When was the last time you modified your GSA contract?  If you cannot remember, then GSA may contact you soon.

New GSA Contractors often ask about selling items that are not listed in their GSA Schedule contract.  These are known as Open Market items.  You can sell such products or services to agencies under a GSA Contract order, but you must clearly inform the customer that the items to be sold are open market.  This is an important concept to understand and new contractors often have problems with the GSA reviewers/auditors if they do not handle this correctly.

According to a report published in PC World yesterday, the large technology contractor CA was sued by the Department of Justice for failing to comply with the price reduction clause of its GSA Contract. According to DOJ, this violated the False Claims Act. CA has had a GSA Schedule contract since 2002 and last year sold $118,784,945 under its GSA IT Schedule 70 contract.

We talk to many business developers who are responsible for government sales in their organization.  They often have a good understanding of GSA’s federal supply schedule program and know that  getting on the GSA list would help them gain more federal sales. They also know that getting a GSA contract represents an organizational commitment that will require some resources, discipline, and change.  It isn’t a silver bullet for getting quick sales, but pays enormous dividends in the long run.

This new infographic summarizes the process and benefits of getting a GSA contract.  It contains:

Why do you want to obtain a GSA contract?  That is one of the first questions we ask prospective clients when they call inquiring about our GSA schedule services. Some demonstrate they have performed considerable research, really thought this through, and are well informed.

In recent years, we have also heard from firms who had never sold in the federal market but had received cold calls from a huckster promising that simply getting a GSA contract would yield millions of dollars in contracts!  We quickly dispel them of the notion that while it can be lucrative, it is not a guarantee.  We also talk about whether entering the federal market makes sense for them, and all the other government contracting options available to them in addition to GSA.  More recently, firms have expressed concerns about protecting their ongoing business in a constricted federal market.

Changes Likely to Affect your MOBIS contract

Several MOBIS SINs Being Merged

In January 2013, GSA will significantly redefine several Schedule 874 MOBIS SINS, including:

If you’re fortunate enough to have been awarded a General Services Administration (GSA) contract, you should be pleased. After all, only about two percent of firms that work with the government hold a GSA contract. While this is an achievement, most executives now ask, “What’s next? How do I get a piece of this $39 billion pie?”