Another opportunity is on the horizon for GSA IT contractors. GSA has released the final draft solicitation for Pool 1 of their new Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) called Ascend. This contract vehicle will serve as a one-stop-shop for government customers to acquire secure cloud service offerings from GSA contractors. The first pool focuses on Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (Paas), and will be followed by 2 other pools geared toward Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and and cloud-IT related professional services. Let’s breakdown this upcoming BPA and what it could mean for you as a GSA IT contractor.

As most contractors know, or will find out, maintaining compliance is one of the most important factors in doing business with the government. One of the most important, and frustrating, aspects of compliance for GSA Schedule holders is the tracking of Commercial Sales Practices (CSP). The idea of disclosing your Commercial Sales Practices, and tracking to make sure that their relationship to GSA pricing are not disturbed, can be daunting to many GSA Schedule holders and prospective contractors.

If you’ve been awarded a GSA Schedule contract, you may be feeling relieved. After all, you’ve finally completed the lengthy process of putting together your offer, waiting for review, and going through negotiations. While getting a contract award is certainly something to celebrate, it’s also not the end of your work. What many contractors don’t realize is that it is just as important to maintain your contract as it is to acquire it in the first place. In this blog, we’ll cover ways you can optimize your GSA Schedule.

When you enter the world of government contracting, you'll quickly notice it's filled with a series of capitalized letters--IFF, CSP, TAA, TDR what do they all mean? You're not alone if you have no idea what most of these acronyms mean in the beginning, but it'll make your life a lot easier if you start to familiarize yourself with the most frequently used ones. In this blog, we created a cheat sheet for you with10 acronyms that are used most often in the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program and are important for you to know.

GSA MAS contractors often see terms such as “Mass Mods” or “Solicitation Refreshes” and wonder what they entail as well as the potential impact on their GSA Schedule. These are separate contract actions from a traditional modification you would use to update the pricing, terms and conditions, or any other kind of update you may need to your GSA Schedule. These modifications are not initiated by contractors but are mandatory for maintaining compliance with the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and other solicitation requirements.

If you’re involved in federal contracting, you may be aware that federal agencies are required to conduct market research for most acquisitions. What you may not be aware of is how contractors can use this market research process to their own benefit. In this blog, we’ll focus specifically on the GSA’s Market Research as a Service (MRAS) and how contractors can take advantage of it.