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. 

Refreshes

 So fresh and so clean, clean!

Usually a few times during the fiscal year the GSA schedules go through a “refresh.” The GSA reviews the current solicitation documents for a schedule to see if there are any new requirements, language, and/or updates that need to be added to the schedule. If you have an outstanding offer you will receive an automatic email from eOffer notifying you of the schedule refresh.

It is important to check the solicitations documents through eLibrary before submitting to ensure your offer is at the most recent refresh. If not, the offer will be rejected on spot.  

In the past the refreshes have happened during the first and third quarter of the government’s fiscal year. Within the last year one of the biggest changes from a refresh was for Schedule 84. 84 used to be known as the schedule with no invoices, but with the most recent refresh, invoices are now required like all other schedules.

While working on your GSA Schedule remember to check eLibrary to ensure you are submitting under the must current solicitation.

GSA Offer Best Practices, Volume 4

Working with the Government should be a piece of cake, right? Wrong! It takes a great deal of time and dedication to sell to the Government. To become a premier contractor under the GSA Schedule, you have to know what the “sticking points” are when dealing with Government representatives.

·         Turnaround Times: These are extremely important. Missing a deadline by one minute could mean getting your offer rejected by the GSA – or worse, losing a bid! The Contracting Officers are not going to wait until you decide to give them the information they’ve requested. You must live by their deadlines!

·         Read and Research: Yes, Contracting Officers are there to assist you – but do them a favor and do your own homework. You are responsible for reading the requirements of the Schedule and filling out the documentation properly. They will help, but they will not do it for you! Don’t waste their time, because they can sense when a contractor is going to be difficult to work with. You should be trying to make things easier for them. They talk, and word of mouth goes a long way.

·         Your Tone: Be mindful of the way you speak to Contracting Officers. Being overly pushy isn’t the way to handle things. There is a fine balance between asking for updates and demanding that they move the process along. The latter isn’t going to get you anywhere.

·         Straight Answers: Don’t beat around the bush. If you try to hide or disguise business practices, it only makes more work for you in the long run. It could even mean fines and penalties! Be open and honest about your company and how it operates. The Contracting Officers will appreciate your integrity and respond positively.

If you want to be really successful in the Government marketplace, make it a priority to understand how the GSA works and how your Contracting Officers operate. Just like any other customer they want to be respected. Become an organization that thrives on learning the ropes of Government contracting. It takes time, energy, and resources. You can’t cut corners here!

Steph Gowin

General Manager

Government Contract Services, Inc.

Highland Canine Training, LLC Awarded GSA Schedule 84

Harmony, NC – Highland Canine Training, LLC, a leader in working dog sales and training for Law Enforcement, Military and Government Agencies is proud to announce that it has been added by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to the approved vendor list as a provider of working dogs and canine educational programs.  This allows government purchasing agents to now place orders directly through Highland Canine Training, LLC. Highland Canine Training achieved this momentous goal with help from the expert GSA team at Government Contract Services and are looking forward to a continued partnership. 

Highland Canine Training, LLC can be found under contract number GS-07F-231BA where it is listed as pre-qualified to provide federal agencies with explosive detection dogs, patrol dogs, drug dogs and educational training courses. Highland Canine Training, LLC is classified in schedule 84, TOTAL SOLUTIONS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT, SECURITY, FACILITIES MANAGEMENT, FIRE, RESCUE, CLOTHING, MARINE CRAFT AND EMERGENCY/DISASTER RESPONSE, and special item number (SIN) 426-2A, Canine Training and Handling Equipment, Canine Search and Detection. The approved products can also be purchased by state and local governments as part of disaster recovery and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) purchases.

The schedule assignment allows Highland Canine Training, LLC to provide quality working dogs to federal agencies who want to employ and utilize highly trained working dogs. Highland Canine Training, LLC also offers first class canine education programs at our School for Dog Trainers, including a Police K9 Instructor / Trainer Course as well as a Detection Dog Trainer Course.  Highland Canine Training, LLC  offers training and educational programs on location through their series of comprehensive working dog seminars.

In order to further promote our recently awarded GSA Schedule, the company will attend the 2014 Police & Military Working Dog Conference & Vendor Show in Nashville, Tennessee, July 13-15. Highland Canine Training, LLC representatives will be onsite to demonstrate our working dog capabilities and answer questions about working dogs and training programs. Attendees who visit Highland Canine Training, LLC in booth #32 will have the opportunity to win an equipment bundle worth over $200.

