Once you have an awarded GSA Schedule Contract, it is important to keep records and ensure compliance with the terms of your contract. Twice during your five year GSA contract term, you'll have a Contractor Assistant Visit (CAV). Some people think of the CAV as an audit, but the purpose is really to make introductions, assess your performance, check records, and identify any problem areas. If there are any serious concerns that exist after the CAV, your Contracting Officer will give you the opportunity to correct these issues.

Your GSA MAS contract is a five year contract, with the option to extend for three more terms. This means your contract can potentially be active for twenty years! For GSA to offer you the option to extend your contract, you will need to have achieved the following 5 criteria: 1) have been in compliance with all contract clauses and regulations, 2) you've reported and paid your IFF on time, 3) your GSA pricelist has been received, approved, posted, and kept current on GSA Advantage!, 4) sales on your GSA contract during the first five years have met or exceeded $100,000, and 5) your Small Business Subcontracting reports have been reviewed and approved (if applicable). If GSA determines you have fulfilled these requirements and that exercising your option is advantageous to the Government, you should receive a Letter of Intent notice six to nine months prior to the end of your contract.

The web continues to have a profound effect on our personal and professional lives. From contacting a loved one miles away, to skipping a walk to the store for a gift purchase, to organizing your business's day to day activities, our lives are continually touched and made easier by the World Wide Web – and, in particular, those solutions delivered to us and run almost entirely over the internet. Businesses especially are taking greater advantage of these web based tools and applications in an effort to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and facilitate organization-wide transparency. Such so called "cloud computing" applications and services are an area of significant growth within the IT industry - in fact, growing at a faster clip than any other type of IT spending. And don't think Uncle Sam hasn't taken notice. Last year, the Obama Administration made note of the rising trend in applications run in the "cloud" by rolling out its own government App store for Federal Agencies, www.apps.gov, with the goal of furthering propelling the Federal Government into the digital frontier. GSA, for its part, is managing the store and marketing Apps.gov as part of its "GSA eTools" library that includes both GSA Advantage! and GSA eBuy. For GSA Schedule 70 Contract holders this is significant news. The President's initiative represents a dedicated effort to modernize the Federal Government's IT systems with an approach dedicated, in part, to cloud centric solutions. The App store is the forum for these opportunities and it's only open to Schedule 70 contractors to boot!