Government Contracting Blog

GSA utilizes Special Item Numbers (SINs) to categorize the product or service offerings contractors can have awarded on the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS). Many SINs require contractors’ or offerors’ services to meet specific standards or regulations to have the SIN awarded. A popular SIN that limits the types of services vendors can provide is the Engineering Services SIN or SIN 541330ENG. For example, traditional architect-engineer (A-E) services are not allowed to be sold through this SIN or any other SIN in general. However, the Engineering SIN is not the only SIN that limits engineering firms in their service offerings; the Environmental Consulting Services SIN also requires contractors or offerors looking to add this SIN to meet a few requirements.

In a recent blog, we discussed the many changes introduced by the Trump Administration and what their effect was on current GSA Schedule contractors. If you don’t have a GSA Schedule yet, but are looking to get one, you may be wondering how these changes have impacted the process of acquiring a GSA Schedule contract. That’s why in this blog, we’ll discuss the impact that the new administration’s policies have on potential GSA Schedule contractors.

The GSA Schedule acquisition process is difficult enough as it is—you don’t want to worry about whether you’re doing all this work just to get rejected by GSA. While the process involves a lot of documentation, preparation, and negotiation, it’s not an impossible feat to get your GSA Schedule awarded. However, rejection happens. It usually happens to companies with a lack of knowledge or preparation on the process. Some of our clients have come to us after trying to get a GSA Schedule on their own, or working with a scammy firm and they were rejected and had to start over. So, we put together 5 reasons your GSA Schedule offer could be rejected and how to avoid them.

At Winvale, we often consider the pricing section of a GSA Schedule offer the most important to focus on because a lot of time and effort needs to be put into making certain that a prospective GSA Schedule contractor is putting forward the best pricing package that they can offer to GSA while maintaining a healthy profit margin. We have been through many scenarios with contractors and come across a number of mistakes that are commonly made when crafting, or modifying, GSA Schedule pricing. I would like to take you through a list of common mistakes contractors make with their GSA Schedule pricing, so that you can avoid them when dealing with your own GSA Multiple Award Schedule or offer.

Upon award of your Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract, you’re likely to be greeted with many tasks and terms you’ll need to get familiar with quickly. Sales reporting, Minimum sales requirement, Order Level Materials Special Item Number (SIN), Mass Modification—these are all terms that might get thrown around by your Contract Specialist during the award process. But what do they actually mean for you? What action items need to get done following the award of a General Services Administration (GSA) MAS contract? As a proposal writer that manages the post award process on a regular basis, I’ll let you know the best way I’ve found to get started on managing your GSA MAS contract.

The age-old question when researching services is: does paying more for a high-end service make it worth the investment? When companies decide to pursue a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), it doesn’t take long to see there’s no shortage of firms offering GSA Schedule consulting. But if you haven’t noticed already, the pricing ranges wildly. This leaves many companies wondering if they can get just as good of a service if they select a cheaper option. It really depends on what kind of support you’re looking for and what kind of long-term investment you’re trying to make.