Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Industry fears new telecom contract on path to repeat past transition delays

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Agencies have just under two years to move to the new governmentwide telecommunications contract called Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions.

While this may seem like a lot of time, vendors and other industry experts are warning the General Services Administration that the current 11-year-old Networx contract may need to be extended.

Crystal Philcox, GSA’s deputy assistant commissioner for IT Category in the Federal Acquisition Service, said GSA is confident that agencies will have time to transition to EIS and modernize their IT infrastructures at the same time.

“What’s not on the table right now is just extending current contracts, extending legacy capabilities and not modernizing, and then asking for an extension. I think that’s something we are not interested in,” Philcox said in an exclusive interview with Federal News Radio. “We are continuing to really listen to agencies and we have a lot of venues to do that. We have been working with them, talking with them, listening closely and I think for those agencies that are really trying to rethink, trying to modernize and move off those legacy systems, we are interested in hearing how much time that will take and what we can do to help with that.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/contractsawards/2018/06/industry-fears-new-telecom-contract-on-path-to-repeat-past-transition-delays/

White House unveils latest plan to fix government technology

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The White House has announced its first IT modernization center of excellence that will combine top federal talent with industry partners to bring the government’s old, outdated systems to the modern day.

The Agriculture Department will serve as the test-bed with the goal of creating “the most effective, efficient, customer-focused department in all the federal government,” said Stephen Censky, the department’s deputy secretary.

“Our ultimate goal is to enable the department to transition into a customer-focused organization,” said Censky, speaking at an industry day event held on White House grounds. “The opportunity for IT to add value across the USDA is significant.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2017/12/white-house-unveils-it-modernization-center-excellence/144572/

GSA may make industry participation in data reporting pilot optional

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The General Services Administration (GSA) is considering whether to remove a mandate requiring industry partners seeking or renewing a schedule to participate in its Transactional Data Reporting pilot.

Kevin Youel Page, deputy commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said Thursday voluntary participation in the 3-year pilot—which stemmed from a GSA-published rule last June—has been higher than expected, leaving officials to consider whether mandating participation was necessary.

Industry participants in the pilot provide sales information about their products and services to GSA. In turn, GSA relieves those participants of requirements many in industry dislike: the price reduction clause and commercial sales disclosures. GSA wants to use that data to improve the value agency customers get in purchasing billions of dollars worth of products and services sold through the Multiple Award Schedules.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/big-data/2017/04/gsa-may-make-industry-participation-data-reporting-pilot-optional/136796

GSA aims to refresh Schedules in April

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The Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) is moving to launch a “refresh” of its Multiple Awards Schedule next month, applying recent rules changes to its largest buying program.

On a March 22 conference call, General Services Administration’s FAS officials said the refresh could roll out in the middle of April and would include:

  • Purchasing by Non-Federal Entities from Federal Supply Schedules
  • Small Business Subcontracting changes
  • Model Subcontracting Plan changes
  • Order level changes

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/articles/fas-aims-to-refresh-multiple-award-schedules-in-april

GSA launches phase two of ‘Making It Easier’

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The General Services Agency launched the Making It Easier initiative in April to help government improve the way it buys good and services, and after a series of successful programs, the agency is ready for phase two.

making-it-easierLaunched on Oct. 24th, the next phase adds a slew of new efforts for both the contracting community and federal agencies. They include new quick-start guides designed to get prepare prospective contractors as they seek business across GSA’s many acquisition vehicles; a Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Modification Improvement process designed to streamline changes in schedule solicitations; and restructured help desks that will give customers a single point of entry.

In addition, GSA planned to release a report describing the full scope of the “Making It Easier” initiative, its impact on stakeholders and prospects for fiscal 2017.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/technology-news/2016/10/gsa-launches-phase-2-making-it-easier/132572

GSA’s new contract with Dun & Bradstreet draws mixed reaction

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GSA logoLast week’s announcement that the General Services Administration had updated its Dun & Bradstreet contract will allow agency acquisition personnel and contractors wider latitude to use the standardized company information for purposes beyond mere identification.

