By Global Services on Friday, March 6, 2020
On January 31, 2020, the General Services Administration (GSA) initiated Phase II of its Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Consolidation by releasing Mass Mods to industry in a two week time-frame (1/31/2020 – 2/14/2020). As contractors scramble to finalize pending changes and accept the mod before the July 31, 2020 deadline, GSA is hard at work tying up some loose ends.
Since Mass Mods delete all legacy Special Item Numbers (SINs) and adds new, consolidated SINs automatically, GSA has to update the MAS Modification Guide to reflect the new SINs and Terms and Conditions (T&C). On January 3, 2020, GSA released a Request for Information (RFI) for their Draft MAS Modification Guide. After gathering feedback from industry partners, GSA began crafting a guide that would best prepare industry for business after accepting the MAS mods. On February 27, 2020 and March 4, 2020, GSA’s MAS Program Management Office (PMO) offered free webinars on MAS Modification Guidance Training to explain the purpose of the guide and clarify any questions contractors may have.
The MAS Modification Guide will share information and tips for preparing/submitting the following:
- Administrative Modifications: Unilateral modifications submitted by contractors to keep company information up to date such as: address, email address, Point-of-Contact (POC), Authorized Negotiator, Contract Administrator, or Industrial Funding Fee (IFF) POC.
- Addition Modifications: Adds products, services, or SINs to a company’s Schedule offerings.
- Deletion Modifications: Allows industry to remove Labor Category (LCs), products, or SINs from an entire contract. When deleting these items, contractors must provide reasoning for deletion and confirm that the items will not be added later with a higher price.
- Pricing Modifications: Encompasses price increase and price reduction mods.
- Technical Modifications: Covers changes in geographic coverage, part #, and product/service description changes. Note: Price changes in conjunction with these modification types must be separately requested.
- Terms and Conditions Modifications: Contractors can create/manage clause exceptions, representation of business size, incorporate subcontracting plan, and initiate other T&C mods (Cooperative Purchasing, Disaster Recovery, e-Verify, Re-representation of Business Size for Non-Novated Merger/Acquisition, Revise T’s and C’s, Re-representation of Small Business Type, and participate in Transactional Data Reporting (TDR).
- Change of Name and Novation Modifications: Includes change of name agreement mod and novation agreement mod. Note: For this mod, GSA must determine the agency responsible for executing the agreement; modification packages must be sent to the Contracting Officer (CO) / Contracting Specialist (CS) prior to submitting modification; and legal review must be conducted.
- Cancellation Modifications: Used to discontinue a contract, which can be cancelled by any party, at any time. Note: Contract cannot be reinstated after the cancellation date has occurred or passed.
The Guide will also include Modification Price Proposal Templates. These standardized templates are based on the templates in the MAS Solicitation for new offers, and will allow for a more automated review of modification requests. As you plan for modifications, remember that the Add/Delete option will be not be active on eMod until March 14th, 2020.
GSA is still reconciling all the comments they received from the RFI in January and will post the guide this month (March 2020) on Interact, GSA.gov, eMod, and Vendor Support Center (VSC). If you have any questions regarding the MAS Modification Guide, please contract [email protected].
Our team has supported contractors in obtaining and maintaining their GSA Schedule contracts since program inception. Throughout all of the changes in the industry, we have maintained a 100% GSA Schedule win-rate for our clients. If you need help navigating the new mod requirements, our experts are here to help!
NOTE: To help boost federal acquisitions, GSA recommends that you attend the upcoming Federal Acquisitions Service Training Conference (FAST) 2020 from April 14 – April 16th in Atlanta, Georgia. At the conference, contractors can provide feedback on the Federal Marketplace Strategy; network with federal agency personnel; attend informative sessions; and showcase products/services to federal buyers. The official event schedule will be posted soon on GSA’s site. To register for this event, please click here.
Our team will be attending FAST 2020. We hope to see you there!