About GSA Contract

GSA contract grants firms the access and the authority to provide services and products to thousands of governmental ordering offices. The authorized buyers enjoy the most favored customer pricing and preferred services. Over eleven million commercial products and services can be ordered through the GSA Advantage!®, an online shopping and ordering system, or directly from GSA Schedule contractors.

Under the GSA schedule program, a wide variety of businesses from almost every industry are able to trade with the government. Some of the more popular fields are among the IT products and services, office and industrial supplies, business management services, engineering services, environmental products and services and many others. Overall there are sixty two categories of commercial products and services that vendors may apply for a GSA contract under.

GSA schedules, also known as schedules Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) or Federal Supply Services (FSS), are awarded to both large and small businesses by the contracting officers (CO) and there is no preference used to award GSA FSS schedule contracts. There is however a Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.405-5, which states that : (a) "Orders placed against schedule contracts may be credited toward the ordering activity's small business goals," and (b) "Ordering activities may consider socio-economic status when identifying contractor(s) for consideration or competition for award of an order or BPA". This means that buyers are encouraged to place a portion of their purchases with small business.

Many small businesses recognize this enormous potential in obtaining FSS schedule contracts, and over years the interest in placing task orders against FFS contracts held by small businesses has been increasing. Many experienced business owners and freshly discovered entrepreneurs strongly believe that a GSA schedule is essential for success. A number of large contractors have GSA schedule sales exceeding $ 100 million annually. Most federal buyers favor GSA Advantage!® as their main purchasing mechanism, and vendors see it as an ideal sales and closing tool.

GSA Schedule is a five year contracts and may be renewed for three five-year periods resulting in a 20-year contract cumulatively. GSA Contracts are unfunded and the funds become available after the order is signed by a federal agency.

In order to be a contracted supplier under a GSA schedule, companies must undergo a series of rigorous application process. One of the most important aspects of the application process is the negotiation of fair prices for the products or services to be delivered. Once the negotiations complete successfully, the vendor is recognized as an approved supplier under a particular schedule, and they are able to list their catalogs on GSA Advantage! site.

There is a reduced competition for GSA orders because of the predetermined prices in the contract award. There is still a great importance in direct sales and other marketing channels. Also some of the schedules are more competitive than others due to the number of authorized vendors who offer similar products or services and vendors should concentrate their attention on all these aspects.

At times, federal buyers submit a bidding request to three GSA vendors on a specific schedule and the winner of the bid is determined based on the best value consideration. Once the order is approved, it becomes a contract between the purchasing agency and the GSA schedule vendor and the contract must be compliant with the term and conditions of the GSA schedule contract.

State and local agencies now have the authority to purchase directly from the Informational GSA schedule 70, and Congress is considering other schedules to be added on to the list.