Schedule contract cancellation no big deal, experts say
April 30, 2012 by cs
The General Services Administration’s cancellation of Oracle Inc.’s Schedule 70 IT services contract was simply because the two could not reach an agreement on terms, deciding in the end to go their separate ways, experts say.
A senior GSA official said April 20 that it was not in the government’s best interest to continue to offer Oracle’s IT services though its Schedule. GSA officials would not provide further details.
However, one day earlier a spokeswoman said the cancellation was the result of the company not meeting the terms of the contract.
Experts said they were were not surprised by of GSA’s decision, nor did they say they believed Oracle had done something terrible.
“Since GSA isn’t suggesting suspension or debarment, and because GSA is openly referring to Oracle’s other reseller and partner channels to sell its offerings, actions leading to the cancellation are probably not egregious,” said Ray Bjorklund, vice president and chief knowledge officer at Deltek’s GovWin.
Mary Davie, assistant commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service Office’s of Integrated Technology Services, noted April 20 that agencies could still buy software and software maintenance from Oracle’s resellers that have IT Schedule 70 contracts.
As for directly working with Oracle, Davie said, “It was determined that it was not in the best interest of the government to continue the contract.”
In the meantime, Oracle has yet to comment on GSA’s action.
The cancellation takes effect May 17.
Oracle’s Schedule contract was to run from Oct. 1, 2006, to March 28, 2012. The Schedule was last updated September 30, 2011, Bjorklund said.
“One could infer that GSA and Oracle couldn’t reach agreement on the terms and conditions needed to renew or extend the contract,” he said.
A lot of procurement changes have happened since 2006 that may have arisen between the two. There may have been differences in opinion about Oracle’s interest in its proprietary data rights, payment terms or rules that affect overseas work, Bjorklund said.
In addition, experts said the decision could stem from Oracle’s inability to comply with existing contractual stipulations because the company has changed the way it conducts business since the contract was last modified.
Mark Amtower, partner of Amtower and Company, said major corporations often struggle with GSA’s demands on sales records. Companies the size of Oracle may not be able to provide all of their sales information.
“When a worldwide company like Oracle is required to provide pricing data for every product sold, it is akin to Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill,” he said.
GSA Schedule contracts are under the Price Reduction Clause, which requires the government to get at least the same sale price as any other client.
GSA’s move came several months after Oracle agreed to pay a $200 million fine for its failure to comply with the terms and conditions of its Schedule contract.
“Now, in addition to the fine, Oracle will have to find other ways to sell to federal customers,” Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners, wrote in his weekly ‘The Week Ahead’ newsletter.
Overall, the reaction from experts is that the cancellation won’t be a huge blow to Oracle or its sales.
Schedule 70 is not a preferred vehicle for IT, Amtower said. It has become more or less a default vehicle.
According to Amtower, Oracle’s Schedule contract accounts for less than 7 percent of total government purchases.
Oracle’s sales are coming through other contracts, such as NASA’s Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurements and other Defense Department indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts.
Bjorklund said this latest action is unlikely to dampen any interest in what Oracle offers the government; nor is it any grand-scale initiative on the part of GSA.
“When parties can’t agree, it’s just time to cancel the contract and try to start over again,” he said.
About the Author: Matthew Weigelt is a senior writer covering acquisition and procurement for Federal Computer Week. This article was published on Apr. 23, 2012 at http://washingtontechnology.com/Articles/2012/04/23/reaction-GSA-oracle-cancellation.aspx?s=wtdaily_240412&Page=2.
Schedule 70 chief lays out management goals
March 28, 2012 by cs
Contractors on the General Services Administration’s major Multiple Award IT Schedule 70 should watch for changes.
Kay Ely, director of the Schedule since September, laid out her top management priorities March 15 to make operations run better and more smoothly, according to Allen Federal Business Partners’ The Week Ahead newsletter.
Ely wants to:
- Digitize all contract files.
- Expand the use of electronic contracting for end-to-end contract management.
- Shorten the time it takes modify a contract. This should make the schedule more competitive.
- Make Schedule 70 consistent across its components, so IT contracting officials give their customers and contractors consistent and correct answers.
- Enhance the skills of the IT Schedule’s acquisition workforce.
Ely believes that achieving just some of the goals “would go a long way to restoring the luster of the IT Schedule, and most likely help increase business conducted through it,” according to the report.
– by Matthew Weigelt, Federal Computer Week, Mar 19, 2012 at http://fcw.com/blogs/acquisitive-mind/2012/03/gsa-schedule-70-priorities.aspx.