“We're excited about the opportunity to work with federal agencies and providing working dog and training programs to meet their needs,” said Jason Purgason, Highland Canine Training, LLC, Training Director. “We strive to make an impression on government buyers with the quality of our dogs and comprehensive training programs as well as our commitment to customer service"

For more information, please contract Jason Purgason at (704) 498-7907 or training@highlandcanine.com. 

Highland Canine Training, LLC will exhibit at the 2014 Police & Military Working Dog Conference & Vendor Show to meet with federal agency customers and showcase working dogs and training opportunities.

GSA Offer Best Practices, Volume 3

Let’s talk Government. They’re in a league of their own, right? It’s true! They have their own way of organizing things, classifying things, and interpreting things. To sell to the Government you have to understand how they operate. It’s very different from dealing with other commercial entities.

Now, let’s relate this to GSA Schedules. To make your offer successful you have to know what Schedule and Special Item Numbers are applicable to your business. The “scope” of your products and services is one of the most important things the GSA will look into when you submit your offer. If the offer is out of scope you’ll be rejected right away – they won’t even look at the rest of the content. Do yourself a favor and look into all the potential Schedules your business may fall under. Then select which one is the best fit.

Here’s an example. You offer instructor led-training and your courses are designed to teach the average employee how to engineer and operate a Smart Building System. You have a few options here:

1. Instructor Led Training (Schedule 874)
2. Engineering and Integration (Schedule 871)
3. Smart Building Operations (Schedule 03 FAC)

We will start by breaking down each schedule and seeing what the services really entail. Instructor Led Training doesn’t include any training that can be offered under the scope of any other Schedule. So, if there is training available under other Schedules that is more relevant to what you’re actually teaching – then you can’t use Schedule 874. Schedule 871 doesn’t quite fit because you’re not really doing the engineering work, just training on that. Schedule 03 FAC allows for training in direct relation to what you’re teaching. Schedule 03 FAC it is!

As a reminder – don’t just take the descriptions of the Schedules at face value. Look at your competitors and research what they’re offering under Schedule. Don’t have specific competitors to look for? Performing market research on the different vendors awarded under each Schedule will benefit you tremendously.

When in doubt – give me a call!

Stephanie Gowin

Whats Next? Steps to maximize your GSA Schedule

Making sure that you are maximizing the use of your GSA contract isn’t always the easiest thing. There’s so much work that comes with maintaining a healthy GSA Schedule that we all sometimes need a review of what we should be doing. We want every contractor to be getting the best Return on Investment for their schedule; you put in the work and hours to get a contract and you need to put in the hours to maintain it as well.

Hop on to you Youtube and take a look at our most recent webinar about maximizing your GSA schedule contract. We discuss everything that companies need to do to make sure that their GSA schedule, whatever industry they might be in, stays healthy and profitable. Here’s a couple of topics covered in this webinar:

·         Contract administration- are you on top of all your reporting to government? Is your contract up to date with the latest pricing and point of contact information?

·         Opportunities- are you searching in the right places for the right opportunities? Are you proposals up to par with you competition?

·         Teaming- are you taking advantage of opportunities to work with other companies who can create more diversity in the type of work your company can do?

·         Research- do you know what’s happening in your industry in the government sector? Are sales stagnant, increasing or decreasing? What’s your competition doing?

Those are just a few focus points that every company needs to consider when it comes to making your GSA schedule a success. Hitting the required target sales goal isn’t always the easiest thing for smaller companies however making sure your focusing your energy on the right points for your business can ensure success!

And if you aren’t hitting all those points, don’t worry- not all of them are relevant to every company or industry. Some strategies work for everyone and some are only for particular companies and industries.  However, if you think that you are at risk for losing your contract due to low sales, not reporting sales, or some other contract problem, let us help! Let’s untangle any problem that you might have and get your GSA schedule back on track. 

As always, get in touch with us about any questions that you may have about your GSA schedule! Let’s see if can increase you bottom line and make GSA even more profitable for your company

Webinar Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvcD7axOoHI&feature=youtu.be

GP&E Consulting Group Awarded MOBIS Schedule!

