Everything You Need to Get the Contract: A GSA Schedule 70 Checklist

The MAS (GSA Schedule) Program's Information Technology sector covers IT Services, Hardware, Software, and a range of specialist IT services. This is one of the biggest federal contracts, and it was formerly known as IT Schedule 70. The GSA's IT Schedule 70 has been its biggest source of revenue for many years. GSA Schedule 70 consistently makes up around half of all transactions made through the GSA Contract program (all 33 GSA Schedules).

The GSA Schedule Program's IT Schedule 70 is a Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract. It is known as an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract since there are no orders or financial obligations associated with the award; instead, it serves as a conduit for sales to occur (i.e. a License to hunt). It serves as the primary means of acquiring IT hardware, software, and professional services.

Why Should You Use A GSA Schedule 70 Contract?

To expand or increase their opportunities for doing business with the federal government, contractors who sell IT hardware, software, and professional services might wish to look into the GSA IT Schedule 70 Contract. The GSA Schedules Program's largest schedule, both in terms of sales and rivalry, is GSA Schedule 70. A GSA Schedule 70 Contractor typically earns $3.1 million in annual income.

The Schedule 70 Contract is mostly utilized when selling to federal customers. However, State, Municipal, and Local government organizations can make purchases through the Disaster Recovery and Cooperative Purchasing programs. That said, the GSA IT Schedule 70 is primarily used by the federal government as a significant source for streamlined IT acquisitions. Federal customers benefit from the savings that Schedule 70 IT acquisitions deliver.

A conventional government contract is not what the GSA Information Technology (IT) Schedule 70 is. The GSA Schedules Program is designed to evaluate and approve particular goods and services supplied by contractors to client agencies at fair and reasonable pricing. Schedule 70 is used by GSA customers to meet their demands for IT products and services since it greatly shortens the time required for the procurement process, is one of the bigger contracts across the federal government and is the highest-grossing vehicle out of all the GSA Schedules.

We are breaking down the To-Do List: Most IT product, software, and/or service companies looking to market to government customers have heard of or considered securing a Schedule 70 contract.

Be prepared!

Before beginning to draught an offer to submit for a GSA Schedule 70 contract, contractors should complete the following:

Educate - The GSA's Vendor Education Center portal's Pathways to Success and Readiness Assessment training modules must be completed by prospective contractors. The Schedule 70 offer review and post-award processes are covered in both training sessions, preparing the contractor for the tasks and requirements that will be involved.

Apply for a DUNS number from Dun & Bradstreet. Activates a SAM.gov Entity Registration, gets a digital certificate and submits an Open Ratings Past Performance Evaluation (PPE) Report to apply for a GSA contract.

Read the Schedule 70 of the GSA's Solicitation. The solicitation can be found on FederalBizOpps.gov and contains crucial details to take into account before beginning the procedure. To understand the requirements of being a GSA contractor, contractors should carefully read the application instructions and attachments to the Solicitation.

Set!

They offer materials for the GSA Schedule 70 proposal that needs to be put together. The offer for a Schedule contract must be put together in several steps, which takes effort and time. For detailed directions, be sure to often refer to the Solicitation. Assemble and complete the following documents regarding the business's finances, experience, available products and services, and commercial dealings:

Administrative - The following items will be the main focus of the offer's administrative section:

• Financial statements for the company, together with a narrative (if necessary) addressing any financial data that casts a poor light on the business;
• A subcontracting plan is limited to size categories other than small businesses. Are you unsure whether your business falls under the Small or Other Than Small designation? Learn more about NAICS Codes and business sizes here;
• A declaration revealing ongoing offers rejected offers or previous GSA contracts;
• The provisions of the manufacturer's Commercial Service Agreement (CSA) or End User License
• Agreement (EULA), if applicable, must be examined by the GSA's Legal Team for conformity with federal law;
• If the offeror is not the manufacturer of the proposed goods/software, a letter of supply signed by the manufacturer is required;

