Government Contracting Blog

Are you a furniture manufacturer or Value-Added Reseller (VAR) of furniture products who wants to expand your business opportunities within the federal government? Competing on the open market can be a great way to secure stand-alone bids. However, many of the solicitations that federal buyers release, go through contracting vehicles designed to streamline the procurement process. The Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program administered by General Services Administration (GSA) is the most prominent of these vehicles when it comes to furniture and furnishings. GSA MAS offers federal customers shorter procurement lead times and lower administrative costs than establishing a new contract.

With the Schedule Input Program (SIP) being obsolete, contractors are needing to become familiar with GSA’s FAS Catalog Platform (FCP). The FCP is a web-based application designed for MAS contractors to manage both product and service catalog data through a more streamlined reporting process. The General Services Administration (GSA) has been requiring Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contractors to complete baseline modifications to transition contracts from SIP to the FCP. However, before using FCP functions as a new contractor on the FCP, you will need to update your Seller Profile before beginning the baseline modification. In this blog, we will be reviewing what the Seller Profile is in the FCP and how to navigate it to begin your contract’s transition to the FCP.

In today’s fast-paced world, technology has streamlined the way we access information, products, and services. The new push for the most recent technology has also been felt by the General Services Administration (GSA). For contractors who are planning on utilizing the GSA Schedules for their business, the GSA Startup Springboard Program may be for you. Through GSA’s Startup Springboard Program, federal agencies gain faster access to IT products and services, while prospective contractors can submit a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) offer even with less than two years of business experience.

Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) has existed for several years as a pilot program, but not every GSA Schedule contractor had to pay attention to it until now. Either your Special Item Numbers (SINs) weren’t eligible, or you chose not to opt in, but either way, it wasn’t on your radar. Things are changing now. With GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Refresh #31, ALL contractors are now required to switch their sales reporting over to Transactional Data Reporting. Since TDR reporting will become a monthly occurrence for you, it's important that everyone knows what TDR is and how to transition. In this blog we’ll cover what TDR is, sales reporting with TDR, and how to participate in the program.

GSA has long envisioned the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) as the one-stop-shop for all your federal procurement needs to make, receive, and manage federal awards. This vision is hopefully soon to become a reality as GSA’s Integrated Award Environment (IAE) continues to modernize and consolidate their federal awards systems. The goal is for GSA Schedule contractors to use one modernized site for most of their contracting needs rather than to navigate several archaic sites. In this blog, we’ll review what recent changes GSA has made to SAM.gov and what the upcoming forecast looks like for system consolidation.

As a new or seasoned federal government contractor, you’re probably no stranger to adapting to frequent changes in policy and requirements. There have been a lot of changes to the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program recently, especially through the Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation Overhaul (RFO). One of these updates is to Order Level Materials, or OLMs. Read on to learn more about what an OLM is, how the RFO impacts OLMs, and how you can utilize the OLM Special Item Number (SIN) with these changes.