If you’re a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) holder who has reached your third and final option period, you may be wondering when it’s time to start thinking about applying for a new contract. The answer is likely sooner than you think. In order to avoid a lapse between the end of your old contract and the start of your new contract, it’s critical not to wait until the last minute. In this blog, we’ll discuss when the best time is to start your streamlined offer, by working backwards from award to submission to start date.
Before discussing the timeline for preparing a streamlined offer, it’s important to understand what a streamlined offer is. Streamlined offers are submitted by current GSA contractors who are seeking to get a new contract awarded. They are similar to standard offers, but with reduced requirements. Streamlined offers remove many of the technical and past performance requirements, as 20 years of successful performance on the GSA is considered sufficient evidence of past performance.
A key thing to note is that only “successful MAS contractors” are able to submit streamlined offers. The GSA defines successful MAS contractors as contractors who have met the minimum sales requirement, have a demonstrated pattern of satisfactory performance, and have an active contract with the same Special Item Numbers (SINs) as the new offer. This last requirement is a key one. Streamlined offers must be for the same SINs as the current contract, no new SINs can be added. Additionally, your contract must be active—if your current contract expires, you’re not eligible to submit a streamlined offer and must instead submit a full offer.
The first thing to determine when deciding when to start a streamlined offer is when you ultimately want your new contract to be awarded. Despite what you may think, you don’t need to wait for your old contract to expire for your new contract to be award. Your goal should be to have your new contract awarded shortly before the end of your old contract. This ensures that you will be able to continuously offer your products and services through the GSA MAS Program with no lapse.
If you still have ongoing work on your old contract, you can fill out a Request to Hold Continuous Contracts, which allows you to maintain your old GSA contract after the award of your new GSA contract. You won’t be able to receive new awards on the old contract, but you can complete any orders still outstanding.
With your target award date in mind, the next thing to determine is when you should submit your streamlined offer. You need to make sure that you are submitting your offer with enough time to be assigned to Contracting Officer (CO), have the offer reviewed, and go through the clarifications and negotiations process. While this can take less time than a standard offer, there is no guarantee that it will happen speedily, and in recent months, timelines have begun increasing for all types of offers. Typically, streamlined offers are assigned to the CO managing your current contract, but this is not a hard and fast rule. Given the high levels of turnover at GSA due to recent Executive Orders, this is even less certain now than it was before.
While it’s difficult to estimate how long it will take for a streamlined offer to be assigned to a CO, the clarifications and negotiations process typically takes at least a few weeks, depending on the size of your offer and the speed of your CO. Keeping this in mind, it’s a good idea to submit your streamlined several months before your target award date.
Many contractors are under the impression that the streamlined offer process is not something they need to worry about until their contract is about to expire, but this is not the case. GSA recently recommended that contractors start the process of submitting a streamlined offer at least 24 months in advance of their contract expiration. This is not because the streamlined offer process always takes two years, but because currently, GSA is seeing extreme delays on contract review times due to the elevated levels of turnover and significantly increased workloads for remaining COs caused by recent changes at the GSA.
Starting your streamlined offer 24 months before your contract expiration date allows plenty of time both for you to prepare and submit your offer, and for a CO to be assigned and review the offer.
If your current GSA MAS contract is expiring in the next few years, it may be time for you to start thinking about putting together your streamlined offer. If you have more questions about when you should start, or are looking for help preparing your offer, reach out to us. One of our expert consultants can help answer all of your questions.