Working with the federal government can be a cumbersome process, even as a contractor through the General Services Administration (GSA). With an abundance of necessary paperwork and regulations associated with acquiring and maintaining a GSA Schedule contract, a common practice is to hire a GSA Schedule consultant to guide your company through the process.
As a team of consultants and a GSA Schedule contractor ourselves, we know how important it is to maintain GSA regulations and keep your contract up to date. We have also seen how it can be difficult for some companies to keep up with these requirements because they don’t have the bandwidth or resources to manage their contract for up to 20 years.
Government contracting can be an exciting endeavor for any business, and consultants ensure the process is as seamless as possible for you. So let's cover how consultants can help you manage your GSA contract and if it's something your company needs.
GSA Schedule consultants make sure that your business is able to sell to the government in the most efficient manner possible. This means working with you to handle all the paperwork and regulations so your business can focus on whatever it does best. Working with a consultant to comply with GSA Schedule standards sets your company up for success throughout the Schedule acquisition and maintenance processes.
Some tasks a consultant will perform when working on your contract are adding and deleting products and services from your catalog, adjusting pricing, changing product and service names and descriptions, ensuring compliance with GSA regulations, and keeping you well-informed on required updates to your contract.
A common misconception held by companies interested in obtaining a GSA Schedule is that once it is awarded, there is no more work. Consultants can help you to understand the nuances associated with contract maintenance.
Consultants help clients with GSA Schedule maintenance by ensuring that all necessary documentation and requirements are compliant with GSA standards. With the expertise of a GSA consultant, your company can make educated decisions and make sure you are keeping up with your contract.
Whether you just awarded a GSA Schedule or if you have held one for an extended period of time, a consultant can help you with regulations such:
Related Article: How Much Does GSA Schedule Consulting Cost?
While we would certainly recommend working with a consultant to maintain your GSA contract, it's not required or absolutely necessary to hire a consultant in order to work with GSA. So, if your company doesn't need a consultant then why should you hire one? To determine the answer to this, we ask two questions.
As noted above, the requirements and regulations in place to sell to the government are complex. While possible to maintain a government contract by yourself, the burdens of keeping up with the maintenance can quickly overwhelm a company that is ill-equipped to handle the abundance of work. In addition to helping with all desired contract modifications, consultants handle myriad tasks behind the scenes as well.
For example, when GSA issues a new mass modification, consultants, who are constantly monitoring such changes, will have detailed knowledge of the modification that we can share with you as soon as the initiative is announced. This is important because as the next section details, a failure to meet contract requirements and updates in a timely manner will result in negative consequences for your company.
GSA has also made several changes in the past few years including updating regulations, launching new programs and websites, and implementing new processes. It's a lot to keep up with and to know where to find these announcements so you are staying on top of it all.
We generally tell companies inquiring about hiring a consultant for maintenance that if they have an experienced team that understands the ins and outs of government contracting and can dedicate a significant amount of workload and time to their contract, they may not need to hire anyone. However, a lot of companies such as small businesses do not have the resources to take on a contract of their own.
There are certain requirements that are necessary to maintain your GSA contract including, but not limited to, updating changes in your price list, meeting certain sales requirements, and accepting the mass modifications to your contract issued by the GSA.
When a company fails to perform any one of these items correctly, the result could be a cancellation of your contract altogether. Winvale offers maintenance services to our clients so you can avoid these problems. We are acutely aware of all that goes into having a contract awarded in the first place. Losing all of that hard work, as well as the opportunity to continue selling to the government, is a negative consequence that you should avoid at all costs.
If you are interested in maintaining your own GSA Schedule, then a great resource to check out is the GSA Compliance checklist. Here you will find the documentation and instructions necessary for maintaining compliance.
We understand that the concept of GSA compliance can be difficult to grasp. If you are interested, Winvale offers agreements to help you maintain your government contract. If you have any additional questions or would like to see more about what it is Winvale does, please visit our website.