After years in the making, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced in late June that it has awarded contracts to three major e-marketplace platform providers to support implementation efforts for the Commercial Platforms program and Section 846 of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The chosen providers—Amazon Business, Fisher Scientific, and Overstock.com, Inc.—were selected for a three-year pilot program where GSA will test the use of commercial e-commerce portals for purchases below the Micro-Purchase Threshold (MPT) of $10,000. (Note: This is a different Micro-Purchase Threshold than the recent update regarding the COVID-19 response that we discussed in an earlier blog.) What does this mean for GSA contractors in the future? Let’s dive in to better understand GSA’s upcoming E-Marketplace Platform.

If you’re a GSA Contractor, you may already know some of the benefits of a Small Business Set Aside. 8a certification is a certification given to specific Small Business contractors that allows contractors a wide breadth of opportunities for socially or economically disadvantaged businesses. A new opportunity — the 8(a) Streamlined Technology Acquisition Resource for Services (STARS) III Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) is on the horizon for your company. The 8(a) STARS III Request for Proposal (RFP) was released in July of 2020. Here is what you and your company should know if you want to pursue this huge 8(a) opportunity.

The Woman-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program will adopt a new certification process on July 15, 2020. In 2019, the Small Business Administration (SBA) proposed an amendment to the current Women-Owned Small Business Program that would implement a statutory requirement to certify them as Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs) or Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Businesses (EDWOSBs). This new regulation will allow WOSB and EDWOSBs to be eligible for set-aside and sole source awards, but what does this change mean for eligible contractors?

COVID-19 has altered our perception of the workplace. Living rooms are being transformed into makeshift offices, conference room meetings have turned into virtual Zoom sessions, and employees are donning masks before they enter the office. As states slowly begin opening in phases, employees are trickling back into the workplace, but they will not immediately return to a pre-pandemic environment. There are certain social distancing measures and routine disinfection practices to follow, but with the right equipment, you can minimize the spread of COVID-19. As a supplier of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), we at Winvale know it’s important to make sure your employees are outfitted with the proper PPE they need to combat the virus. Here are the top five types of PPE you should purchase for your office to ensure the safety of your employees.

To be a successful government contractor, you need to stay up to date on all of the changes that arise in the General Services Administration (GSA). If you’ve been following our blog, you will know that keeping up with all of those changes is no small task! From the new look of GSA eBuy to the consolidation of the Multiple Award Schedule program, GSA is continually trying to make contracting easier for the general public, but that means you need to know how to properly adapt to these developments. As government contract consultants, Winvale has been keeping a close eye on what our clients need to do to stay informed. The most recent update is the new solicitation refresh for the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program. Here are the main points contractors should know about the changes.

From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been hungry for more answers — we turn to the Google search bar, ask Siri or Amazon’s Alexa, and scroll endlessly on social media platforms to consume information that can keep us safe. We are lucky to have such a vast amount of data at our fingertips, but as we know, the internet can be a double-edged sword. With legitimate facts and scientifically backed studies comes just as much misinformation. The facts we do find can also be confusing. For example, face masks are one type of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that is commonly used by essential healthcare workers and the public, but that wasn’t the case at the start of the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) originally recommended face masks be worn by healthcare personnel only, but now the CDC suggests everyone should wear a mask when going out in public.