I am frequently contacted by firms who have received a GSA contract for providing professional services  who want to know how to go about getting an increase to their GSA pricing.  By professional services, I mean firms who hold contracts such as:

Subpart 51.1 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Contractor Use of Government Supply Sources, prescribes the policies and procedures under which federal contractors can use government supply sources, like GSA Schedule Contracts, to facilitate the completion of their contract.  Traditionally, this allowance only enabled Prime contractors to purchase certain supplies and services not requiring a statement of work if they were on a Cost Reimbursement Contract.  In 2009, GSA established a deviation to FAR 51.1 that allowed contractors to purchase from other contractors under both Cost Reimbursement and Time & Materials Contracts.

Your GSA Advantage Catalog is a Resource - Make it Work for You

A vendor’s GSA catalog is an online resource found on GSA Advantage, which is GSA’s online ecommerce system.  The GSAAdvantage! system contains GSA vendor information and enables Federal agencies to research products and pricing as well as place orders or issue RFQ’s in the system’s eBuy section. 

FedBid, the “reverse eBay” of federal contracting websites, is quickly growing into a powerful contracting tool.  Its goal, which it largely succeeds in fulfilling, is to provide federal buyers and contractors with a simple and responsive online marketplace.  Federal Agencies and Departments create a listing on FedBid.com for the specific products or simple services they need.  Companies then search those listings to find someone buying what they are selling.  If they find a match, they can enter a bid and potentially win the contract.  As you can see, “a reverse eBay” aptly describes the FedBid process, as the contracts are essentially auctioned off to the lowest qualified bidder in real time.

Our friends at GovFresh.com brought to our attention the availability of a series of video that the Department of Justice has produced that explains what FOIA is and how to make FOIA requests.

As any experienced government contractor or frequent GSA/Fed Marketing Blog reader could tell you, the GSA Schedule Contract is perhaps the single best option in Federal Contracting.  Such an individual would likely highlight some of the features unique to GSA Schedules.  Features like the pre-negotiated, government-wide contract terms which allow GSA Schedule Contract holders to literally cut to the front of the Federal Contracting line.  An experienced contractor might also remind you that government contracting officers simply prefer to contract with GSA scheduled firms. 

In a recent conversation, a GSA employee described the Federal Acquisition Regulation, or the FAR, as the government contracting officer’s Bible.  While this statement was surely hyperbole, the importance of the FAR in both the theoretical understanding and practical applications of federal contracting cannot be overestimated.  The FAR is in essence the set of rules under which federal contracting officers and federal contractors conduct their respective business.

Which of the GSA Schedules is best for your firm?

GSA has about 33 different GSA Schedules that have over 30million products and services. Usually the choice is pretty simple.  If you sell engineering services, you would pursue the Schedule 00CORP - the Professional Services Schedule (which absorbed many services schedules including the old Engineering Service Schedule (871)).  If you are a hardware store, you would choose the Hardware Superstore schedule  (Schedule 51 V).

Update on the New SBA WOSB Contracting Program

SBA will be holding a web chat session on March 31, 2011 at 1:00 pm (ET).  This session provides small businesses with an opportunity to discuss the new Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) federal contract program.  This program is designed to attract more woman owned small businesses into federal contracting.

For years government contractors have been using traditional marketing techniques to gain the attention of Federal clients.  Email blasts, direct mail, conferences and exhibitions, brochures, advertising have all been used to varying degrees of effectiveness.  But about ten years ago, the effectiveness of these traditional methods began to decline.  And in the past few years, their effectiveness has declined precipitously. But what has caused this decline?