would be directly involved in negotiations and changes to the contract he holds, including but not limited to rent increase.

The contractual question is whether a blind trust run by Mr. Trump’s children is truly blind enough to be considered separate from the President Elect. Especially considering his children having active roles in Mr. Trump’s transition team and interacting with foreign officials, the lines between business government are being blurred. Although Trump’s team is sighting a Dec 15^th conference, where Mr. Trump’s involvement in his own business will be cleared up, the mixing of his family in both business and government does raise concerns for many in Washington.

Government procurement experts are urging the GSA to terminate the lease before Mr. Trump’s inauguration, however this is the first time that the GSA has acknowledged this as a potential problem. Whether the conflict of interest that this situation produces is valid, the contract clauses the govern the situation seem clear and lays out a way for the GSA.

Transactional Data Reporting (TDR)- What is it and why do you care?

The new transactional data reporting rule is now requiring vendors to electronically report the price the federal government actually paid for an item of service through the GSA acquisition vehicle. The rules on pricing with GSA have always said that the negotiated price is a ceiling price- meaning that vendors are free to provide GSA customers with additional discounts as they see fit. This means that tracking the actual cost paid for products/services vs. the “GSA price” has been a consistent problem for contractors and the GSA alike.

TDR reporting will be more time intensive for contractors who chose to be a part of the pilot program. Tracking the price per product instead of dollars per SIN will require additional work. However, the benefits for contractors are great as well. With TDR, Commercial Sales Practices and the Price Reduction Clause track will be eliminated for those who chose to part of the pilot program! Once the mod is accepted, contractors participating in TDR will no longer have to provide a CSP when submitting contract modification and will not have to track their BOA customer.

For contractors that accept the modification between now and December 31^st, the new reporting rules will go into effect on January 1^st.

If you are unsure how TDR will affect your contract administration efforts, drop us a line at info@govconsvcs.com and we’ll see if you can help you unravel the new rules and how to best move forward. 

Fiscal Year 2016, A Year in Review

Fiscal year 2016 was a great success for small business contractors working with the GSA. The newest numbers from the Office of Small Business Utilization (OSBU) shows that there are currently 12,367 small business within the MAS program!

Here’s the further breakdown:

Small Disadvantaged	3051
Women-owned	3434
8A	1514
HUBZone	540
Service-disabled, Veteran-owned	1296
Veteran-owned	2284

Overall FY16 seemed to fare well for small businesses with more than $13 Billion dollars’ worth of contracts going directly to them.

The Federal Government is proving to be more frugal than ever before and is utilizing cost savings programs and cross agency spending initiatives to cut costs but not quality.

Looking at government spending in FY 2016, over $390 Billion were direct contract dollars throughout government spending (across vehicles and open bids). Spending was also slightly down from FY 2015 with the government spending $48,681,338,439 less in FY16.  Average dollars spent per year between 2008 and 2016 was $491,423,430,510 showing that FY 16 was almost a billion dollars below average over the last 8 years.

GCS is looking forward to the next fiscal year and the opportunity that it will bring to government contracts. Don’t forget that now is the best time to forecast opportunities and to start reaching out to your government contacts to make sure no stone goes unturned. We’re always here if you have any questions! 

October is Woman Owned Small Business Month!

On the heels of the Federal Acquisition Regulations being amended to incorporate Sole Sourcing for Woman Owned Small Business, the SBA has announced the October is Woman Owned Small Business Month!

Effective September 30, 2016, DoD, GSA, and NASA have adopted regulatory changes that provide authority to award sole course contracts to economically disadvantaged women owned small business and woman owned small business. Overall, this puts Woman Owned Small Businesses on equal footing with Service-Disabled Veteran Owned small business in receiving preferential treatment for contracts.

Working from this success, the SBA is targeting additional segments of woman owned business to help them succeed. The Encore Entrepreneurship for Woman webinar looks to assist women over the age of 50 who are launching their own businesses and pursing a second career. And for the other Women Owned Small Businesses, the What You Need to Know section on the SBA website is a treasure trove of incredibly useful information! 

Looking back over Fiscal Year 2016, government-wide overall spending with Women Owned Small Businesses almost reached the goal of 5% by allocating 4.45% or $15.2 Billion of $334.1B. That number is down .62% from the FY 15. Looking forward, the Sole Source provision should increase the number exponentially. Take a look at the full breakdown of set-aside spending!

