With a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), you can access a wide network of federal, state, and local agencies looking to procure products and services. One misconception contractors have, however, is they can sit back and watch the orders roll in the minute their contract is awarded. This isn't true for the commercial world, and generally isn't true for the public sector either. While you are part of a unique pool of contractors, you still have to compete with other companies for business, and be proactive about advertising your solutions to government agencies.

The General Services Administration (GSA) celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. You may have heard of GSA and may even be quite familiar with the federal contracting side of it considering you’ve arrived here at this blog. GSA has come a long way from their origin stockpiling strategic supplies for wartime to maintaining the most popular government contract vehicle: the government-wide Multiple Award Schedule. In this blog we’ll go over the history of GSA, how its functions have evolved over time, and what its current initiatives are.

Once your GSA Schedule has been awarded, it can be tempting to rest on your laurels – you’ve put in a lot of work to get here. However, GSA requires new Schedule contractors to complete a few administrative tasks following contract award. You’ll also have some ongoing contract maintenance responsibilities throughout the life of your contract.

So, you want to sell your solutions to the government with a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS)—where do you begin? The bottom line here is getting a GSA Schedule or any government contract is not an easy task. It requires time, bandwidth, and a certain degree of government contracting knowledge. This is where GSA Schedule consultants come in.

Attempting to navigate the world of government contracting can sometimes feel like swimming through a sea of unfamiliar acronyms and mysterious requirements. Two of these that are crucial to understand are Unique Entity Identifiers (UEIs) and Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Codes. These are both necessary to have success in government contracting, but they can be a source of confusion for many as they are quite similar. In this blog, we’ll break down what each one is and what the differences between them are.

At this point, you’ve likely seen hundreds of articles published in this series and on our website about GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), the MAS consolidation, the structure, how it works, and on and on. But, what about the VA Federal Supply Schedule Service (FSS) Program? Most of the questions our consulting team sees come through our online chat or via email are about the GSA MAS program but today, we’ll be shining some light on the MAS program’s not-so-little sibling, the VA FSS Program managed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.