MORE COMPANIES CONSIDER GSA WORK-AROUNDS

As GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service presses forward with its Transactional Data Rule and Formatted Pricing Tool programs, more Schedule contractors are looking for ways to reach federal customers through alternative business channels.  Allen Federal has either herd directly or anecdotally about office machine, furniture, supply, and other product companies in the recent weeks that believe GSA’s new programs are bad business for them.  This doesn’t necessarily mean an exodus of Schedule contract holders.  Some may elect to continue having a streamlined Schedule for specific segments of business.  It does, though, mean that companies with established brand names are increasingly skittish about their ability to make a reasonable profit as FAS drives inexorably toward a platform where low price is the sole driving factor.  Unlike the IT sector, there are no ready-made IDIQ alternatives to the Schedule for products.  Instead, companies are looking at strengthening their small business partnerships, selling through primes that, themselves, would not fit in the Schedules program, and developing programs based on Simplified Acquisition Threshold business where rules and competition requirements are streamlined.  We’ve said before that the Schedules program only works if it’s a good model for everyone.  Increasingly, brand name, trusted contractors are evaluating whether the agency’s actions mean that it can still work for them.