A recent Bloomberg Government study reminds us that Federal Government spending on multiple-award contracts (MACs) rose 49 percent to $121 billion over the last four years, more than double the growth rate of all other contracting programs within the Federal Government.

David McClure, Associate Administrator at GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, announced at the AFFIRM event on April 13th that the third party assessment organizations (3PAOs) will be announced in May 2012. This is a major step for FedRAMP, which will start the process for cloud service providers to obtain the provisional authorizations. These 3PAOs are an important part of the FedRAMP process, because they will be validating the cyber security control requirements for service providers. While the review is being handled mainly by DHS and GSA, the entire Joint Authorization Board (JAB) will have the final say on who will be a 3PAO. The JAB consists of the Chief Information Officers from GSA, DHS, and DOD. Department of Homeland Security Chief Information Officer, Richard Spires, said that once the 3PAO’s are picked in May, he expects the program to take-off in June of this year.

Mobile Device Management is a growing solution in both the public and private sector. The United States Chief Information Officer Steven Van Roekel launched an initiative in January to increase the adoption rate of Mobile Technologies and by the end of March a comprehensive federal mobile technologies strategy should be released. The January initiative allowed for an interactive internet-based “National Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy.” This allowed for public and private sector personnel to submit comments on the future on mobile technology in the government. Some of the core objectives listed in the draft of the federal strategy were: • Build mobile technologies and services for reuse and share common services among agencies and public developers • Efficiently manage mobile and wireless acquisition, inventory, and expenses

For any contractor interested in selling its’ products on a GSA Schedule, it is pertinent that you become familiar with, as well as compliant with the Trade Agreement Act (TAA). The TAA outlines where products the government purchases can be manufactured. As GSA Schedule solicitations contain TAA provisions, when applying for a GSA Schedule, your product’s Country of Origin (COO) must be included in the proposal, compliant with the TAA, and accurate. Determining a product’s COO can be complicated. While products that are wholly made in one country are simple to designate a COO for, most products contain numerous parts made in various countries. In these cases, the product’s COO is classified by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.225-5 as “the country in which the product has been substantially transformed into a new and different article of commerce with a name, character, or use distinct from that of the articles from which it was transformed”. Once a product’s COO has been determined, verify it is TAA compliant.

The Obama Administration has made a continued effort to in-source work performed for the Federal Government. The thought behind this is that government contractors are more expensive than federal employees. In an effort to increase efficiency, the Obama administration has suggested that agencies in the Federal Government in-source some of the work that has historically been done by contractors. With the start of in-sourcing, there grows a demand for greater workforce management. Agencies need to pay closer attention to the efficiencies within their workforce and make sure the job is done quickly and properly.

There are many requirements when submitting for a GSA Schedule. Of these requirements, one of the most important is the completion of the Past Performance Evaluation (PPE). The PPE is a report generated by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) c/o Open Ratings and is used by the GSA to assess a company’s history in successfully providing their products and services to customers. The report is valid for one year and is required for every GSA Schedule Solicitation. As the GSA will be evaluating how these references rank your past job performance, it is imperative that you select references that will give the highest scores possible. While you will be able to see overall scores, individual responses will be kept anonymous. It is recommended that you contact your references prior to submitting their contact information. You should inform them that you are pursuing a GSA Schedule, and you would appreciate it if they would be reference. The survey will be sent via email from Open Ratings, and will be available for them to complete for three weeks, after which Open Ratings will then call them to complete the survey over the phone. While it is recommended that you list as many references as possible, only four need to respond for a report to generate. The survey questions are: