If you look back at your 2020 plans and goals from last January, they probably don’t mention anything about a global pandemic. 2020 was an incredibly unpredictable year for all of us. Despite the economic uncertainty, government spending continues to steadily increase as agencies spring to action to make sure national, state, and local organizations have the resources they need to provide COVID-19 relief.

On December 22, 2020, Congress passed a COVID-19 relief bill making it part of one of the highest spending bills in American history. The $900 billion Coronavirus bill is attached to an omnibus spending bill for the 2021 Fiscal Year totaling $2.3 trillion.

This year has seen a sharp increase in cyberattacks and security breaches that have compromised sensitive data in nearly every sector, including federal government agencies, and contractors who work with the government. With each new breach, especially the recent massive cyber attack on SolarWinds, it becomes increasingly clear that bad actors are capable of not only accessing standalone critical assets, but also traversing undetected across networks and workloads to expand their footholds.

GSA has undergone some major transformations over the course of the 2020 year. From reducing 24 separate legacy Schedules down to one single Schedule, to migrating several GSA applications to one central location, Beta.Sam.gov, it’s safe to say there is much to stay on top of. And with more changes projected for 2021, we decided to compile a directory of GSA’s most useful tools and programs to help GSA contractors stay on track.

SIP—it’s only three letters, but it can be a dense and frustrating program for GSA Schedule contractors. SIP, which stands for Schedule Input Program, is a software program created by the General Services Administration (GSA) for contractors to upload their contract information to GSA eLibrary and GSA Advantage! platforms. GSA contractors have to upload their catalogs and price lists to reflect the MAS Consolidation by March 31, 2021, so it's important you know how to use SIP.

[This article was last updated on November 10, 2020] Just as GSA contractors thought the updates were slowing down in frequency, the General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) issued the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Solicitation 47QSMD20R0001 - Refresh # 5 on November 9, 2020.