GSA Schedule (General Services Administration) is an U.S. government contract of five-years dealing with the prices that the federal government has agreed upon to pay to vendors for their commercial products and services. This program is also referred as Multiple Award Schedules and Federal Supply Schedules. In spite of being an official federal contract, GSA Schedule is unfunded. However, funding is granted only on receipt of an order duly signed by a federal agency. A GSA Contract, which initially lasts for five years, can be renewed up to three five-year periods making it a contract of 20 years.

 

GSA basically establishes long-term government-wide contracts with different commercial firms giving them the access to more than 11 million commercial products and services. These supplies and services can either be ordered from the GSA schedule contractors directly or can be obtained through the online ordering and shopping system known as GSA Advantage.

 

Main Objective of GSA Schedule

 

The main objective of this contract is to give the customers certain advantages. With GSA Contacts buyers receive “most favored customer pricing” and enjoy the benefits of shorter lead-times for acquisition, lesser inventories and much lower cost for administrative works. The contact promises customers to deliver millions of high quality state-of-the-art commercial products and or services directly at huge discount prices. Even a customer located at the most remote part of the country will conveniently get delivery of the latest technology and quality products or services at the best offered customer prices. Moreover, buyers using GSA Schedules get huge opportunity to meet their small business goals and at the same time get the chance to promote compliance with all kinds of environmental as well as socioeconomic laws and rules.

 

Schedules: Commercial Supplies and Services

 

There are a total number of 62 categories or schedules of commercial supplies and services that vendors can apply a GSA contract for. Starting from industrial products to vehicles and from office products to computers, these categories cover all the domains commercial supplies along with almost every category of professional services. Following are some of the categories that are listed under the GSA contracts:

 

  • 8(a) STARS (Streamlined Technology Acquisition Resources for Services)
  • Alliant SB (Small Business) 
  • Building Materials 
  • Cooperative Purchasing 
  • Disaster Recovery Purchasing  
  • Environmental Services
  • Financial and Business Solutions (FABS)
  • Logistics Worldwide (LOGWORLD)
  • Marine Craft and Equipment    
  • Office Products, Supplies, and Services 
  • Personal Property Disposal Solutions (Excess/Surplus Property)
  • Scientific Equipment 
  • Technology Contracts 
  • Training Aids and Devices, Instructor-Led Training, and Course Development 
  • Transportation Services 
  • Vehicle Leasing—GSA Fleet 
  • VETS (Veterans Technology Services)

 

Vendors must go through a very systematic procedure in order to become a GSA contactor. At first, a vendor in response to the applicable GSA Schedule solicitation must submit an offer. Contracting Officers are solely responsible for determining the fairness of the offering by making a comparison between the price or discount offered by the company to the government and the price or discount offered by the company to commercial customers. However, the best way to understand the application process is to take the Center for Acquisition Excellence, an online self-paced training course, known as "How to Become a Contractor—GSA Schedules Program."

Author Bio:

Steven Brown is a professional Internet marketer. For GSA advantage GSA schedule contracts or GSA Program find more about training to visit GSAschedule.us.com.