1) Getting on Schedule – Time Equals Money

Purchases by government buyers through the General Service Administration (GSA) Schedule program were up 30% throughout the first three quarters of FY 2004 over the same time period in FY 2003 — a difference of $17.3 million dollars! Often, buyers ask established government vendors to get on Schedule to ensure that the procurement process functions smoothly. In other cases, vendors wishing to jump into the federal marketplace are finding themselves locked out of RFP and RFQ bids because buyers limit eligibility to Schedule contractors. The time to get on Schedule is before your competitor gets the deal. The time to get on Schedule is before a prospective deal flashes on your computer screen. The time to get on Schedule is when you make the decision to own a piece of the federal market and getting on Schedule takes time.

Comprised of about 65 open and standing solicitations, the GSA Schedule program is administered by 11 acquisition centers across the country. The best way to get started is to get on the internet: go to the GSA E-Library and search keywords in your industry or product/service line. Once you have identified the correct Schedule for your business needs, download the latest version of the applicable solicitation. Congratulations! You now have hundreds of pages of government boilerplate and Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) references on your desktop.

Length of time to complete the basic solicitation and its attachments varies from company to company, depending in part upon whether your business offers products or services. For companies with defined sales and discounting practices, centralized decision making, unified administrative and fulfillment teams, and printed price lists, the process will be speedier. Others will find it a greater challenge to gather the technical, past performance, and pricing data.

Once the offer is submitted to GSA, the timetable grows a bit more predictable. The initial offer will undergo a preliminary review. Assuming that the offer is substantially responsive, it will be assigned to a Procurement Contracting Officer (PCO) in two to four weeks. If the preliminary review finds that the offer is not substantially complete, GSA will return it to you with comments. You will be given the option to re-submit.

The solicitations require that an offeror hold its pricing anywhere from 120 to 180 days. Based on that, you can assume that the PCO will endeavor to work with you to achieve a decision to award, reject, or close the offer in that general timetable. Factors that may greatly impact the timetable include: the PCO’s workload; your responsiveness to the PCO’s requests for clarification; a possible review to determine your company’s financial stability; a Small Business Administration Certificate of Competency for small companies with borderline finances; a Small Business Subcontracting Plan for large-sized businesses; and inconsistencies in your pricing and commercial sales practices.

In short, from download of solicitation to award of contract, the process will run 5 to 18 months. The average is 15-18 months for a company working ad hoc; 9-12 months for a company with a dedicated project manager; and 6-9 months for a company using a professional consultant.

EZGSA supports the growth of businesses by assisting them in obtaining GSA Schedule contracts, maintaining contracts, marketing to the government, and supporting procurement efforts. EZGSA personnel can assist any size business to penetrate the federal marketplace and cultivate existing government relationships. EZGSA, a woman-owned business based in Bethesda, MD, was formed in 1999.