Government to increase contractor notifications for GSA Schedules
March 26, 2012 by cs
The government will increase the amount of notifications it gives to contractors who hold spots on General Services Administration schedules, the Washington Post reports. (The article appears at http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/government-adds-rule-for-acquisitions/2012/03/08/gIQAYiHeLS_story.html)
As of March 19, 2012, new acquisition rules require agencies to notify companies on a given schedule of all opportunities ranging from $3,000 to $150,000.
Agencies must allow the company to make an offer and contracting officers must consider the offer.
Agencies who follow the schedule but do not notify contractors must receive at least three proposals before awarding a purchase.
If an agency does not receive three proposals, it must give a written justification of why it did not.
Purchases valued at more than $150,000 are covered under these type of acquisition regulations.
– reported by ExecutiveGov, March 19, 2012 at http://www.executivegov.com/2012/03/govt-to-increase-contractor-notifications-for-gsa-schedules/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+execgov+%28Executive+Gov%29.
House passes 6 bills to promote small business contracting
March 9, 2012 by cs
The House Small Business Committee passed six bills on Wednesday (3/7/2012) through a voice vote to promote small business contracting.
The 2012 Government Efficiency through Small Business Contracting Act imposes a quota that agencies must use small businesses for 25 percent of their contracting work.
It also aims to expand the varieties of contracts by using the Small Business Administration’s formula in comparing agency performance against small business goals and endorses increased liability for senior agency officials by withholding bonuses.
The 2012 Small Business Advocate Act gives the Offices of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization more authority.
The act also requires officers within the offices to review and revise agency resolutions and insource work performed by a small business.
The 2012 Subcontracting Transparency and Reliability Act modifies subcontracting provisions that guarantee small businesses will be designated a majority of the work and receive succeeding income.
Restrictions in subcontracting will not be measured by the amount given to the small business or the cost of the whole project.
Decisions must also be made public to give small businesses the chance to challenge resolutions in court.
The 2012 Small Business Opportunity Act encourages small business advocates within federal government to participate in federal procurement and acquisition planning proposal request announcements.
The 2012 Small Business Procurement Act extends an agency’s small business contracting goals to commission orders against multiple contract awards, including those with the General Services Administration’s Federal Supply Schedule Program.
Finally, the 2012 Early Stage Small Business Contracting Act launches an independent project to stimulate contract awards given to early-stage small businesses.
Early-stage small businesses have a maximum of 15 employees and report annual revenue of less than $1 million.
In February the Small Business Administration issued a ruling outlining revenue guidelines for small business consideration.
The ruling increased 37 small businesses standards for 34 industries and three sub-industries.
– by Gino Troiani, published ExecutiveGov on Mar. 8, 2012 at http://www.executivegov.com/2012/03/house-passes-6-bills-to-promote-small-business-contracting-2/.
GSA moves forward with new professional services vehicle
February 29, 2012 by cs
The General Services Administration is moving ahead with a new contract vehicle for buying professional services.
Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) Commissioner Steve Kempf approved the internal business case for the Integrations program earlier this month, according to GSA’s Integrations Blogger’s Blog on the agency’s “Interact” website.
While no dollar value has been attached to the contract’s ceiling, the government spent $79.5 billion on professional services during fiscal 2010, according to GSA data.
Integrations will be a multiple-agency indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract. The Integrations contract is expected to include commercial and non-commercial services, that may include program management and consulting services. GSA is also considering having logistics services, professional engineering services and financial services on the menu. GSA is designing the contract vehicle to address needs for professional services that span several types of services that are often difficult to specify or quantify before making an award. However, the contract will elevate risk as a result, wrote Lisa McGuire, program manager for Integrations.
Mary Davie, assistant FAS commissioner for the Integrated Technology Service, said GSA’s Schedules program offers technology and other professional services on an a la carte basis. But agencies want more.
“Agencies have asked us to provide a total professional services solution, which often requires acquisition of multiple services across separate functional areas,” she wrote Feb. 21 on her Great Government Through Technology blog.
Davie said agencies want flexibility. About half of all government spending on complex integrated professional services in fiscal 2010 took place under cost-type contracts.
“That is why we are planning to include all task-order types in Integrations, including cost reimbursement,” she wrote.
Officials intend to make the acquisition process more flexible for all sorts of contract-type task orders and other direct costs at the task-order level, McGuire wrote.
At this point, the Integrations program team is working on a project schedule.
So far though, officials have said they are developing a customer working group, and, for industry, they plan to post draft documents for feedback as the working group meets. GSA wants to make the acquisition planning process to include input from industry and customers. GSA also has to register the contract vehicle with OMB’s MAX Federal website.
