The process of getting a contract on the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program can be daunting, typically taking months to complete. The items required to submit with a complete Schedule offer are expansive, ranging from your company’s financial statements, to its quality control procedures, to its commercial sales practices (an expanded list of the base requirements of a GSA Schedule offer can be found in our blog).
GSA has a few programs that allow vendors to waive some of these offer components, if they meet certain eligibility requirements. In this blog, we’ll talk about the streamlined acquisition and Startup Springboard programs as alternative GSA offer types. We’ll also look at another couple of programs that modify Schedule offer requirements in some way, FASt Lane and Transactional Data Reporting (TDR).
Multiple Award Schedule Streamlined Acquisition
For vendors that have an existing GSA Schedule that is approaching the end of its 20-year lifespan, they have the option of applying for another Schedule contract through the streamlined acquisition process. This Streamlined process waives multiple requirements that is typically included in a standard offer, as detailed below:
- Readiness Assessment – Not required
- Pathways to Success Training – Not required to complete
- Financial Statements – You do not need to submit past financial statements
- Corporate Experience – The technical portion of the streamlined offer is significantly abridged, and responding to the corporate experience prompts is not required.
- Past Performance References – References are not necessary for a streamlined offer.
- Relevant Project Experience – Since adding new Special Item Numbers (SINs) is not optional through the streamlined process, no relevant project experience is necessary to keep the awarded SINs on the streamlined contract.
This streamlined offer alternative is available to vendors meeting the following criteria:
- The contractor has an active GSA MAS contract and is submitting a new offer for the same Special Item Numbers.
- The contractor has met the minimum sales requirement stipulated in your existing contract.
- The contractor has a demonstrated pattern of satisfactory past performance under the existing contract.
The Startup Springboard Offer
Let’s go in the opposite direction, away from businesses that have been participating in GSA MAS for decades, and take a look at what GSA MAS has for offerors with limited corporate experience. The Startup Springboard Program has been designed for new businesses that want to participate in GSA MAS by waiving the requirements that are more difficult to achieve without longer corporate history. These waived requirements include:
- Financial Statements – The financial information the offeror needs to submit under a Springboard is significantly reduced compared to a standard offer.
- Corporate Experience – It is permissible for offerors under the Springboard program to rely on the past experience of key personnel, rather than the company’s history.
- Relevant Project Experience – The requirements for relevant project experience is relaxed; offerors can use recent projects that were performed by key personnel, and the company-specific projects provided may not need to meet the minimum performance period requirements of a standard offer.
- Past Performance References – The minimum requirement to submit three references is waived for the Springboard program.
To be eligible for the Startup Springboard alternative requirements, you must have less than 2 years of corporate experience. This is tracked based on the articles of incorporation for your entity. As long as your company has your Schedule offer submitted before the 2-year mark, you are eligible for the Startup Springboard Program.
So, the offer can be in the review phase past the 2-year mark and still be awarded under Springboard requirements. However, if the offer is rejected or must be withdrawn and the time limit has passed, then the offeror will have to proceed under standard requirements for their next offer.
FASt Lane Program
For IT companies looking to expedite the processing of Schedule offers, they can apply for GSA’s FASt Lane Program. This program does not waive any requirements included in a standard offer, but it does accelerate the review process, which can be quite lengthy. The eligibility determinations for FASt Lane are as follows:
- The offer is assigned under the Information Technology Category (ITC) and assigned an ITC contracting officer
- The offer is associated with a FASt Lane-eligible initiative, such as the Defense Health Agency Enterprise IT Services
- The offeror submits a written request from a federal agency ordering activity that states the offeror should participate in FASt Lane to support the agency’s IT requirements.
Transactional Data Reporting (TDR)
Transactional Data Reporting, or TDR, is a program that allows Schedule holders and offerors a different way of reporting their sales practices to the government in the process of applying for and maintaining a GSA Schedule contract. Traditionally, GSA MAS contracts were subject to the Price Reduction Clause, but many contractors have been recently required to switch over to TDR. Although TDR isn’t an alternative offer route, it still impacts how you prepare your GSA Schedule offer.
TDR was a pilot program eligible vendors could opt into at their choosing, up until June of this year. With the release of Solicitation Refresh #28, TDR became mandatory for product offerings and the Cloud Computing SIN. While it stays optional for some services SINs, and not available for others, we can expect GSA to continue to expand the reaches of TDR on the MAS program in the future.
Under commercial sales practices, participating in a Federal Supply Schedule program were required to disclose, and match or beat, the best prices they offer to their commercial customers. With TDR, contractors waive the need to monitor and disclose their commercial practices in this way and in return report more substantial information during their sales reporting which GSA utilizes as real-time market data.
Applying under TDR when submitting a Schedule offer can be a good strategic decision (if you are currently eligible) because it (1) streamlines the amount of pricing support that you need to provide to the government and (2) can put you in a more favorable position to negotiate your pricing with the government when they review your pricing proposal.
Want to Explore Strategies for GSA Schedule Acquisition?
As discussed, there are many ways to reduce or streamline the process of getting a GSA Schedule contract. In addition to the alternatives we discussed, the requirements for an offer submission can also be modified based on the SINs applied for, the business size of the applying entity, and whether products or services are being offered. If you’re interested in learning more about whether you’re eligible for any of the alternatives we discussed, reach out to one of our Schedule Acquisition experts today.
