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. 

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! 

Data Center Optimization Initiative

GSA has recently announced that they will serve as a managing partner for The Office of Management and Budget’s Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI). This particular initiative requires federal agencies to “develop and report on data center strategies to consolidate infrastructure, improve existing facilities, achieve cost savings, and transition to more efficient infrastructure, such as cloud and shared services”.

After the approval of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act in 2014, DCOI became the pillar of promoting Green IT and reducing energy consumption in data centers. Data Center consolidation and optimization is the overarching goal.

As a leader and early adopter of IT products, GSA’s inclusion and management of DCOI makes perfect sense. To achieve cost savings on the procurement side of things, GSA’s initiative to “make it easier” for newer IT companies to become GSA contractors plays directly in, increasing cost savings and early adoption for other agencies.

Boiling it down to the simplest terms combining GSA’s “Making it Easier” initiative with DCOI creates costs savings for the government on both sides, procurement and then usage. As budgets are cut and the government becomes more and more frugal with spending, costs savings are being searched for everywhere and sacrifices in quality of product are not accepted by government workers. The partnership between GSA and DCOI should ensure that quality standards are kept high and organized buying power brings prices down. 

Consulting Firm Debarred by GSA

If you have done business with the Government long enough you have heard about companies getting debarred, or black listed, from doing business with the government. A Florida-based consulting firm, Federal Verification Co,, Inc., was the latest to get this exclusion from the General Services Administration (GSA).

In the past they have done business under at least 60 different names including GSA Applications, GSA Processors, and GSA Specialists, to name a few. Many complaints have been filed with the Florida Attorney General, more than one coming from some of our current clients who were unfortunately taken by the Florida Company.

The GSA cited the following as their reasoning for the indefinite exclusion:
"Preliminary ineligible based upon adequate evidence of conduct indicating a lack of business honesty or integrity, or a lack of business integrity, or regulation, statute, executive order or other legal authority, pending completion of an investigation and/or legal proceedings; or based upon initiation of proceedings to determine final ineligibility based upon regulation, statute, executive order or other legal authority or a lack of business integrity or a preponderance of the evidence of any other cause of a serious and compelling nature that it affects present responsibility."You can view the exclusion in it's entirety via SAM.

If you have been notified or believe you will be notified to remove their names from your GSA Contract give us a call and we will complete the modification on your behalf with no cost to you. Give us a call at 234-212-3400 and schedule a free consultation.

Also, we recommend taking a look at the training that the GSA offers: GSA Training

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.  

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

Is “Lowest Price, Technically Acceptable” really the best way?

The government has embraced the idea of “Lowest Price, Technically Acceptable” (LPTA) for procurement. The idea behind the phrase is simply this; when the government procures whatever it may need, they will look at the lowest price first and then continue to work their way up the price ladder until a technically acceptable option is achieved. Theoretically, this gives the government the lowest possible price for the best level of quality for products or services that they need.

According to Deltek, between fiscal year 2009-2014 the use of LPTA for purchasing grew 55% in civilian agencies and 24% within the DoD, so we know that the government is utilizing this option more and more. What kind of pressure does that put on vendors’ bottom line who are constantly competing for the government business? For example, if a service company is bidding on and wins a LPTA bid, the first cuts they typically make to meet their bidding price are salaries and benefits for those working on the project. With service companies’ margins getting tighter and tighter, some are deciding to exit the federal market altogether.

However, LPTA might potentially be on its way out as the main purchasing format due to the extra cost of restructuring contracts if services are not up to par at the low price that was accepted. Those kinds of changes cost the US government time and money, making it more frugal to start off with a slightly higher price in exchange for much better quality and technical acceptability.

It’s also important to note that total federal dollars spent on contracting is actually dropping. In 2008, total contracts awarded was at $541.3 billion, falling to $445.4 billion in fiscal 2014 and ending up (year to date FY 2015, which ends on October 1) at only $329 billion (USAspending.gov). Unfortunately, these figures don’t tell whether the government is really buying everything cheaper utilizing LPTA or just buying less.

In both products and services areas, contractors coming up against LPTA should focus on their technical acceptability and quality as factor number one of proposals. Your technical capabilities are what make your company unique and what really make you stand out. Once the government reaches the “Technically acceptable level, they will look for the highest return at that price point. Also, doing pricing research on your main government competitors and seeing where your pricing falls is quite important. Putting those two pieces of information together will put you on the path to conquering the LPTA proposal with success.

Government Cyber-Safety at Risk

The government seems to be consistently behind the curve of Information Technology purchasing. Is that because they are slow to adopt or do they have other difficulties in acquiring the newest and the best?

Being so far behind the curve of IT purchasing not only wastes taxpayers money, it also leaves the government extremely vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Earlier this year, millions of current and former federal workers’ data was stolen from the Office of Personnel Management. Prior to that attack, security clearance information was stolen from the same office. Software used by the government, sometimes even including infrastructure, is not able to repel determined cyber-attacks and hacks.

All these problems result from the government’s old and difficult ways of purchasing. The best and brightest of the information technology world, centered in Silicon Valley, are not open to working with the government due to purchasing methods that are old and outdated. Some government agencies will not even consider purchasing a product that has not been on the market for at least 2 years. With how quickly technology moves, this leaves the government vulnerable and open to attack.

Around June of 2015, the United States Navy signed a $9 million dollar contract to continue providing security patches for the Windows XP operating system, which had an original release date of October of 2001. Microsoft stopped support for the system in April 2014, but the US government is paying $9 million dollars to continue the support of the system. Reason being? The latest operating system, which is more secure for the government to use, has not been on the market long enough, according to government procurement rules, to be considered.

Looking forward, The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2016 is being debated in Congress at this time and within it are acquisition reform provisions; including  some procurement rules that could potential be repealed. At the top of that list is easing restrictions on Information Technology Purchases, which will entice startups and the “best and brightest” of Silicon Valley to help the government upgrade to better and, more importantly, safer hardware and software.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/us/office-of-personnel-management-hackers-got-data-of-millions.html?_r=0

https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1735?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22%5C%22hr1735%5C%22%22%5D%7D&resultIndex=1

http://fortune.com/2015/06/24/navy-microsoft-windows-xp/

Latest on the GSA and cyber assurance-

The General Services Administration has been working on several changes due to the latest increase in cyber security issues. The first being a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) and the second being yet another addition to the Schedule 70 service offering.

The GSA is awarding a BPA for credit monitoring and identity protections services to address future issues, coming after the hack of The Office of Personnel Management’s security clearance database.

To also assist with future issues the GSA has release an RFI to determine if adding a SIN (Special Item Number) to Schedule 70 would be advantageous. It would cover hardware, software and services that fall under cyber assurance, virus detection, intrusion detection and network management.

You can take a look at the RFI that is currently on FedBizOpps here: https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=68e1e8b5cc17539fc9d4d8ee53189344

Responses to the RFI are currently due September 11, 2015 at 4PM EST.

If you need assistance with responding to the RFI or just have questions in general feel free to give us a call at 216-662-7044. 

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/