All About GSA Schedules

1. Arkansas Procurement Assistance Center All About GSA Schedules

2. Unlocking GSA Contracts • How the U. S. General Services Administration does business • Office of Enterprise Development • Federal Acquisition Service (formerly FSS) • Public Building Service • Department of Veterans Affairs • Other agencies with similar IDIQ & GWACs • Resources available on GSA website (handout) All About GSA Schedules

3. U. S. General Services Administration Federal Acquisition Service Federal Telecom Service Public Building Service Office of Enterprise Development Services Acq. Ctr. Manage-ment Services IT Acq. Center General Products Facilities Maint & Hdwe Off. Supp. & Admin Services National Furniture How GSA Organization Looks All About GSA Schedules

4. Other Than GSA Supply Service • Veterans Administration handles the medical supplies & services Schedules for GSA. • Corps of Engineers issues large IDIQ multi-year multi-award contracts with very challenging innovations. • GSA Public Building Service issues multi-year multi-award IDIQ contracts. • DOD e-Mall is similar to GSA Advantage • Many others have similar programs. All About GSA Schedules

5. Typical Process • Find & download the correct solicitation • Analyze and make checklist • Compile data and prepare proposal • Call the PTAC for “scrubdown” appointment • Submit completed proposal to GSA • Wait 2-3 months or more for clarification letter • Clarify, negotiate, resolve issues, submit BAFO • Contract award often takes 4-6 months • Get onto GSA Advantage, and market to agencies All About GSA Schedules

6. Characteristics of MAS Solicitations • Open season – no due date – Refresh method • Negotiated method – not sealed competitive bids • Very broadly written to include everything • You pick which items you want to offer • You quote your best long term prices, fob destination • You define what you offer for the prices • Intended for “commercial items” only • No guarantee of any purchases, but $25,000 req’d • Base period is 5 years, plus options up to 20 years All About GSA Schedules

7. Contents of Solicitations • No standard format, sometimes similar to FAR Part 15 • Cover page is 3-10 introductory pages – Ignore it • SF1449 is “Page 1 of x” not counting attachments • “Basic solicitation” means SF1449 and its pages • Attachments for specific commodities • Other attachments for proposal elements • Past Performance • Product/service lists and pricing information • Service Contract Act Wage Determinations • Variations in different commodity versions • Checklist or Summary of What To Submit All About GSA Schedules

8. Getting Orders • After contract award, market to feds & get orders. • Keep track of all sales, and report to GSA quarterly, pay the 0.75% Industrial Funding Fee. • Clients report all orders to PTAC as they occur • Update CCR and Dynamic Small Business Search (Pro-Net) with new references as they occur • Maintain $25,000 sales per year minimum • Price adjustments may be submitted annually. • New products may be added annually. All About GSA Schedules

9. Reassurance: Help Is Available “This will seem daunting. Do not be discouraged. Your PTAC counsellors are here to help. Just call, identify yourself as a student in this class, and ask your question, or if you don’t know the question, express your confusion. You will get answers and advice and encouragement. We are not from the government and we are here to help.” All About GSA Schedules

10. Break Please return in 10 minutes.

11. Solicitation Analysis • Fill in SF1449, blocks 12, 17, and 30. • Find list of items, check the ones offered • Cross out in red all not-applicable parts • Mark all actions required after award • Mark all actions required in proposal • Fill in all blanks, identify items to attach • Compile checklist with tasks assigned All About GSA Schedules

12. Classroom Exercise • You should be arranged into table groups of 6. • Each table has a different solicitation document that you will work on together for the afternoon. • Get yourselves organized, somebody take notes on the big poster sheets, divide the document so 2 or 3 people can work on each section. • I will lead you through the first few steps of the Solicitation Analysis • Share contact information with each other. All About GSA Schedules