Davie is planning a “Tweet Chat” Feb. 29 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. She wants to interact with customer agencies and industry on a range of topics about Integrations. She will be answering tweets to @GSA_ITS with the hashtag #ITSChat.
About the Author: Matthew Weigelt is a senior writer covering acquisition and procurement for Federal Computer Week. This article appeared Feb. 21, 2012 at http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2012/02/21/gsa-integrations-program.aspx?s=wtdaily_220212.
New rule funnels more contracts to small businesses
November 7, 2011 by cs
Under a proposed new rule, small companies are expected to get more business through multiple-award contractors because that’s where the money has increasingly been going since the mid-1990s.
Regulators have revised the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to match the fluctuation toward task-order contracts, such as governmentwide acquisition contracts, blanket purchase agreements and agencywide contracts. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy has pushed those types of vehicles to streamline purchasing and get lower prices.
Officials released an interim rule Nov. 2 about the FAR revisions. The rule took effect the same day.
The changes make clear that contracting officers can set aside orders for small businesses both on blanket purchase agreements under the General Services Administration’s Multiple Award Schedules and on multiple-award contracts.
The revisions add a new section in the FAR. It authorizes agencies to set aside one or more contracts for small business on a multiple-award contract, including any of the socioeconomic programs, such as the service-disabled, veteran-owned small business program.
Officials are hopeful for what the changes will bring to small businesses. at the Defense Department, GSA, and NASA expect agencies to take advantage of the set-aside revisions. They want agencies to identify possible multiple-award contracts through which they could set- aside orders for small businesses. They also want agencies to set aside more orders when using GSA’s Schedules, according to the notice.
The changes are based on law and an advisory group.
Congress included language in the Small Business Jobs Act, which became law in 2010, addressing set-asides among task and delivery orders.
Also in 2010, an interagency panel, which was created by President Barack Obama to study small-business contracting, found the issue needed some attention since multiple-award contracts have become so popular.
“There has been no attempt to create a comprehensive policy for orders placed under either general task-and-delivery-order contracts or Schedule contracts that rationalizes and appropriately balances the need for efficiency with the need to maximize opportunities for small businesses,” the Task Force on Small Business Contracting wrote in its report.
About the Author: Matthew Weigelt is a senior writer covering acquisition and procurement for Washington Technology. Published Nov. 3, 2011 at http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/11/03/small-business-set-asides-multiple-award-contracts.aspx?s=wtdaily_041111
SBA proposals could make small-biz credit easier to get
October 18, 2011 by cs
The Small Business Administration is considering changes to its rules that would allow an agency spending its money through a task or delivery order to chalk up the awards to its own subcontracting plans, according to a Oct. 5 Federal Register notice.
Agencies could start to get credit toward their annual small-business subcontracting goals for their orders placed against multiple-agency contracts, a perk for agencies as procurement policy officials push strategic sourcing.
Each agency has to set its own annual goal to make sure that various types of small businesses have an opportunity to participate in its contracts.
Currently though, when purchases come through an inter-agency contract, the agency that holds the contract gets the credit. That applies to the General Services Administration Schedules contracts too.
For example, consider an agency that places an order against a governmentwide acquisition contract. Say a large company gets the award and subcontracts some of the work to a small business subcontractor. The agency that hosts the GWAC gets the credit for hiring a small business, not the agency placing the order.
Prime contracts work differently. If an agency awards an order placed on a GWAC directly to a small business, the purchasing agency gets the points.
Agency officials have told SBA they would like to get the small-business subcontracting credit when they’re spending the money. SBA is also considering giving discretion to the contracting officer from the agency that’s placing the order to establish the subcontracting goals related to the individual orders.
Officials also want real-time insight into subcontracting on interagency contracts. Contractor may have to report their subcontracts with small businesses to the host agency’s contracting officer for each order.
Currently, contractors are reporting to the agency twice a year at the most.
“Reporting on an order-by-order basis will allow the funding agency to receive credit towards its small-business subcontracting goals,” SBA writes in its proposal.
SBA is taking input on the proposal through Dec. 5.
In light of SBA’s changes, Dan Gordon, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, has pushed agencies to think beyond their own purchasing and, instead, buy with the government in mind.
Strategic sourcing gives the government leverage over the contractor in setting prices. A greater quantity of potential orders encourages contractors to lower prices.
Office of Management and Budget officials believe agencies want to use more interagency contracts in order to squeeze the most out of their funds and lessen their employees’ workload.