• Every GSA offer starts with a price proposal template. The template, which is part of the solicitation attachments, must be filled up with the proposed goods and/or services. Contractors may use one of two methods when presenting their pricing proposal:
• The many discounts that the business now offers to commercial customers are disclosed in the Commercial Sales Practices (CSP) or traditional proposal. To construct a discount ratio between the MFC price and the GSA price, which the business will be compelled to maintain for the duration of the contract, contractors using the CSP technique must identify their Most Favored Customer (MFC), who obtains the best pricing from the GSA.
• Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) omits CSP in favor of comparing the proposed products' and services' prices to those of comparable goods and services that the government already purchases (usually, GSA compares to other awarded GSA Schedule contracts). Note that only a subset of Schedule 70 SINs applies TDR. Contractors must adhere to proposal instructions in line with the CSP or traditional price proposal if the services they are proposing do not fall under a TDR-applicable SIN;
• The CSP-1, also known as the Commercial Sales Practices Format, details the company's discounting policies as well as how it sells and to whom it sells to the GSA. The GSA employs CSP to confirm that the business is giving the government it's the best pricing. Note: Offers filed that do not participate in TDR must include a CSP-1;
• Contractors submitting labor category matrixes should adhere to the guidelines in the Sample Labor Category Matrix attachment that was included with the Solicitation and submit the data in Excel format.
  Professional Compensation Plan details the company's pay and benefits policies for workers covered by the contract;
• The company's commercial or market rates are confirmed by the Commercial Pricelist or Market Rate Sheet;
• Examples of pricing support materials include catalogs that have been made available to the public, price lists, copies of invoices and contracts, quote sheets, etc. The supporting document and the suggested price in the offer must be related and pertinent;
• Price Narrative provides information to help the Contracting Officer (CO) reading it decide whether the suggested pricing is fair and reasonable. Additional information including the Economic Price Escalation technique, the anticipated aggregate contract sales for the Base Term, and an understanding of the Industrial Funding Fee's obligations should also be covered.

Go!

The government's market for health information technology will be worth $31.3 billion by the end of 2017. Therefore, there is an increase in consumer demand for Health IT Solutions as a result of this 7.4% growth. A new addition to Schedule 70's Health IT Special Item Number (SIN) 132-56 was released by the General Services Administration (GSA) in June 2016. What you should know about this SIN, its advantages, and selling on this schedule is provided below. 197 contractors have been included in this category since the launch of the new SIN.

Several of the Health IT SIN services are as follows:

• Services for Connected Health
• Assistance with electronic health records services
• Medical analytics
• IT in the health sector
• Management and exchange of health information
• Innovative responses
• Newer research

The GSA's decision to introduce the new SIN was influenced by the federal healthcare markets' explosive growth.

Following recent calls for reform in both military and civilian healthcare, the health IT business has finally reached prosperity. Although other SINs offer GSA IT 70 services , the expanding healthcare sector and its clients would benefit more from having their specialist IT SIN.

The GSA was able to become the only provider of health IT procurement services thanks to the Defense Health Agency. For vendors' needs in health IT, the Veterans Health Administration also directs them to the GSA IT 70 SIN. The SIN makes it simple and affordable for Federal, State, and Local Agencies to purchase health IT services.

Overall, this SIN's categories will make it simple for agencies to access information about and purchase solutions from pre-qualified health IT services. Additionally, contractors are given additional exposure by offering their services under SIN 132-56 rather than the SIN for general IT services.

New updates one year later:

• The process of eMod/eOffer has been further simplified.
• As part of this procedure, changes have been made to the Fast Lane Price Proposal Spreadsheet Template.
• It's no longer necessary to submit rival rates.

Schedule 70 SIN 132-56 Health IT information to keep in mind includes:

• The Health IT SIN offers contracting opportunities to both current and new industry partners!
• There is no cap on the number of SINs currently holding GSA IT 70.
• Within SIN 132-56, both little and big businesses are welcome.
• Only services, not items, are included in the Health IT SIN.
• Although the on boarding procedure varies depending on the status of the contract, both new and existing contractors have the chance to be identified as contractors under the SIN.
  

Send any inquiries to our professional team of GSA specialists if you're curious to learn more about GSA IT 70 To find out how we can assist contractors with applying for GSA Schedules, get in touch with us right away.