But some transparency advocates consider the step insufficient.

In a Sept. 29 blog post, Kevin Youel Page, deputy commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, announced changes in the proprietary system for business identifiers in its Integrated Award Environment tracking system that are a “huge step forward in the goal to make data more accessible and readily available across government.”

This new way to record contracts and grants using the Dun & Bradstreet system is in keeping, he said, with GSA’s role in helping agencies implement the open data and standardization requirements of the 2014 Digital Accountability and Transparency Act. The D&B data are proprietary, which means they cannot be downloaded by the public unless the company grants the user a license.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/management/2016/10/gsas-new-contract-dun-bradstreet-draws-mixed-reaction/132205

GSA answers vendors concerns about transactional data rule

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GSA Schedule ContractThe General Services Administration (GSA) is trying to bring some light to a new acquisition requirement that has industry on edge.

Under the transactional data reporting rule, GSA is accepting volunteers from the contracting community to take part in a one-to-two year pilot to submit sales information back to the agency in exchange for relief of the price reduction clause and the commercial sales disclosures — two requirements vendors have long haexted.

Kevin Youel Page, the deputy commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA, said the agency is trying to be more transparent about the Transactional Data Reporting initiative and respond to industry concerns, including more than 60 questions from the Coalition for Government Procurement.

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/acquisition-policy/2016/09/gsa-answers-vendors-concerns-transactional-data-rule/

GSA seeks input from Schedule-holders on contract modification process

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GSA logoThe U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is asking for feedback from GSA Schedule contractors on the contract modification process.

GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) will use the industry input it receives to improve the GSA Multiple Award Schedules’ (MAS) modification process.

GSA explained that its industry outreach is part of its recently-launched Making it Easier Initiative which includes “improving the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) modification process in order to make it easier for you, our MAS industry partners, to do business with the government.  We’ve heard your concerns, and want to make sure that your feedback on how to enhance the process is captured and taken into account.”

GSA Schedule contractors can provide comments by responding to the survey questionnaire at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1i0RX9FmMz56I1OY73k5VaxONDX7yiqQVHlVKlPV1kGw/viewform.

GSA to test pre-competed IT products through AdvantageSelect portal

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The General Services Administration (GSA) has announced its plans to test two types of pre-competed information technology products through the GSA AdvantageSelect online portal.

Erville Koehler, regional commissioner for the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA, wrote in a blog post published last Wednesday that GSA AdvantageSelect is a category management-based tool designed to help contracting officials place orders for IT products without the need to undergo competition.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.executivegov.com/2015/08/erville-koehler-gsa-to-test-pre-competed-it-products-through-advantageselect-portal/

As GSA’s FAS struggles to reinvent itself, contractors suffer

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The last year has been a tough one for the General Services Administration’s Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) program.  The Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) – the GSA agency charged with administering the MAS program – has struggled to re-invent itself and its contracting vehicles in order to ensure they both stay relevant in an increasingly competitive federal marketplace.  The byproduct of this struggle has been mostly negative for Schedule vendors.

GSA Schedule ContractIn an effort to demonstrate the value its contracts bring to federal customers, FAS has pursued an unrelenting crusade aimed at reducing prices at all costs.  It is no longer enough for a vendor to give the Government a great deal vis-à-vis its commercial customers (a determination historically made through a “vertical pricing” analysis).  Now vendors also must charge less than their competitors – a determination made through a “horizontal pricing” analysis.  While FAS contracting officers are supposed to consider factors that may explain a price differential as part of their price evaluation, in practice, COs pay little heed to such “trifles.”  The concept of value rarely enters into the equation any more.

Time and again, vendors are told to lower prices or remove products from their Schedule because another vendor offers the same product at a lower price.  So what that the other vendor offers no customer service, no phone support, no warranty, and is run by two guys out of a garage in Glenwood.  Price is king, and that’s all FAS seems to care about nowadays.  (We mean no disrespect to the good people of Glenwood by the way.  We just couldn’t resist the alliteration.)

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=417332

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