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! 

Economic Price Adjustment: 552.216-70

In June of this year, Clause 552.216-70 was changed, which may cause some headaches for GSA contractors. All economic price adjustments (EPAs) in Schedule contracts are made in accordance with clause I-FSS-969 or clause 552.216-70, depending on which clause you chose when you applied for your contract. In the past, the percentage of Economic Price Adjustment was set at a 10% increase every 12 months. As of June, this ceiling has been lowered to 4%. But what does that mean for contractors that need to increase pricing?

First, the maximum increase per 12 months has now been severely limited from what was allowed in the past. Contracting officers like to say that Contractors may ask for 4% but based on competitive research that does not mean that 4% will be granted. When increasing pricing, the most important thing is to do your research. If you are a service-based Labor Category company, take a look at the Contract-Awarded Labor Category (CALC) tool to help you determine whether your pricing falls within competitive range. CALC will allow you to narrow down your LCATs by schedule and experience levels to see at what prices other Contractors are actually winning work with similar LCATs. If you are a product based company, your best bet will eventually be the roll out of the Formatted Product Tool to your schedule. To learn more about the Formatted Product Tool, Click HERE.

The change to a 4% EPA increase under clause 552.216-70 puts pricing increase more in line with clause I-FSS-969 for escalation rates. Although the clause does not contain language specifying what the maximum allowed escalation rate is, standard practice has uncovered that more than 2.5% escalation per year isn’t being awarded at this time.

Overall, Contractors should be aware that they won’t be able to increase pricing as much year to year anymore and those of you applying for new schedules with LCATS should consider going with clause I-FSS-969 over clause 552.216-70 simply because the numbers are now so close and the escalation clause requires less work to increase (since its automatic). 

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.