GSA requires more when adding a new Special Item Number (SIN)

The General Services Administration is always making changes to solicitation, I am sure you receive those emails asking you to accept the changes in a mass modification. The newest change requires additional documentation for modifications that include adding a new Special Item Number (SIN).

The GSA is now requiring contractors to submit their original project experience, corporate experience, Open Ratings Report and quality control narrative in order to add a Special Item Number. For those contractors who have kept all of their initial GSA offer documents this new requirement is a breeze. However, for those that did not this change is going to be very tedious.

We do recommend that if you do not have these documents on file to reach out to your contracting officer. Although, the GSA does not have to provide the documents since it is the responsibility of the contractor to keep them on file. If your contracting officer is unwilling to provide you with the documents you will have to recreate them.

For new contractors this requirement will keep things a bit more tidy and organized since the emod system will automatically populate the documents. But for contractors that have been on Schedule for years this could be a bit of a mess.

As always you can always call the team at GCS for questions!

New SINs under Schedule 70

Recently the President announced his new Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP), the GSA is supporting this plan by adding four new Highly Adaptive Cybersecurity Services SINs. The following services will be included: penetration testing, incident response, cyber hunt and risk and vulnerability assessment.

Each SIN added to GSA has it’s own specific purpose and is designed to work together with other new cybersecurity and preexisting schedule 70 SINs to propose a full solution.

Here’s a quick description of the proposed SIN:

Penetration Testing (132-45A) is security testing in which assessors mimic real-world attacks to identify methods for circumventing the security features of an application, system, or network.

Incident Response(132-45B)  services help organizations impacted by a Cybersecurity compromise determine the extent of the incident, remove the adversary from their systems, and restore their networks to a more secure state.

Cyber Hunt (132-45C) activities are responses to crisis or urgent situations within the pertinent domain to mitigate immediate and potential threats

Risk and Vulnerability Assessments (132-45D) conduct assessments of threats and vulnerabilities, determines deviations from acceptable configurations, enterprise or local policy, assesses the level of risk, and develops and/or recommends appropriate mitigation countermeasures in operational and non-operational situations

One major GSA related change for adding cybersecurity your GSA schedule is SCP-FSS-004 within the solicitation document which required an Oral Technical Evaluation for offers submitting under those SINs. The Technical Evaluation Board will be an unclassified level discussion where your company will need to show their expertise in the subject matter.

Based on CNAP, over $19 billion dollars will be invested into cybersecurity as part of the President’s FY17 budget increasing more that 35%. With cybersecurity threats constantly looming and the world moving more and more into cyberspace, the government is recognizing the importance of security. 

GSA City Pair Program

GSA has a sordid recent history when it comes to travel budgets and overspending, with words like Hawaii still being an open wound among Contracting Officers and Contractors alike. But steps taken since the affair have been sorting out this mess.
The GSA has implemented virtual contractor assistance visits, requiring less travel from its Contracting Officers and ensuring money savings for taxpayers. Another recent step has been the award of 2017 City Pair Program for Air Travel. Sometimes, the inevitability of traveling does occur for COs and the GSA must ensure that they are getting the best deal when spending tax payer money.
Awards were made to United, American, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, Hawaiian, Alaska, and new Silver Airways cover 93% of trips flown (6,949 Domestic and 2,154 international destinations). The benefits of this service include:

• Fares priced on one-way routes, permitting agencies to plan multiple destinations
• No advance purchase required
• No minimum or maximum length stay required
• Fully refundable tickets
• Last seat availability
• No blackout periods
• Stable prices enabling travel budgeting

These benefits will ensure taxpayer money is never wasted when spending on air travel and the stable pricing will create an easier way to budget travel costs. The GSA has been taking many steps to regain the trust of taxpayers since 2012 and the new 2017 City Pair Program (after the success of the 2016) is another step in the right direction.

Sustainability is discussed in Executive Order 13514

The new Executive Order sets new goals for the coming decade. The order requires that 95% of all new products and services be sustainable. The Office of Small Business Utilization compiled a video to assist with determining what exactly that means, click here to view.

The General Services Administration (GSA), has their own big push towards sustainability. Their initiative which includes sustainable buildings, green products and services and putting policies in place for a greener tomorrow. Their push is to make it more accessible for other agencies to purchase sustainable products and services. Take a look at their initiative here: http://www.gsa.gov/sustainability/ 

If you company offers green certified products or services now is a perfect time to make the move into Federal Contracting. Give us a call today.

