What’s the MAS Consolidation About?
GSA’s revamped Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program simplifies the acquisition process for both agencies and contractors. Under the program, businesses and their offerings are pre-vetted and easily accessible, removing burdensome requirements for contractors to sell their products/services, and for agencies to purchase them.
Initially, GSA Schedules consisted of 24 separate Schedules and 900+ unique Special Item Number (SIN) offerings. In October of 2019, GSA released their Consolidated MAS, consolidating all 24 GSA Schedules into one, streamlined Schedule. At the same time, the Schedule moved from the old, arbitrarily assigned SIN numbers (like “132-51”) to NAICS code-based SINs (like “54151S”). As a result, SIN numbers are much more intuitive, and are directly tied to the nature of the work.
Since the solicitation’s release, the agency has been hard at work moving through their MAS Consolidation Phased Approach.
Phase One – Developing the New Schedule (Complete)
Completed in FY 2019, Phase One saw the creation of the consolidated MAS. GSA reviewed all legacy Schedule Terms and Conditions (T&Cs), mapped legacy to revised SINs across the MAS, and used Category Management to better organize offerings. Moving forward, all new offers would be submitted under the new, consolidated MAS using the new SINs.
Phase Two – Mass Modifications (Complete)
Phase Two released a Mass Modification, completed in July of 2020. All legacy contract holders had to accept updated T&Cs and start working to update their previous SIN offerings to align with the new, consolidated MAS.
Phase Three – Multiple Contract Consolidation (In Progress)
Phase Three prompted the consolidation of existing contracts on Schedule. All contractors with more than one legacy Schedule (for example, one contract under PSS and another under 00CORP) were advised to communicate with their respective Procuring Contracting Officers (PCOs) to start the consolidation process. Contractors were tasked with choosing a surviving contract, submitting modifications to add all their SIN offerings to the surviving contract, and determining the earliest cancellation date for non-surviving contracts.
While Phase Three was initiated in August of 2020, GSA MAS PMO officials estimate that full execution will take 5-10 years, due to outstanding Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) on Schedule contracts.
What this Means for Contractors
The consolidation of the MAS program simplified the process for companies to get on Schedule. Under the legacy solicitation, contractors had to obtain an additional contract when adding different Schedule offerings. This lengthy process cost excess time and money to complete, making it difficult for businesses – especially Small Businesses – to get on, and build up, their GSA contract vehicle. The consolidated Schedule lessens those administrative burdens and, with one overarching solicitation, simplifies compliance.
Hazard Ahead
Even though the GSA Schedule solicitation has changed, the sales criteria have not. Contractors are still required to meet their total Schedule sales goal of at least $25,000 within the first two years, and $25,000 each year after that. If a contractor falls short of this requirement, they will receive an automatic pending contract cancellation modification from the eMod system.
Quick Tips for Saving Your Schedule Cancellation
GSA does not want to cover administrative costs for a $0 revenue-generating Schedule, but they understand there may be myriad reasons why a contractor is not meeting their sales goals. It is the contractor’s responsibility to demonstrate the steps they’ve taken to promote sales and actively seek work through their Schedule. If your MAS sales fall short of GSA’s requirement, show that you’re putting in a good faith effort by reporting the following to GSA:
- Business Development (BD) activities
- Submitted Request for Quotations (RFQs) and eBuy bids.
If you show GSA that you’re actively working to boost your Schedule sales, you may receive a cancellation waiver.
Please note that you can usually get a waiver until the five-year extension, at which point GSA will generally not exercise the option to extend the contract without proof of sales.
If you’d like to know more about the MAS Schedule and how to maximize it, please join me and Judy Bradt for GSA Schedule Rescue Camp on May 27th @ 2:00pm Eastern.
About the Author
Courtney Fairchild is the President and CEO of Global Services. She is a proud Washington DC business owner and passionate supporter of the fight against multiple sclerosis. With more than 20 years in the arena of federal proposals & GSA Schedules, her leadership of Global Services has empowered companies with over 2,500 contract awards in excess of $20 billion in value. For assistance with your GSA Schedule or Proposal Development needs, please reach out to Courtney at cfairchild@globalservicesinc.com.