While the Federal Computer Week link www.fcw.com/online/news/154044-1.html states that GSA
Advantage (GSA Online Web Purchasing site) sales increased 24% last year, they
failed to state that they only represented a mere 1.59% of all GSA sales in FY
2007 ($35.2 billion).
GSA Advantage sales has always been anemic and will
continue to be such until GSA improves the uploading and approval process.
Currently, GSA Advantage data is at least 30-45 days old as it typically takes
GSA 21-30 days to approve a mod request, GSA awardees are required (but most
don't) to post any approved mods five days after approval and then GSA CO's can
take anywhere from a day to a week+ to approve the mod/upload data.
GSA Advantage is best suited to validate that a
firm holds a GSA schedule and which manufacturers are approved but ill suited
for current and accurate part #'s and pricing. Also, most CO's who place GSA
Advantage orders have to modify their orders (costly and time consuming), as
quite often there has been a price decrease, an occasional price increase or
sometimes the product is no longer available.
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