Just GSA

GSA FX Mod 47 Recovery Purchasing

GSA (Federal Acquisition Service) has recently issued FX Mod 47 for Recovery Purchasing which permits GSA purchasing use by state or local governments of Federal Supply Schedules for goods or services that are to be used to facilitate recovery from a major disaster declared by the President under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, or to facilitate recovery from terrorism or nuclear, biological, chemical, or radiological attack.

I see no down sides to accepting this OPTIONAL modification with only the state or local governments NOT having backup phone and computer systems in play, which were not in place in New Orleans due the levy break.

To read about this mod, please click on this link http://www.capitalreps.com/GSA%20FX%20Mod%2047%20Recovery%20Purchasing.pdf

When playing by the GSA rules means an invitation to a No Bid response on a GSA RFQ

This GSA inquiry, submitted today was long overdue and a perfect subject for my new blog.

One of our clients was sent a GSA RFQ yesterday for 60 UPS Backup Devices from APC Sales and Service by the Dept of Labor.  Naturally, my technically compliant client (in the minority) of the other 75 APC GSA schedule offerors is unable to bid, as their CO correctly and astutely required the attached language for each of their APC GSA offerings (i.e. Part # NBAC0105 - ABC NetBolz - 48V Power Supply DC to DC - Please note that APC products cannot be sold as individual items.  They must be sold in conjunction with the IT equipment that these products support).

I requested that the GSA Schedule 70 Center provide notice to me when GSA administrative remedies or corrective guidance will be issued to the CO's of the other APC resellers so that they will be held to the same standard as my client.

Also, I advised the IT Data Center that while I recognize that they've made corrective attempts to ensure that the IT products are correctly positioned solely on Schedule 70 vs. Schedule 75, APC is offered by three firms on Schedule 75 (Office Supplies), which has no excluded restriction for said items*.

* Requirement from Schedule 70 Solicitation.  NOTE:  The following ARE EXCLUDED from the Information Technology Schedule:  ii:  Electrical Equipment - e.g., Uninterruptible Power Supplies, Computer Back-Up Power Systems, Surge Suppressers, Power Line Conditioners, Surge Absorbers, etc.  may be offer under this solicitation ONLY in conjunction with the IT equipment these devices support. 

Frustrations on hold...

Well, I've had many a client who's frustrations have surfaced as once they've gone through the wonderful process of having a GSA modification approved and whereas CapITal Reps has uploaded the product/service/price changes to GSA's Vendor Support Center for validation (required within five-days of the mod approval but has never been enforced), only to wait for their CO to review and approve the mod changes again onto GSA Advantage.  Many CO's approve the Advantage uploads weekly, while others, due to circumstances unknown....take longer to approve/post then it did to have the mod approved. 

What to do?  Well, you need to be pleasantly persistent and ping the CO via e-mail and voice mail, as more and more ordering activities will not award a contract to a schedule holder unless the offerings are displayed on GSA Advantage.  I always advise my clients that at best, GSA Advantage postings are 30-45 days old.  If you're awaiting a posting to an approved GSA mod that's been validated by the Vendor Support Center, you can always forward a copy of the approved mod (redact your cost and markup or discount data) to the ordering activity.

Of course, you must remember that GSA Advantage is really an online "viewing guide" as less than 1/10th of 1% of all GSA sales are transacted on Advantage.  Think how successful Amazon.com would be if their web site was 30-45 days old...not.

Good luck on closing the loop in the GSA mod process.