The Formatted Product Tool (FPT) is one of GSA’s most recent developments in its Competitive Pricing Initiative and as of July 2016, FPT has been implemented to select product Schedules as part of its Phase I rollout. Below is a Beginner’s Guide for what contractors need to know once they’ve decided to implement FPT. If you’re interested in learning more about FPT and the implementation schedule, check our previous blog An Executive Overview to GSA's FPT.

Just after its 67th anniversary, GSA began Phase I rollout of its Formatted Product Tool (FPT) in an effort to facilitate the standardization of similar parts offered by different contractors and increase the efficiency in which contractor’s pricelists are updated and made available on GSAAdvantage!. FPT is a systems upgrade within the existing eOffer and eMod platforms for certain Schedules and is an enhancement for GSA Schedule contractors as it eliminates the need for the Schedule Input Program (SIP) and Contracting Officer Review System (CORS) processes. For those not familiar with SIP, this is one of the most common methods for uploading your GSA Pricelist, so that your products/services are visible on GSA eLibrary and GSAAdvantage!. This process can be quite lengthy because it is a multi-stage process requiring 1) a pricelist to be awarded through a new offer award or existing contract modification; 2) the pricelist to be uploaded by the contractor through SIP; and 3) the price ist to be approved by GSA which would result in the pricelist being posted online. Typically, contractors expect no less than 48 hours for their pricelist to be updated. The program can have glitches as well so, combined with the length of time to complete the process, it has been a source of frustration for contractors since its inception. FPT is meant to eliminate the lag between award and acceptance of their new pricelist.

As new needs and challenges arise, the General Services Administration (GSA) considers adding new Special Item Numbers (SIN) to preexisting Schedules before creating new ones. We’ve seen this most recently with the addition of a new Schedule 70 Health IT SIN, and will be seeing it again shortly as the government works towards releasing the Highly Adaptable Cybersecurity Services (HACS) SIN to the IT-70 schedule beginning September 12, 2016.

In an effort to increase efficiency and encourage savings, GSA published a final rule on transactional data reporting on June 23, 2016. This new requirement instructs vendors to report transactional data from orders placed against certain Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts, Government Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs), and Government Wide Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contracts.

The General Services Administration (GSA) will be releasing a new SIN under Schedule 70 that incorporates Health Information Technology Services (HIT) later this year. Currently, the Health IT SIN is projected to be released in July, but we have yet to know the exact date of expectancy.

109 vendors have been awarded $11.5 billion Human Capital and Training Solutions (HCaTS) contract by GSA in collaboration with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). This joint venture will utilize both organizations’ industry strengths through a singular procurement channel.