FY 2016 GSA Supplier Relationship Management Survey!

The 2016 Supplier survey is out and all contractors on schedules should have received emails in the last couple days explaining the importance of giving the GSA feedback and completing the survey. The survey takes measure of whether the program is beneficial to you, whether you are looking to renew your contract, and if you consider the GSA to be your first choice among government acquisition vehicles.

We all get surveys in our emails always asking for our opinions. The GSA is no different than any other company, looking to improve its customer service, customer relations, and most importantly its’ effectiveness. Plagued by pricing issues and TAA compliance issues over the last year, the GSA is in a transformative moment, attempting to put its vendors first.

Responding to the survey should be top priority to contractors. If we don’t tell the GSA what problems exist or what about the program is great, the GSA cannot adapt to make the marketplace better. It’s vital the contractors are honest about their experiences, grievances, and successes. Past surveys have sparked changes in the GSA like more industry days, updated welcome packages from new contracts, and the plain language roadmap that was released for schedule 70 with more schedules to come.

Each company gets a personalized link, so unfortunately, we cannot share ours to lead you to the survey, but check your email for anything coming from survey@notify.gsa.gov. It’s waiting for you to share your thoughts! 

Less paperwork from the GSA?!

When the government implements a new regulation it takes some time for contractors to adapt and to "buy in" to the new regulation. However, the latest change to the GSA's Federal Supply Schedule Program should be quite the opposite because it means less work for contractors. 

The GSA's latest change, implemented on June 23rd of this year, to the Transnational Data Reporting (TDR) Rule changes how the GSA requires contractors to track and disclose Commercial Sales Practices (CSP) and Price Reduction Clause (PRC) information. All information will now be electronically submitted and tracked in the GSA's system. 

For those that regularly submit modification to their contract they understand how cumbersome it was to submit the information via the eMod system and then again upload the required CSP information. This new regulation will increase the transparency and ease of purchase for those buyers utilizing GSA Contracts and therefore not only save contractors time but will also increase the sales for them as well.

This new regulation is highly linked with the GSA's new Formatted Product tool check out our blog for more information: What is this Formatted Product Tool and what does it mean for your company?

Also, take a look at GSA Interact for more information on the changes. 

Schedule 70 is growing, growing, growing!

Since the introduction of the Cloud IT SIN (132 40) has proven to be a successful experiment in subdividing IT purchasing, the next step in that progression is to continue that particular mission. Health IT, which is just about anything IT related, especially related to Electronic Health Records, used in hospitals, by doctors, nurses and other professionals is going to get its own SIN on GSA.

Under the existing SINs, any health IT software or service would be categorized under 132 32 (term software), 132 33 (perpetual software), 132 40 (cloud services) or even 132 51 (IT Professional Services) but the expertise behind the selling of health IT software and services just isn’t enough to truly support GSA and its customers. By grouping all health IT together, GSA is providing agency customers with a pool of highly skilled, experts to help them best understand what they really need.

Schedule 70, as a whole, has been more successful than ever. With $14 billion dollars in annual sales channeling through the acquisition vehicle, buyers are urging the GSA to make its use as easy as possible for them! The new health IT services SIN, 132 56, will allow buyers to access the expertise that they need to make the best decisions all in one place.

The final solicitation, which will include the new SIN, is expected to be rolled out this month. Current IT 70 schedule holders should be on the lookout for Mass Mod notifications to incorporate the new SIN into their contracts.

If you’re looking for more information about the health IT SIN, check out the GSA Interact posting from earlier this year all about it! And if you want to learn more about the government’s use of health IT, browse through HealthIT.gov.  

What is this Formatted Product Tool and what does it mean for your company?

First of all, this new tool only apply's to product companies so if you are a service only company look away. If you sell strictly products or products and services then this will eventually apply to how you manage your GSA Contract. The Formatted Product Tool was built to make managing your contract easier and to streamline the modification process.

First of all, we can all celebrate the impending death of the Schedule Input Program (SIP)! This new tool will be replacing it eventually. Also, the new tool will removing a step from the process. Now, you submit a modification and once that modification is submitted you update your SIP files. The new process will include updating your GSA Advantage files when you upload the modification itself.

