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The Professional Services Schedule (PSS) is one of the top General Services Administration Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Contracts. With so many opportunities, potential contractors may have some questions before submitting their proposal. We’ve compiled 5 Frequently Asked Questions to help dispel some confusion surrounding this contract!
Q: Why use the Professional Services Schedule?
A: The Professional Services Schedule (PSS) allows agencies to use a single contract to procure a variety of professional services. While utilizing the PSS, agencies get the benefit of:
- Ensuring that the correct FAR terms and conditions are included in the contract;
- Saving time by utilizing a Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Contract
- Having a complete solution all together in one GSA Contract
The General Services Administration’s (GSA’s) Professional Services Schedule (PSS) has more than 4,000 awarded federal contractors to provide government customers with professional services. If you are a service contract, PSS is the place to be!
Q: Do my services fall under the scope of the professional services schedule?
A: The core disciplines of PSS contracts include:
- Advertising and Integrated Marketing Services (AIMS)
- Complementary Services- These Special Item Numbers (SINs) cannot be used as stand-alone SINs but are complementary to another service SIN that is awarded on schedule to fulfill a complete solution.
- Environmental services- These SINs help agencies meet their environmental needs and streamline the contracting process by providing a faster, more cost-efficient means to meet environmental requirements.
- Financial and Business Solutions (FABS) -These SINs help agencies obtain financial services including auditing, financial management, financial asset, business information, and credit monitoring services.
- Language services – These SINs include translation and interpretation services for a variety of languages.
- Logistics Worldwide Services – These SINs help with procuring comprehensive logistics solutions, including planning, consulting, management, and operational support when deploying supplies, equipment, materials, and associated personnel
- Mission-Oriented Business Integrated Services – These SINs include consulting, training, and acquisition management services.
- Professional engineering services—These SINs provide a variety of engineering disciplines, such as mechanical, electrical, chemical, software, aerospace engineering, nuclear engineering, and bio-engineering.
To see the variety of SINs and whether your services fit under the SIN scope, check out the PSS SIN information on eLibrary.
Q: What do I need to get a PSS Contract?
A: Before jumping into the proposal process, it’s important to know if you are eligible to submit a GSA proposal. Make sure you fulfill these requirements before starting a PSS proposal:
- Must have financial stability
- Must have been in business for at least two years (unless it is a Schedule 70 Springboard offer)
- Must be able to prove that proposed products/ services have been sold commercially
- Must be compliant with the Trade Agreement Act (TAA)
- Must have a DUNs Number and active SAM.gov registration
If your company meets these requirements, then you are ready to begin the proposal process. The proposal documentation is separated into three main sections: Administrative, Technical and Pricing. Check out our blog here that details more of the information needed to work on your proposal!
Q: How do I know if my prices will be competitive for GSA?
A: Market research can be very helpful in determining if your GSA prices will be competitive in the GSA market! Market research can include researching current federal contracting opportunities, scoping out competitors, and understanding agency historical spending. Conducting this research will help your company stay up to date on current opportunities, remain competitive in the marketplace and determine what agencies, offices, and set-asides are most related to your offerings. For the Professional Services Schedule in particular, it can be useful to look into the Contract-Awarded Labor Category (CALC) tool before submitting your proposal so that you may find awarded prices to use in negotiations to support your prices. The CALC tools offers ceiling prices, services data, and worldwide rates and is a very user-friendly tool to research before submitting GSA prices.
Q: How long will it take to get a Professional Services Schedule (PSS)?
A: Once a GSA offer for a PSS contract is submitted, it can take up to 12 months for GSA to review the contract and (hopefully) get to contract award. However, your wait will greatly depend on the contracting officer you are assigned, and the quality of the offer submitted. Luckily, GSA is making strides to streamline the PSS acquisition process to cut down on some of the wait time for potential contractors. For example, GSA is going to require only one (1) past project instead of two (2) per SIN and consolidating SINs to reduce redundancies.
So while there is no one answer on the time frame for a PSS contract, hopefully the time frame will be moving to a shorter amount!
The Professional Services Schedule acquisition process may prompt a lot of questions—Winvale can help!
