GSA SCHEDULES

Imagine having a long range single contract with the Federal government that could last for 20 years and where Contracting Officers and end users from any Federal agency could order directly from you. Sound great? Well that is what a GSA Schedule is. Referred to also as Multiple Award Schedules or Federal Supply Schedules, these contracting vehicles allow faster order development and less paperwork for Contracting Officers.

General Services Administration is the main purchasing agent for the Federal government. To facilitate this process, they have developed a program that pre-negotiates terms and conditions as well as pricing and discounting. Once awarded, the procurement cycle for Contracting Officers and end users in all government agencies is reduced. In fact, the average lead time from discovery of need to award on the open market, such as FBO, is 268 days. The average lead time to develop a task order against a GSA Schedule is only 15 days. This is of immense value to a procurement official to get paperwork off their desk faster and more efficiently.

DO MANY COMPANIES ALREADY HAVE GSA SCHEDULES?

This amazes me. There are over 26 million small businesses in the US. Out of those, only about 600,000 are registered on CCR to do business with the Federal government. And of those, only about 18,000 have GSA Schedules. So if you were to get a GSA Schedule, you would be in the top .07% of all businesses or said another way, you would eliminate 99.93% of all competition.

Couple that with the fact that if a company does not do $25,000 per year on their GSA Schedule, it can be cancelled. Many companies have their GSA Schedule developed for them and then do not know what to do with it. So they sit and wait for the orders to come in and after being disappointed, have their GSA Schedule cancelled.

WHY DOES GSA HAVE THE CANCELLATION POLICY?

GSA is not a funded agency - they do not get money from the annual Federal budget. They have to generate their own operating capital. To do this, they tack on an extra 3/4% to your GSA pricing. When another agency orders off your GSA Schedule, you collect that Industrial Funding Fee as it's called and at the end of each quarter pay it back to GSA. If a company is not selling against their GSA Schedule, they are not generating any revenue for GSA and therefore end up costing GSA for the necessary contract administration. GSA does not want any 'dead weight' in their system. That, by the way, is also why GSA has gotten even tighter on awarding GSA Schedules. The requirements have gotten stricter, the review and award process longer, and GSA is rejecting offers faster than anytime in their history.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET AWARDED A GSA SCHEDULE?

The majority of the time in getting a GSA Schedule awarded right now is on the Government side. After submittal of your GSA Schedule proposal, it is assigned to a GSA Contracting Officer for review. Just getting to the review can take up too nine months. Right now, GSA has seen such a dramatic increase in the number of offers coming in due to the economy. Contracting Officer work loads are up 300-600%. So realistically, it could take up to a 18-24 months to be awarded.

Consider this also when deciding to do your GSA yourself. If the offer is not complete and correct, GSA will immediately reject your offer. They will tell you the discrepancies that were in the offer and then you can correct those and resubmit. But when you are resubmitted, you again go to the bottom of the pile in the review process. Having a consultant help you with your GSA Schedule is definitely a viable option and that is a services HLC Government Services provides. 

We have consulted with companies who said it took them up to three years to get on GSA. And one firm told us that based on the internal resources he used to get the proposal done, reviewed and submitted cost him about $45,000. HLC Government Services offers complete GSA proposal development or GSA e Labs as viable and affordable alternative. 

WHO IS ALLOWED TO USE GSA SCHEDULES?

GSA Order ADM 4800.2F, Eligibility to Use GSA Sources of Supply and Services is available for your review.

In short, ever one of the 1,175 Federal agencies, boards, commissions and semi-governmental agencies are allowed to order off a GSA Schedule. In addition, GSA Schedule 70 for Information Technology and GSA Schedule 84 for Law Enforcement are available to all State and local agencies. Finally, in the case of a disaster, all State and local agencies can order directly off a GSA Schedule.

CAN I SEE WHAT MY COMPETITION IS CHARGING AND WHAT THEY HAVE ON SCHEDULE?

Absolutely! Anyone can access the GSA E-Library page showing the different Schedules. Or you can search for a competitor's name or contract number. Once you find a competitor, then either click on their Terms and Conditions or on the GSA Advantage link beside their company listing to see what products or services they have been awarded against.

WOW, GREAT STUFF. NOW WHAT'S NEXT

If you want to do it yourself without help, go to FBO and download the 150-300 page solicitations and try to go through them clause by clause.