FPT will also automatically run comparisons. For example, if you are submitting a product addition modification or a pricing modification the system will tell you where you stand compared to other vendors with the same product on Contract. This increased transparency will hopefully speed up the modification process and make small businesses more competitive because there is more information at their fingertips.

So, sounds like the government is making improvements to make vendor's lives a bit easier. In the long run, yes. However, for all current vendors you will need to go into the system and complete what GSA is calling "base-lining". Essentially this means taking what you already have approved on GSA Advantage and uploading this through FPT.

The GSA is rolling out this tool through a mass modification beginning in Mid-July. The mass mod will begin with Schedules 58 I and 72 and will be rolled out with Scheduled 51V, 73, 75 and 70 int he coming weeks. Base-lining is not mandatory within the mass modification but is highly recommended because it will become mandatory as the GSA begins adoption of the process.

If you want to keep on the latest the GSA has an Interact page dedicated to FPT. You can take a look at it here: https://interact.gsa.gov/document/important-update-gsa-begin-rollout-formatted-product-tool-fpt-starting-solicitation.

As always, if you have any questions you can reach out to the team here at GCS. We are also offering free base-lining to the first 10 vendors that sign up here: https://government-contract-services.reservio.com/

And of course...Happy Independence Day!

Acting as One for Smarter Acquisition

With the GSA on a never ending mission to simplify and streamline procurement and acquisition, the Acquisition Gateway is a newly updated tool for the Federal Acquisition Workforce to collaborate and better understand the needs of end users. It’s becoming a smart system for acquisition learning.

You might be thinking- how many different tools do the Contracting Officers really need? They already have access to not only all the same website that contractors do, such as www.gsaadvantage.gov and www.gsaelibrary.gsa.gov but they have comparison features and competitive analysis features that contractors don’t have access to.

But the Acquisition Gateway is a little bit different. It's a work space for Federal Contracting Officers, which will help them learn the best ways to do their jobs. In turn, that helps the contractors! It’s collaboration tool that can crowd source information from purchasing experts within the Federal Acquisition Workforce to benefit everyone. It’s a more effective tool to find solution comparisons, tools, templates, success stories, and prices paid data, creating more successful outcomes at each step of the acquisition lifecycle.

The Gateway is broken up into 19 separate hallways: Administrative Support, Card Services, Cleaning Supplies & Chemicals, Employee Relocation, Facilities & Maintenance, Freight, IT Hardware, IT Security, IT Services, IT Software, Motor Vehicles, Professional Services, Security & Protection, Small Package Delivery, Talent Development, Telecommunications, Tools & Hardware, Travel, and Workplace Environment. For each hallway, there is a plethora of information provided like expert articles on subject matter, solution finders to make sure they are buying exactly what they need, historical pricing data and community support.

Currently, the tools are only open to Federal government users, but public access is a priority. Contractors will have access to some (but not all) of the same tools as they work on RFPs and pricing their products and services for the government marketplace.

If you’re interested in seeing what exactly the newest updates are, the GSA has created a handy infographic to explain everything. There’s also a great preview video showing what’s new and what’s coming up. 

25 Years and Counting

Back in the 1980’s a college student, attending Cleveland State University, was making ends meet while working for his older brother’s company. After graduation he continued to work for his brother’s company, Procurement Services, but as most brothers do they began to disagree about the direction of the business. One brother was very content with the consulting aspect that Procurement Services had been offering for years, while the other brother wanted to grow the company and broaden the scope of services.

In light of that, Government Contract Services, Inc. (GCS) was born on October 15, 1990. Our founder, Brian A Purgert, has continued to grow the company ever since. We began to specialize in assisting companies who needed to submit a quote or proposal for government work. Our Bid, Proposal and Award Program helps companies find opportunities within the Federal Government that they could fulfill. We would them assist in formulating a quote or proposal, depending on the type of opportunity. Once a client was awarded a contract our team would then help manage that contract.

The early years of GCS also coincided with the initiation of the Federal Supply Schedules (FSS). The FSS contracts have changed a lot since its inception, GCS has kept up with the changes. Today we focus on assisting companies obtain a GSA Contract and with those that are currently GSA Contractors.

However, we have not forgotten our roots of assisting with the submission of quotes and proposals. Government Contract Services, Inc. is a full service consulting firm that can take a company’s government sales to the next level. Interested in learning about how we can help your company? Send us an email, info@govconsvcs.com

Government Marketplace- How well do you know it?

