Your people are your brand.  This phrase needs to be at the forefront of the minds of senior contractor officials as people begin to interact more in person at conferences and other events.  Folks cooped up for long periods of time may need a reminder that they represent the company, not just themselves, when they venture back into the real world.  Your company may want to offer some refreshers if it’s been awhile since members of your team attended in-person business gatherings.  This is especially true since interactions generally continue to Read more

Few people would eat something if they didn’t know what it was.  Blindly accepting anything that’s offered could leave a bad taste in your mouth, or trigger something more serious like an allergy.  Remarkably, though, contractors sign agreements all of the time without looking at actual contract clauses.  This has resulted in more than a few having a very bad taste in their mouth indeed and/or a serious compliance allergy.  Allen Federal can provide a review of your contracts and contract clauses and let you know if there are terms you may not have known about, clauses that you’d thought you’d negotiated out, or other potential compliance problems.  We’ve reviewed hundreds of contracts and many more clauses.  Contact us at info@allenfederal.com to see what we can do for you.

Few people would eat something if they didn’t know what it was.  Blindly accepting anything that’s offered could leave a bad taste in your mouth, or trigger something more serious like an allergy.  Remarkably, though, contractors sign agreements all of the time without looking at actual contract clauses.  This has resulted in more than a few having a very bad taste in their mouth indeed and/or a serious compliance allergy.  Allen Federal can provide a review of your contracts and contract clauses and let you know if there are terms you may not have known about, clauses that you’d thought you’d negotiated out, or other potential compliance problems.  We’ve reviewed hundreds of contracts and many more clauses.  Contact us at info@allenfederal.com to see what we can do for you.

The list of new and soon-to-be burdens government contractors are saddled with continues to grow, but industry so far has remained largely silent.  It’s time for that to change.  Extra costs for industry absolutely translate into extra costs for government.  Timelines grow and the implementation of new systems is delayed. Read the headlines of Defense News or Defense One these days and you’ll see that the need for real acquisition reform isn’t just an academic pursuit.  Companies should not just “go with the flow” with such high potential stakes in play.  Contractors played a significant role in acquisition reform a generation ago.  Industry executives weren’t shy about telling Congress or the Executive Branch what was wrong and in providing proposals on how to fix it   Reforms, however fleeting, were real.  As Dan Henninger said last week in the Wall Street Journal, however, “..the big-government Democrats- today led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus – defeated that self-reform movement.”  Henninger could have added “in spades”.  “Reform” today often means adding to the list of hurdles both contractors and their government counterparts must clear in order to conduct all but the easiest acquisition.  Industry needs to find its voice and not be shy about pointing out that there is absolutely no such thing as a free socio-economic lunch.  Similarly, there are other real costs to an over-burdened and understaffed acquisition process, not the least of which is national security.  Contractors are stakeholders here and have a responsibility to speak up when costs soar and barriers to market entry grow.  Every contractor has real jobs in actual states and Congressional districts to which actual Senators and Representatives should listen.  There is no time like today to ensure that industry’s voice is heard and that a plea for some, dare we say, common sense is pursued.

While GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule team is still in the final phase of merging contracts into one vehicle, the agency’s work on the Schedules program doesn’t stop there.  Here are three things that GSA is doing now to ensure that Schedule contracts remain a viable, low barrier to market entry contract vehicle.

1.  Publication of the GSA Schedules Roadmap:  This set of guidance provides clear, easy to follow steps for companies considering obtaining a Schedule contract.  It lets companies know what will be required of them and what the benefits are of taking the GSA Schedule journey.  “De-mystifying” the Schedules process has been a priority for the agency’s leadership and the Roadmap is one part of that process.

2.  Expanding the Startup Springboard option across the program:  Startup Springboard allows companies with less than two years of experience to apply for a Schedule contract.  Started with the IT Schedule several years ago, it is now open to any business that offers a product or service inside the scope of Schedule offerings.  Companies are encouraged to show the experience of key people in working with government customers in other capacities, sub-contract experience or other information which shows their capabilities and business readiness.  GSA leadership wants to encourage more small, new market entries to participate in the Schedules program and Startup Springboard is one key way the agency can meet that objective.

3.  Expanding the use of the Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) schedules option.  We will freely admit to being skeptics about the TDR program when it was first rolled out and we still recommend that companies using this option to obtain a Schedule contract use precise, clear wording.  That said, TDR has shown to be a popular way through which both current and new contractors can obtain a Schedule contract, or even expand the services and solutions they offer through the program.  TDR allows a company to bypass the traditional Commercial Sales Practice disclosures requiring detailed discount and pricing information.  Instead, TDR uses market research and, typically, a smaller amount of company-provided data that contracting officers use to determine the price reasonableness of offered solutions.  Significantly, TDR eliminates the Most Favored Customer trigger of the Price Reductions Clause.  These three steps are designed to make Schedule contracts easier to manage and obtain.  Combined with GSA’s extensive contractor training, the agency is making significant strides to ensure that companies can obtain a Schedule contract and actually sell through it.