This month marked the third and final phase in the General Services Administration’s (GSA) big changes to the Multiple Award Schedule Consolidation. In Phase 1 of the consolidation which wrapped up in September 2019, GSA worked on consolidating the 24 legacy Schedules into one Schedule. In Phase 2, GSA sent out a Mass Modification for contractors to begin to align their contracts under the new consolidated Schedule. Phase 3, which began on August 1, 2020, impacts GSA Schedule contractors with multiple MAS contracts under one Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), e.g., Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number. We know it’s a lot to keep up with these major changes, but it’s our job to stay on top of these important updates for our clients. Let’s dive in to see how Phase 3 will impact you and what next steps you’ll need to take.

If you are a regular reader or subscriber to our Winvale weekly blog series and monthly newsletter, you have seen us cover Special Item Numbers (SINs) at length in the past, especially the newly formatted MAS Consolidation SINs. One of the first logical steps in submitting a new offer proposal to GSA in any MAS Large Category is to select the SINs that are applicable to your company. With the MAS Consolidation, GSA made SIN selection a little easier by narrowing 900+ SINs down into a list of just over 300. However, there is something to be said for a deeper level of separation.

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), a new set of cybersecurity standards the Department of Defense (DoD) will be implementing on all their contracts, is included in the General Service Administration’s (GSA) $50 billion 8(a) STARS III Request for Proposal (RFP). 8(a) STARS III (Streamlined Technology Acquisition Resource for Services) is a multiple-award IDIQ contract set aside for small businesses that will give the federal government access to a wide range of information technology (IT) services-based solutions. Although STARS III isn’t a contract vehicle specific to the DoD, the DoD was one of the biggest buyers of STARS II, the predecessor to STARS III.

The GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program allows federal agencies and other eligible entities to purchase products and services from commercial businesses, but what about state and local governments? State and local government entities have their own contract vehicles, but they can also purchase under the GSA MAS Program with certain stipulations. While they do not have access to everything on the GSA Schedule, they can purchase from certain categories determined under the Cooperative Purchasing Program.

On July 1, 2020, The General Services Administration (GSA) issued Refresh #3 to its MAS Solicitation 47QSMD20R0001, which may affect your Office Management or Human Capital contracts. Based on feedback from customers, GSA is changing the Special Item Numbers (SINS) in the Office Management and Human Capital large categories on the new consolidated Multiple Award Schedule (MAS). What will these changes look like and what do they mean for your contracts in the future?

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.