This is the third in a series of posts regarding the General Services Administration’s (“GSA”) consolidation of its federal supply schedules into one schedule contract. Our prior posts addressed GSA’s consolidation process in general and its use of Category Management in constructing the consolidated schedule. Here, we answer common industry questions regarding what is and is not changing as a result of schedule consolidation.
- Transactional Data Reporting (“TDR”): Schedule consolidation will not affect the TDR pilot. For contractors participating in the TDR pilot, TDR will continue to apply. If you hold a TDR Special Item Number (“SIN”), it will continue to apply to your entire schedule contract.
- Cooperative Purchasing: Cooperative Purchasing will continue to apply, but only to the applicable SIN in your schedule contract. Unlike TDR, it will not extend to your entire contract.
- Order Level Materials (“OLM”): The OLM SIN has not been added to every schedule. Under consolidation, OLM SINs will be expanded to all schedule contractors.
- GSA Systems: Under the consolidated schedule, GSA intends to update and refresh eLibrary, eBuy, eOffer/eMod, and GSA Advantage so that they align with the consolidated schedule. GSA estimates the updates will occur in July 2020.
- Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) Schedules: No changes. VA schedules will not be consolidated at this time.
- GSAR and FAR clauses: General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation (“GSAR”) and Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”) clauses are not being revised. Any such changes in the future will go through the formal rulemaking process.
- Contract Number: If you hold one schedule contract, your contract number will not change. If you hold multiple contracts, GSA has announced that it will work with you to determine the best solution for your company.
- Option Periods: For contractors with one schedule (or one new follow-on contract and a soon-to-be-expired contract), option periods will not be affected. For contractors with multiple contracts, GSA will provide different options depending on the status of the contracts.
- Blanket Purchase Agreements (“BPAs”): BPAs established and awarded prior to the completion of consolidation will continue in effect until the BPA or the schedule contract expires, whichever occurs first.
- Special Item Number (“SIN”) Restructuring:
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- Small business set aside SINs are not being changed.
- With consolidation, GSA streamlined, renamed, and reduced SINs. The new list of SINs has been mapped to North American Industrial Classification System (“NAICS”) codes. Contractors should review their System for Award Management (“SAM”) registration to ensure the applicable NAICS are listed in their SAM profile.
- To encourage contractors to accept the upcoming schedule mass modification, GSA intends to update eBuy in July to only display opportunities for new SINs. Until July, GSA is mapping legacy and new SINs, so contractors will see all opportunities posted under either SIN.
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- Data Universal Numbering System (“DUNS”): If you have multiple schedules, all schedules under the same DUNS will be consolidated. Schedules with different DUNS will not be consolidated and will continue to have their own individual requirements.
- Evaluation Factors: For vendors seeking a new schedule contract under the consolidated solicitation, many technical evaluation factors have changed and vendors have more options as a substitute for an Open Ratings Report. Under an Open Ratings Past Performance Evaluation, Open Ratings, a Dun & Bradstreet (“D&B”) Company, conducts an independent audit of customer references and calculates a rating based upon a statistical analysis of various performance data and survey responses.