Most businesses that we talk to on a regular basis about their government sales have some kind of idea of the agencies that they want to sell their products/services to and what other companies will be going after the same opportunities. However, when we ask them where they came up with that information it is mostly based on their commercial business. While this is a great start there is a lot of information available that is specific to the government market.

So, what type of information should you be looking at? To start you want to have an idea of the following:

·         What agencies are really spending the most on your products/services

o   Who in those agencies are purchasing it

o   Does that agency have anything forecasted in your industry

o   How are they purchasing it i.e. GSA Schedule, Sole Source, etc.

o   What type of set asides do they purchase from

·         Who are the contractors that are being awarded the most contracts

o   Who are their largest buyers

o   Do they have any set asides

o   Do they hold any contracting vehicles i.e. GSA Schedule, Blanket Purchase Agreement, etc.

Being able to answer the above listed questions will give you a good idea of what agencies you should be targeting (along with why, how and when) and who you will most likely be competing with when going after those agencies opportunities.

There are a few sites that we would recommend visiting to start gathering this information:

·         https://www.fpds.gov/fpdsng_cms/index.php/en/

·         https://www.fbo.gov/

·         http://www.gsaelibrary.gsa.gov/ElibMain/home.do

And if you have any questions or want a point in the right direction you can take advantage of our free market research report to get started. Just schedule an appointment: http://government-contract-services.reservio.com/

Reorganization and Goals at the GSA

The General Services Administration has spent the last couple years reorganizing both contracts and personnel with a large goal in mind. Create a simple and intuitive way for government agencies to spend the hundreds of billions of dollars they spend each year while making the smartest decisions. Leading the way the consolidated contract known as the Professional Services Schedule (PSS).
The goal of “PSS” is to simplify complex contract requirements. That’s really all it is. There’s no reason for all the professional services to be separated out when so many of them are interconnected and any different ones are needed to complete a single requirement.

On the personnel side, senior procurement executives are receiving more training and are focusing on how agencies are spending and knowing how best to help them. There’s more analytical work going on than ever before. The GSA seems to be catching on to big data and how that can help agencies purchases the best products and services while making sure they stay within budget.

That focus on simplification and efficiency seems to circle around bigger and better digital tools, for everyone involved; buyers, contractors, and contracting officers alike. On the contracting officer side, the GSA is looking to provide tools for information sharing between COs.

Looks like the GSA is moving, rather slowly, but moving into the digital age, although it’s a process with hurdles of its own. Data protection and fear of hacking has lead the CIO Council to issue a BPA for data breach services. They understand the need for instant in help in the case of data hacking.

So there it is. Slowly but sure the GSA is trying to modernize and protect itself while they do it. Only time will tell if works.

Cloud computing and the GSA

Among the constant changes at the General Services Administration, one that has come in slightly under the radar is the release of a new special item number under schedule 70.
The recently released “Cloud” special item number is created to streamline the purchase of all cloud services through a single SIN. This small change with shorten time for procurement and will clear any confusion on whether the GSA is looking for a cloud-based or premise-based solutions.
SIN 132-40 includes commercially available cloud computing services but the most exciting part for contractors is the inclusion of Infrastructure as a Services (IaaS), Platform as a Services (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). While SaaS has been growing commercial as the best way to deliver the newest and best software, the GSA has been lagging in adapting of this delivery and service option. With the ability to purchase SaaS clearly as that, the GSA will be moving forward with technology updates!

If you’re interested in seeing whether your software falls within the Cloud Computing umbrella, take a look at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) “Definition of Cloud Computing”. http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf.
There’s also a great checklist that you can use to make sure that your offerings fit. NIST has created this for contractors to avoid confusion.
 http://www.gsa.gov/portal/mediaId/227403/fileName/Response_Template_and_Checklist_for_Cloud_SIN_05202015.action (It’s on Page Two!)

For contractors looking to add this SIN to their GSA offerings, make sure that you include the corresponding NAICS code (518210 data processing, hosting, and related services) on your SAM. Always make sure that you are compliant.

This small change to schedule 70 does mark the GSA moving forward, technology wise. More and more companies are offering their products and services in a cloud computing model which benefits the buyer and seller equal.

Just like submitting any modification, adding SIN 132-40 requires some paperwork. Make sure you read through the solicitation document and follow the instructions closely. And check out the GSA’s page on the Cloud Special Item Number Project- http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/199547.
 

