FAS Consolidating MAS Professional Services offerings
GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) is in the process of consolidating its Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) services offerings in an effort to improve usability and reduce costs.
As of September 2014, there over 4,400 professional services contracts across 8 Schedules. The scope of the various Schedules frequently overlap, causing confusion about which MAS (Multiple Award Schedule) is the best fit for a federal agency’s requirements and acquisition objectives. Service acquisitions can be very complex, crossing several different Schedule offerings, which complicates the procurement process and often discourages Contracting Officers from using Schedules.
Multiple MAS (Multiple Award Schedule) contracts for services have also presented challenges for GSA industry partners, with many managing multiple MAS (Multiple Award Schedule) contracts. Currently, there are approximately 527 contractors who hold more than one professional service Schedule contract, each of which is negotiated, managed and audited independently, costing both contractors and GSA scarce contract administration resources.
In today’s environment of declining budgets and increased demands on the acquisition workforce, GSA is seeking to improve its professional services Schedules through consolidation. By having fewer Schedules, or optimally one professional services Schedule, GSA hopes to achieve:
• Improved contract usability, allowing agencies to obtain and contractors to provide total service solutions through one contract vehicle.
• Increased program efficiency through managing fewer contracts and solicitations.
• Reduced administrative costs to industry through reducing the number of contracts they manage.
• Elimination of the need to submit separate offers for professional services; firms will be able to submit a modification request instead – resulting in a substantial decrease in time required to add new services.
GSA is using Interact, social media, industry days, association forums, and agency roundtables as channels for input and feedback, and to provide information to about the status of this work.
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See GSA Interact blog post and discussion stream
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