Timeliness and accuracy in delivering your products to customers are critical aspects of your performance as a contractor. If you order an Amazon package and it doesn’t get show up on your porch by the delivery date, you’ll probably be frustrated especially if you were counting on it. Your government customers feel the same way when they are expecting an order placed against your GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS).
To evaluate contractor performance, GSA’s Supplier Accountability Division implemented a system using metrics within your GSA Advantage and GSA Global Supply (GSS) Delivery Scorecards (if you have both GSA and global supply orders). These scorecards were recently combined into one email, and are a strong indicator of your delivery performance. This blog post will guide you on how to read your scorecard, what to expect if you receive a negative scorecard delivery email, and how to prevent further delivery compliance issues.
The importance of GSA Advantage & Global Supply scorecards should not be overlooked in any way. They are here to provide you with tangible data about your contract performance, and of course if you receive a less than favorable in your monthly report, you will need to take action which we’ll cover below.
We understand that receiving emails with returned performance scores can be intimidating. However, you can view these emails with the perspective of recognizing where improvements can be made with delivery. These scorecards offer insights into areas for improvements which naturally lead to increased customer service/satisfaction and your overall relationship with GSA.
When you receive a scorecard from GSA, it will include a key metric known as BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front). You should receive this email on the third Friday of every month. Your scores will determine which BLUF is automatically processed in the email. This process is automated and involves a series of advanced queries and codes developed by GSA through extensive data science to ensure accuracy.
Depending on your scores, you might receive a favorable BLUF stating "n/a” if your performance is excellent. For example, as shown in the chart below, a vendor has not met the minimum acceptable standards for shipment status, and on-time delivery performance, but did meet the cancellation performance percentage.
Example of GSA Advantage! Monthly Delivery Performance:
If you have both MAS and Global Supply orders, you will also receive a GSA Global Supply Delivery Performance score, seen below:
Vendors who meet or exceed minimum requirements will receive positive feedback. However, if you do not meet the standards, the message may be less friendly. If you receive such a message, you must reply within two weeks with a plan of action. Not responding within this timeframe may lead GSA to assume you are ignoring the issue, which could result in customer concerns or punitive actions regarding your GSA Advantage catalog.
Understand that in the Purchase Order (PO) portal and through your EDI transmissions, there are only three valid statuses: Shipped, Backorder, and Cancelled.
It’s important to note for Advantage orders, backorder status happens if it is late for any reason. The reasons for the delay—whether it’s due to a vendor or supplier backorder, lack of response from the customer, a declined email, or even an incident such as fire at the raw materials plant causing delays —are irrelevant. If an order is not shipping on the due date, you must mark it as backordered. Not doing so will result in a failed shipment status. Your Contract After Receipt of Order (ARO) is used to determine when this action should take place.
Be mindful that the current ARO data in GSA Advantage may not align with the FOB (Freight on Board) contract terms in your agreements. There have been situations where contracts with FOB destination terms have their ARO marked as shipped, which doesn’t comply with the GSAR (General Services Acquisition Regulation).
If you need to see the latest updates in relation to FOB terms and ARO, make sure that you refer back to MAS Refresh #21, where all vendors with FOB destination must be ARO delivered. In other words, your products must have ARO terms which correctly correlate with the product FOB term:
You should review your scores in the scorecard and ensure that you address any ARO modifications with your assigned Contracting Officer (CO).
Make sure you are keeping an eye on your Advantage catalog, to avoid more cancellations. GSA recommends completing your delete modifications first and then completing your terms and conditions mods for ARO, Add mods and Economic Price Adjustment (EPA) mods.
It’s important to note that MAS does not recognize business days, only calendar days. We suggest you be conservative but realistic on your ARO. You can modify ARO to have a date range with your terms and conditions to have different AROs for manufacturer, or Special Item Number (SIN), etc.
Email communication from various GSA platforms can often be chaotic and confusing. The goal is to ultimately provide you with the information you need to succeed while minimizing disruption to your workflow. However, GSA recognizes that vendors currently receive many emails from numerous sources, including portals and your Contracting Officers/Specialists.
With contractors having to manage communications from these different portals and respond to calls and emails from their designated GSA points of contact, it’s understandable that emails from the Supplier Accountability Division may be overlooked—but this is a core piece of your contract compliance. There’s a lot to keep up with in your GSA Schedule, and sometimes it might be too much to handle especially if you’re a small business or a first time contractor.
If you have any questions about maintaining compliance with your GSA Schedule, please reach out to one of our consultants as we are more than happy to guide you through any necessary modification updates or other areas of contract management.