It’s never too early to start preparing for next year—as 2021 comes to a close, GSA is planning their strategic moves for 2022 and outlining what changes will be made to the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program. In early December, we attended the Southwest Supply and Acquisition Center’s Industry Days, which is a yearly event devoted to providing contractors and industry partners developments on GSA. This year’s events gave insight to all the important updates that are expected to happen within the next year or two. What are some of these updates and how will it impact your business tactics? Here are some of the biggest takeaways.

As a contractor for the General Services Administration (GSA), you know that a key part of contract compliance is regularly reporting your sales and paying the Industrial Funding Fee (IFF). Whether you report on a monthly or quarterly basis, it’s essential you have a consistent and accurate invoicing process so you can be certain you are reporting the correct sales. To ensure that contractors are compliant with their sales reporting process, GSA will conduct Contractor Assessments on a semi-regular basis. During these assessments, an Industrial Operations Analyst (IOA) will analyze your sales practices and reporting history to ensure you are compliant with GSA terms and conditions.

Once you get your GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract, you can have it for up to 20 years. It’s a rewarding contract vehicle, but it’s a long-term commitment, meaning you’ll need to frequently update your GSA Schedule to grow with your business and to keep up with GSA regulations. GSA requires regular contract maintenance, involving contract updates, reporting, modifications, and adhering to new GSA regulations.

When it comes to federal procurement, the government has a distinct order in which government agencies can purchase goods and services. For example, offerings through the AbilityOne Program, a program that provides employment opportunities for people who are blind or who have significant disabilities, must be considered for purchase before GSA Schedule contracts and other federal contracts.

You may have done your research on what a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract is, looked at the benefits and requirements, and decided you want to pursue it–but now what? One glance at the list of everything you need to submit your proposal, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Although the guide is there to help you, there’s a lot of paperwork required to create a successful GSA Schedule proposal (also known as offer), and you might have some hesitation about where to start. In this blog, we’ll help you navigate all the trainings, documents, and materials you need to start drafting your GSA Schedule offer in 5 steps.

We live in the digital era and as we have seen with the pandemic, more and more aspects of life are becoming digitized. This does not exclude our federal entities, so it’s imperative that our federal government is protected from the threats that come with the digital age. As a result, GSA created a HACS (Highly Adaptive Cybersecurity Services) SIN which is dedicated to preventing leaks and cyberattacks. Before an entity can obtain a HACS SIN, they must show that they are qualified to provide thorough and extensive cybersecurity. A main part of the qualification for the HACS SIN is determined by an Assessment Evaluation and Standardization (AES) High Value Asset (HVA) assessment. Let’s dive into the HVA assessment and what it entails.