A very special congratulations to GP&E Consulting Group on their MOBIS Schedule GSA Contract!  Normally a MOBIS contract can be a little tough to earn but thanks to GP&E’s thorough offer and strong Letter of Expedite GP&E was awarded in under three months. GP&E is looking forward to further their involvement with the Department of Defense as well as become involved with the Department of Health & Human Services, Department of Air Force, and the NSA.

GP&E is located in Hampton, Virginia and is a Woman Owned Small Business, SBA Small Disadvantaged Business, as well as SBA 8(a)-certificated graduate. GP&E provides IA/IT Security Consulting, Staffing, Training, and Project Management to their clients by providing experienced, customer-focused professionals to meet the outsourcing, consulting, and staffing needs.

It has been a true pleasure working with GP&E Consulting Group and GCS is very excited to see what the future holds for their GSA contract. Please, feel free to visit their website!
www.gpeconsultinggroup.com

-Kelsey Dixon 

GSA Offer Best Practices, Volume 1

Understanding the daunting regulations and written requirements of composing a GSA offer can be hard enough. What’s worse is there’s no consistency in the GSA’s review process. Try as they may to create an efficient approach to reviewing an offer, the GSA has actually done the opposite. 

Once submitted, your offer is assigned to a Contracting Officer for a detailed review. Among other things, they look into:

·         -Company history

·         -Technical experience

·         -Pricing structure

·         -Financial background

Every Contracting Officer has their own approach for the review. This makes it difficult for people like you to recognize the difference between the requirements and the Contracting Officer’s preference. As a vendor, you can do your part to streamline the offer process.

Submitting a clean offer can make a huge impact on your review timeline. Ensuring the documents you submit are formatted and named properly is a great place to start. The Contracting Officers won’t spend much time trying to figure out your documents – so do them a favor and clarify! Title every document and name the files accordingly.

Another way to streamline the GSA’s review is to keep it simple. Don’t give them too much information! You’re only causing yourself more headaches in the long run. The GSA wants to see that you know how to read. Keep the offer to what’s requested and nothing more.

Most importantly, make sure that you know the regulations of the offer prior to submitting. The GSA will ask you questions. They’ll expect prompt and detailed responses. Give them what they want and you’re on track to the GSA Contract number. 

Look for Volume 2 in March!

-Stephanie Gowin

For more information on GSA Schedule or assistance with your offer give us a call. 216-662-7044

Can you speak Government?

In the world of government procurement, if you don’t know the language, you’re out of the loop! Almost everything has an acronym and an abbreviation which are very important to doing business with the government. Here you’ll find a small selection of important acronyms and abbreviations.

GSA- General Services Administration; the GSA oversees and assists with all GSA schedule procurement as well as issuing the schedule contracts.

VSC- Vendor Support Center; the VSC can help contractors with just about any contract related problems. Anything from difficult SIP uploads to questions about modifications.

RFQ- Request for Quotation; this the paperwork put out by the buyer that provides information to the contractor on what the requirements of a bid are.

SIN- Special Item Number; each schedule has a list of SINs that are listed under it. They are nothing more than subcategories of a main large category.

IFF- Industrial Funding Fee; for everything a contractor sells on the GSA schedule, the IFF of .75% is added to the price to cover the cost of GSA doing their job.

FAR- Federal Acquisition Regulation; the law of land for government procurement.

SAM- System for Award Management; to do any work with the government, whether on GSA or not, contractors must be registered in this online system.

FAS- Federal Acquisition Service; as part of the GSA, the FAS has 8 program areas that assist in all parts of acquisition processes, across all types of products and services.

TAA- Trade Agreement Act; all products sold on the GSA must come from a TAA compliant country. This means they signed the Trade Agreement Act.

NAICS- North America Industry Classification System; NAICS codes help you categorize your products and services into an industry standard, making it easier for the government to find our products and services.

Some Popular Acronym Schedules

                LOGWORLD- Logistics Worldwide Schedule 874 V; provides logistics support

MOBIS- Missions Oriented Business Integrated Solutions Schedule 874; provides consulting and training services on all subjects except IT.

PES- Professional Engineering Services Schedule 871; Engineering consulting & prototype assistance. Does not allow for architectural services

TAPS- Temporary Administrative and Professional Staffing Services Schedule 736; admin and basic staffing.

TDRS- Transportation, Delivery, and Relocation Solutions Schedule 48; Air, ground, sea transportation, moving and packing services.