The GSA, or the General Services administration, serves the purpose of facilitating supply of products and services to US government offices, provides federal employees with transportation and office space, and implements government-wide cost-cutting programs and other administrative activities.
In this article we examine differences between GSA eBuy and GSA Advantage federal acquisition platforms. While both are designed to assist vendors in delivering their products and services to federal, municipal and local institutions, there are important differences between GSA eBuy and Advantage services that you should know about.
We can imagine GSA Advantage! as the Amazon shopping service of the U.S. Government. It is an online platform run by the General Services Administration, which government agencies use to find and buy millions of commercial products and services, at great prices. Only approved vendors who have been awarded a GSA Schedule can list their catalogs on GSA Advantage!, so that buyers can be sure of their fair prices and impeccable quality.
A GSA Schedule is initially awarded for 5 years and can be extended for another 15 years. Naturally, your business and the market will evolve with the times. The Large Category that your Schedule is awarded under will remain fixed, but successfully managing your GSA Schedule involves modifying the products and services you offer, your pricing, and your administrative details.
You’ve been awarded a General Services Administration Schedule and now it’s time to set foot into the government marketplace. When a contracting opportunity arises, government agencies issue different types of requests to gather information, assess the pool of contractors, and find a GSA supplier who best meets their needs. The most common is the Request for Proposal (RFP), which communicates what the government is interested in buying and instructions on how a respondent should prepare their proposal. Preparing a winning proposal is the key to GSA Scheduling opportunities. Here are 4 tips for a successful RFP response.
GSA eBuy is an electronic system used by thousands of U.S. government and military buyers worldwide, to source millions of products and services, issue solicitations to vendors, and achieve the best pricing and value for their purchases. eBuy streamlines the purchasing process for GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program, Blanket Purchase Agreements, Technology contracts, and Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative contracts, as well as for Cooperative Purchasing and Disaster Recovery Programs for State and Local Governments. Vendors like you can use eBuy to find and bid on exclusive government contracts.
If you are a supplier of industrial products and services, the U.S. Government has a demand for them. With your help, governmental departments can procure everything they need to maintain, repair, and manage their offices and buildings, and supply the various vital services like fire safety, rescue, and environmental protection. Companies like yours can take advantage of government opportunities by applying for the GSA Industrial Products and Services Schedule. This is one of the GSA Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) Large Categories, and was previously known as legacy Schedule 51V Hardware SuperStore prior to October 2019.
As part of the MAS Schedule Consolidation process, GSA has reached out to contractors requesting that a plan be submitted by September 30, 2021, outlining which of their schedules will be maintained as the primary and which ones will be merged. Since then, the deadline has been pushed up to December 31st, 2021.
Recently, GSA partnered with Overstock, to offer a wide assortment of products from established partners, allowing government personnel to easily find, research, and order necessary goods, including many items from small businesses.
What is EDI?
In the early days of the Cold War, it became clear that the postal service was not adequate enough to supply the Allied armies in the midst of Soviet blockades. There was no standardised system to track shipments, their contents, who was delivering the cargo, or even a way to decipher the various languages. So, in the 1960s Ed Guilbert designed EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) as a standardised system of communication to facilitate the U.S. Army supply chain.
