GSA recently began the final stage of transitioning from the legacy Schedule Input Platform (SIP) to the new FAS Catalog Platform (FCP) for catalog management. The FCP allows for a more accessible, streamlined approach to catalog management, removing many of the inconveniences involved with using SIP. One of the biggest improvements over SIP that the FCP introduces is that the FCP integrates directly with eMod. In this blog, we’ll cover how this integration works and how it benefits contractors.
Before discussing how the FCP integrates with eMod, it’s important to understand what the FCP and eMod are used for. The FCP is GSA’s new online system for catalog management. “Catalog” here refers to the collection of products and/or services offered by a contractor under the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program. The FCP is where contractors provide catalog-related information, such as the names, descriptions, and prices of offerings.
eMod is GSA’s online modification submission platform. This is where contractors submit modifications to their contract, including catalog-related modifications. All modifications are submitted through eMod, but only some modifications will require the use of the FCP to update catalog data.
When completing a mod before the FCP, vendors would manually upload the Price Proposal Template (PPT) into eMod. Now, the Price Proposal Template section in eMod has a link to the FCP. Contractors will go to the FCP and select the Catalog Action that corresponds to the modification they’ve created, then select the eMod ID from the dropdown list. After the Product File or Services Plus File has been uploaded to the FCP, the FCP sends the file directly to eMod. Contractors will then finish submitting the modification in eMod, without the need to separately upload a pricing file.
Some contractors may be wondering what the benefit of the integration is. After all, you still have to upload a pricing file, just to a different website. The benefit of the FCP’s integration with eMod is that it allows your catalog to be updated immediately after a modification is approved. Because pricing is uploaded into the FCP, then sent to eMod, all of your pricing data is already in the catalog management system—meaning there’s no need to reupload it after a modification is approved.
Before the FCP, the catalog management system (SIP) was completely separated from the eMod system. This meant that contractors would have to submit their pricing through eMod for approval, then upload a separate file into SIP in order to actually update their online catalog. This caused a lag between new catalog data being approved and the data being published, meaning a contractor’s online catalog could be out of date for days or even weeks, depending on how long a Contracting Officer took to approve a SIP upload.
Now, catalog data is published to GSA Advantage! and eLibrary as soon as modifications are approved. For modifications that are not subject to approval by a Contracting Officer, such as deletions, updates will be published as soon as the modification is submitted.
Another major benefit of the FCP’s integration with eMod is that services pricing is now auto-published, just like products pricing. Before the FCP, contractors were required to maintain a services pricelist in their eLibrary Terms and Conditions File. Now, the FCP publishes services pricing in a separate pricelist, removing the need for contractors to update their Terms and Conditions file with each modification.
The Terms and Conditions file only needs to be updated when the terms and conditions of the contract change. This means that existing contractors will need to remove all services pricing information from their Terms and Conditions file after transitioning to FCP.
Although the FCP integrates with eMod, you won’t need to use the FCP for every modification. Any modification that doesn’t change your catalog data (such as administrative or Terms and Conditions modifications) doesn’t require FCP use. These modifications are completed solely in eMod. Any modification that does require data from the FCP will have a link to the FCP in the Price Proposal Template Section, making it easy to navigate between the two.
While you won’t need to use FCP in order to submit a Terms and Conditions modification, you will need to use FCP after the modification is approved to upload a new Terms and Conditions file. To update your Terms and Conditions file, you will use the eMod ID from a closed, approved modification.
If your GSA Schedule contract was recently transitioned to the FCP, or if you have a newly awarded contract, you may have more questions about using the FCP to manage your catalog. The help resources page on the FCP website contains helpful resources and guides for everything related to the FCP. If you still have questions, or are looking for more personalized support, reach out to us, and one of our expert consultants will be happy to help.