The Dun & Bradstreet D-U-N-S number has long been the GSA’s official Unique Entity Identifier, but it is being replaced in December 2020. In its place will be a new Unique Entity ID, generated in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov). This new, as yet unnamed Unique Entity Identifier will be twelve characters long. The definition of uniqueness will not be changing. Uniqueness will continue to be based on an entity being a separate legal entity and/or associated with a separate physical address.

The MAS Consolidation is one of the four cornerstone Initiatives of GSA’s Federal Market Place strategy. The main goal is to modernize and simplify the buying and selling experience for customers, contractors, and acquisition professionals. The consolidation will offer a simplified format with a single consolidated Multiple Award Schedule template containing additional solicitation documents to complete new offers which will include new large categories and sub-categories, as well as new streamlined conditions for new offerors.

On October 1st 2019, GSA will be consolidating its Multiple Award Schedules (MAS). The consolidation will combine 24 of the current schedules into 1, excluding only the 9 Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) schedules. On August 20th GSA held a webinar to explain the process of consolidation and answer vendor questions. The consolidation will consist of three phases.

The General Services Administration (GSA) was established in July 1949 by President Harry Truman to streamline the administrative work of the federal government. Today GSA provides centralized procurement for the federal government by managing the Federal Supply Schedules program, known more commonly as GSA Schedules. GSA Schedules is a purchasing vehicle that offers more than 12 million commercial supplies and services and is open for use to any federal agency within the Executive Branch. Currently there are 24 Schedules offering commercial goods and services which are managed directly by GSA. There are also another eight federal supply schedules managed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

As part of Winvale's new guest blogger series, Andrea Davis, Director of Contracts at Govplace and a Winvale client, is sharing the top 15 tips about government contracting that she's learned in her 20 years working for government contractors, in no particular order:

Back in April of 2000, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced that Digital Signature Trust Company has received the first interim approval to operate on the Access Certificates for Electronic Services (ACES) contract. This breakthrough was phenomenal because it rapidly sped up the processes of schedule acquisition, maintenance, and compliance more broadly. The ACES contract is currently managed by the Office of Information Security in GSA's Federal Technology Service.