“Particularly in this tight budgetary environment, agencies have told us they are eager for tools that can help them stretch a dollar further and do more with less,” an OMB spokeswoman said Oct. 5.
SBA’s proposed change may make subcontracting goals slightly easier to meet, especially if agencies are turning more toward the interagency contracts, said Ken Dodds, senior attorney at SBA.
He said agencies would find it more difficult to meet subcontracting goals if they didn’t credit.
About the Author: Matthew Weigelt is a senior writer covering acquisition and procurement for Washington Technology. This article appeared Oct. 12, 2011 at http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/10/12/sba-subcontracting-credit-multiple-agency-contracts.aspx?s=wtdaily_141011.
‘Business Breakthrough’ resources now available
October 15, 2011 by cs
The Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC) played host last week to a three-day workshop sponsored by the General Services Administration (GSA). Titled “Business Breakthrough,” the Sept. 27-29, 2011 workshop was designed to assist businesses in the region navigate contracting opportunities and methods with GSA.
GSA oversees the business of the U.S. federal government. GSA’s acquisition solutions supplies federal purchasers with products and services from commercial vendors. GSA also manages all non-military buildings, and oversees the preservation of historic federal properties. Its policies cover travel, property and management practices.
GSA leadership from Washington, DC were on hand at the event as were representatives of GSA’s Region IV office.
A number of resources were made available to GTPAC as a result of hosting the workshop, and we’re happy to share them with you. Links are provided below to all workshop materials:
- Accessing the Federal Marketplace
- Contract Administration and Compliance
- GSAs Culture of Innovation and Sustainability
- Proposal Strategies and SubcontractingTeaming
Resource documents you’ll be interested in accesing are:
- Summary of GSA Rates and Fees_2011
- Small Business Subcontracting Plan
- Sample SSR
- Sample SSR Step by Step
- List of Acronyms
- Internet Links
- GSA3695-MentorProtegeApplication
- GSA Resource Information
- GSA Online Tools
- Financial Stability Worksheet
- FCSAslipsheet
- FAR Table of Contents
- FAR 9.6 Contractor Team Arrangements
- FAR 8.404 and 405
- Energy Services BPA OrderingGuide 3.02.11
- Energy Services BPA FactSheet
- CTA Template
- Commercial Sales Practice format.csp1
IT Schedule 70 to get new director
September 22, 2011 by cs
Kay Ely is coming aboard as the new director of the General Services Administration’s largest Multiple Award Schedule, IT Schedule 70, according to a tweet Sept. 14.
“Two big pieces of news in the @GSA_ITS world—welcoming Kevin Youel-Page as the ITS Deputy AC & Kay Ely as the Director of Schedule 70,” tweeted Mary Davie, assistant commissioner for the Federal Acquisition Service’s Integrated Technology Service at GSA.
Ely starts Sept. 25.
Ely is the chief learning officer at the Office of Personnel Management and had been deputy associate director for contracting for facilities and administrative services there.
Davie chose Kevin Youel Page as her deputy, making the announcement to staff Sept. 13. He too will start Sept. 25.
Schedule 70 is one of GSA’s most lucrative schedules. In 2010, IT Schedule 70 had $16 billion in federal sales.
First quarter sales for fiscal 2011 indicate that 2011 may surpass fiscal 2010′s sales, according to EZGSA, a consulting firm that specializes in GSA Schedules contracts. The IT schedule had $4.7 billion in sales in the first quarter of 2011, and $4.5 billion during the same period in 2010, a 7 percent increase.
Here’s Davie’s announcement.
Colleagues,
It’s a big week in ITS! I’m pleased to announce the selection of Kay Ely as the Director of the IT Schedule 70 Program. Kay is a current Senior Executive at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) where she most recently served as the Chief Learning Officer. She has an extensive background in federal IT acquisition, including both policy and operations, through both private and public sector positions. At OPM, Kay also served as the Deputy Associate Director for Contracting, Facilities and Administrative Services and was the Procurement Executive leading the information technology branch. She served as a Senior Principal at Acquisition Solutions where she led the federal civilian acquisition consulting practice. She also served as the Associate Administrator for Acquisition Implementation at the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and as the Director of Acquisition Resources Services at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Kay’s well-rounded experience in IT acquisition and leadership positions across government give her a unique perspective that will add tremendous value to GSA and to the ITS leadership team. Kay will be joining ITS on September 25.
Mary
– by Matthew Weigelt of Washington Technology on Sept. 15, 2011 at http://washingtontechnology.com/blogs/circuit/2011/09/kay-ely-gsa-opm-schedule-70.aspx?s=wtdaily_190911.