13. Techniques For Teaching It • PTACers should prepare their teaching copy before their class, so they can find the parts to teach. • Have students download & print theirs before class, make them punch and put in ring binder w/dividers • Show them the parts that will be demonstrated • Provide sticky tabs or notes to mark each page, also 2 colors of hiliters, red pens • Have them cross through the useless “cover pages” with red ink. It makes them feel better. • Show them how to fill in SF1449 first. Goal in #1. All About GSA Schedules

14. Yours should be partially filled in by the customer. For Schedules, do not fill in blocks 19-24 which are labelled “See Schedule”. In #12, put “None”. In #17, put all possible contact information. In #30, identify your signatory. All About GSA Schedules

15. Keep Your Eye On the Goal All About GSA Schedules

16. Things to Cross Out • Cover pages, compares to last version, useless • Size standards with NAICS, already know that • Estimated government purchases for each • Subcontracting Plan (but if you are “large”, we will help you later) • Clauses related to exporting – you can add it later • Post-Award provisions and clauses – save for later • Make sure to do the red cross-out. It helps. All About GSA Schedules

17. Fill-Ins To Demonstrate • Find list of SINs, have select yours and make a note • Find the Reps & Certs, compare to ORCA • Find the administrative fill-ins, usually in the “Basic Solicitation” sometimes in attachments • Find the pages for entering price quotes • Find Past Performance “Open Ratings Inc.” Chart • Find CSP1 Commercial Sales Practices Form • Table groups take time to find these All About GSA Schedules

18. Open Ratings Inc., Past Perf. • GSA contracts with a subsidiary of Dun & Bradstreet, called Open Ratings, Inc., to evaluate your Past Performance • You pay $125 for this service. • Each solicitation contains either a form for you to fill out or a link to ORI’s website where you enter your references online and pay. • Do not submit this until about two weeks before your proposal is ready to submit. All About GSA Schedules

19. How To Do the CSP-1 Form All About GSA Schedules

20. Pricing Strategy • Government wants to be your “most favored customer”, meaning they get your best prices. • FOB Destination means shipping & handling costs are included (RFID tags, MilStd129) • GSA gets .75% Industrial Funding Fee so add that to your price. • Add in any additional costs of doing business with the Feds (extra clerical labor, bank fees, regulated wage & fringe, etc.) All About GSA Schedules

21. Break Please return in 10 minutes.

22. Narrative Parts of Proposal • Some commodity contracts have no narrative • Some require excrutiating detail to support price list • Most services contracts require description of similar projects completed recently • Each table search your document: which is it? • Identify all items that offeror must prepare • List on poster sheet what you found. All About GSA Schedules

23. Table Groups Report & Discuss • Each table present the oddities it found in its version of the solicitation • Point out items requiring special attention, which you will need to discuss with your PTAC counsellor • Everybody discuss how best to deal with these requirements. • By sharing with each other, you get a better understanding of how to do yours, and you come to realize if they can do it you can do it. All About GSA Schedules

24. What Did We Learn Today? • It’s very hard to do and frustrating • It has peculiar requirements • It might not be worth the effort • It can be lucrative if done right • PTAC clients get the contract and make a profit because we teach them to do it right • Report all sales through your contract in Quarterly Report of Sales to GSA, pay the IFF, with a copy of it to your PTAC showing number of orders and total $. All About GSA Schedules

25. Meet your APAC Staff • LaDonna Turpin, Procurement Technical Assistance • Steve McDonald, Procurement Advisor • Richard Evans, Procurement Advisor • Sue Coates, Instructor & Program Director • Jane Kriigel, Secretary II • Jan Rogers, Secretary II All About GSA Schedules

26. How To Reach Us 127 West 5th St. at Locust Malvern AR 72104 Phone: 501-337-5355 Fax 501-337-5045 apac@uaex.edu http://www.arcommunities.org APAC “Helping Arkansas firms serve & supply public agencies” All About GSA Schedules

27. Please leave your evaluation forms in the box. Thank you! All About GSA Schedules