GSA’s Springboard Program helps with the U.S. Government’s high demand for emerging technology solutions For years the GSA Schedules Program required companies to have a minimum of two years’ corporate experience before applying for a GSA Schedule Contract. Now, with the U.S. government having a higher demand for emerging technology solutions than ever before, new Information Technology (IT) companies don’t have to wait to become a GSA IT Schedule 70 contract holder. Thanks to GSA’s Springboard Program, innovative companies with less than two years’ experience can become a GSA IT Schedule 70 contractor and can now have access to over $15 billion in annual federal, state, and local IT opportunities.

Earlier this month GSA announced there would be some big changes coming to all the GSA Schedule solicitations in April 2017. With March quickly coming to an end, it’s time to look at what these changes are. In an article on GSA’s Interact website, they released information on changes that will be initiated in April through a schedule-wide Mass Modification, which will refresh all GSA MAS Contracts. This mass mod is of significant importance because April also happens to be a reporting month for large contractors who have an Individual Subcontracting Plan and therefore need to complete and Individual Subcontracting Report. There are some changes in this mass mod that will impact this reporting in the future.

In our blog last week, Women in Business: WOSB and EDWOSB Sole Source Advantage, we discussed the competitive advantage the WOSB and EDWOSB programs give Women-Owned Small Businesses. This week we’re going to focus on who and how you should be marketing to the federal government. An agencies past performance can be a good indicator of future needs, so we will also take a look at some agencies’ spending patterns related to the Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs) and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Businesses (EDWOSBs) programs.

As we celebrate Women’s History Month we wanted to take a moment to highlight one of the biggest advantages Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs) and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Businesses (EDWOSBs) have in federal government contracting: Sole Sourcing.

If women’s history in labor and business is any example of past entrepreneurial challenges that have been overcome, then 2017 should expect nothing less than great advances by women-owned businesses creating more opportunities for themselves. Government contractors recognize the benefits of having a small business designation and while we are only in the third month of the year, we are already seeing a spike in interest for companies to become registered as WOSB.

THE TIME IS NOW. You may or may not be aware that by submitting a proposal for a GSA Schedule 70 contract with the new GSA Cyber Security SINs (Penetration Testing, Incident Response, Cyber Hunt, and Risk & Vulnerability Assessments) it will take you on average 45 days to be awarded a schedule. In the commercial world this may sound like an ordinary time to award, but since we are dealing with the US Government, this is extremely expedited. The average time-to-award for a GSA Schedule 70 proposal including other SINs under the GSA’s IT Schedule 70 is 4-6 months.