House and Senate Armed Services Committees are actively considering unfunded wish lists of service branches, the Coast Guard is receiving a substantial increase to upgrade its fleet, IT officials are clamoring for more cyber money? Could FY’17 be the year when money starts flowing back into the acquisition system? Federal contracting dollars have declined steadily over the past 3-5 years, largely due to military draw-downs overseas. It turns out that those dollars are still needed, though, to fund other projects critical to maintaining or Read more
GSA filled out the details of its Formatted Product Tool (FPT) before a packed industry gathering last week, stating that the tool will end “outlier” pricing and enhance the federal buying process via GSA Advantage! This should be a huge, flashing “Warning” sign to contractors. As we reported a few weeks ago, the beta version of the FPT is filled with flaws. GSA’s system assumes that products with Read more
Loyal reader M. Rubio of Florida writes in, “I was told by a Navy CO that I can’t offer open market items when I’m responding to a Schedules-based procurement. Most of my offer consists of Schedule items. What can I do? Your Navy CO may either be confused, or simply not want to take the extra steps necessary in this situation, M. The fact is that you can offer open market items and schedule items on the same proposal, so long as the non-schedule items are clearly marked as such. This is a common practice. Your customer’s Read more
Everything has a nice green layer on it this time of year, and many of us are sneezing all the way to summer. Does this also happen, though, when you look at your company’s compliance manual? Do you have a compliance manual? If you need to dust off your compliance guides just like your windshield, it’s probably time for some Spring Compliance Cleaning. Allen Federal will review your compliance documents and procedures, correct and update any deficiencies, and then train your team to make sure you’re all up to speed in time for the federal busy season. If you sell to the feds and don’t have a compliance manual, that’s a critical area requiring immediate attention. Allen Federal can help your team draft and implement this needed component of your federal business. A bad, or non-existent, compliance program can land your firm on the suspended list. Contact Allen Federal today at info@allenfederal.com
GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service is back in the live training business, hosting the Federal Acquisition Training Symposium May 10-11 in Huntsville, Alabama. The event acknowledges that both GSA customers and contractors must receive regular training in order to get the most out of GSA’s acquisition tools. It has been difficult for the agency to train users on a large scale since the end of the GSA Expo era four years ago. While individual and virtual training have been used to try and fill the resulting needs, contractors, too, have had to play a role to guide buyers on proper contract use. The training symposium includes show space where contractors can display their latest solutions, albeit on a smaller scale than previous Expo’s allowed. Nevertheless, having customers, contractors, and GSA officials in one place makes for some excellent networking opportunities. The Training Symposium has tremendous potential and GSA leaders are to be applauded for trying to provide an opportunity for its customers to obtain critical knowledge. See more at gsafas2016.com.