00CORP- you don’t have to start over!

Your company has been working diligently, collecting paperwork and filling out documents for months now, all to submit a proposal against one of GSA’s service schedules. Countless hours have been spent and lots of confusion understanding government documents has happened. But you’ve figured it out, worked with the system and are almost ready to submit.

Then you heard the news: the services schedules are no longer accepting solicitations against them! All that work for nothing. Not so fast…

The recent refresh to the solicitation for services contracts had the following blurb: “New offers for GSA Schedules 520 (FABS), 541 (AIMS), 738II (Language), 871 (PES), 874 (MOBIS), 874V (Logistics), and 899 (Environmental) are no longer being solicited or accepted.” If you read on, the solicitation directs all potential applicants to 00CORP.

So all that hard work later you think, “Great.. Now I have to start over with a new solicitation?!”

Not quite.

00CORP does have some of its own extra requirements, but a lot of the work that you’ve done is still valid! The special item numbers you’ve selected still apply and the narratives that you’ve worked so hard to craft still work. But here are some quick tips in case 00CORP has your company stressed out!

Tip 1: make sure you transfer all your info to the templates for the 00CORP Solicitation. The headers are correct on the documents found at this link- https://goo.gl/9kCqkM

Tip 2: The special items that you selected are still correct. Just add a “c” in front of them to signify consolidated

Tip 3: The summary of offer document for 00CORP is very different than the services one was. Make sure you read through it carefully and provide all the necessary information!

Professional Services Schedule

Our industry has been hearing about the elusive Professional Services Schedule for years. Well after countless push backs and mysteries it is finally here.

Although the time has come and gone for submitting your migration request of June 1st, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. This is what we know:

• If you have more than one of the following schedules then you should have submitted your migration request: 520, 871, 874, 874 V, 738 II, or 899.
• Once the migration is complete you will have 1 GSA Contract with a brand new Contract number and term. Which means that you will only have to worry about the $25,000 minimum sales requirement for one Schedule. 
• The GSA has promised that all migrations that were submitted by the June 1st deadline will be completed before October 1st.
• If you did not submit your migration request by June 1st you need to contact your contracting officer and explain your situation ASAP!
• GSA has stated that contractors who have not done so are not guaranteed migration by Oct 1st and after Oct 1st they will be canceling one of those contractors multiple schedule. Of which you have no choice and it will be done at random.
• For new contractors going under any of those schedule you will directed to submit a 00 Corp.
• However, you will be at the back of the line waiting for the GSA to complete all of the migrations first. 

For as long as the GSA has been discussing this we know very little. We do not have any inkling how the GSA will handle those contractors who only have 1 of the included schedules.

For the time being, if you have not submitted your migration please please please contact your contracting officer. If the GSA decides to enlighten us with additional information the GCS team will be sure to share it. 

Professional Services Schedule

The GSA is continuing to consolidate and streamline the different acquisition channels available to government purchasers. The major push in this effort is to consolidate professional services into a single “Professional Services Schedule” (PSS). The ever increasing number of vendors on the multiple professional services schedules has led to the movement for consolidation.

The following schedules are in the process of migration:

·         Consolidated (00CORP)

·         MOBIS (874)

·         PES (871)

·         FABS (520)

·         AIMS (541)

·         LOGWORLD (874V)

·         Environmental (899)

·         Language (738 II)

Contractors that belong to these schedules and provide professional services have been receiving letters, requesting they begin the migration process. Contractors should have received migration notices by the end of December. The process for migration consists of submitting a modification against the current contract and providing required documentation, similar to submitting the original offer. Everything will be reviewed and your contract will be migrated.

This change will provide easy ways to purchase as well as easing the burden on contractors with multiple services schedules, which are all maintained and audited separately. Contract administration resources within companies will now only have to manage a single contacting vehicle. For the purpose of reporting sales, conducting Contractor Assistance Visits, and managing eBuy solicitations, PSS will be a huge change on contract admin resources for the better.

In terms of providing services, GSA solicitation will be able to post solicitation against PSS that span more than one professional service and gain monetary benefit from single responses to multi-discipline requests. 

Information Technology and Human Resources contractors need not worry just yet- SIN 132 51 for IT and 595-21 for HR aren’t being migrated. Your schedules are staying just the way they are.