A 13-part installment series.
Richard White explains how federal sales are really transacted. 

Installment 8 - Multiple Award Contracts, the Tidal Wave of the Future

Use of Multiple Award Contracts (MACs) to buy products and services is gradually dominating the federal market. Federal contracting staffs are overloaded so more efficient MACs are becoming the purchasing method of choice.

MACs are large contracts awarded to several companies to fulfill orders when the need for products or services arises.

Funding of the contract takes place when an order is placed with one of the winning companies.

The winning companies are selected based on (1) qualifications and experience, and (2) pre-negotiated prices. The winning companies use their pre-negotiated pricing to price specific orders as the requirement materializes.

Bottom line: MACs eliminate competition severely to save time and money for the taxpayer. At least that is how they are justified in the federal regulations.

Single MACs are currently active with large budgets, for example a MAC can split up a five-year budget of $ 60 billion dollars among to 50 companies.

How's that for reducing competition to save procurement lead-time and federal contracting staff dollars?

About Richard White
Richard White has 45 years of experience in federal contracting and has published three books on federal contracting:

• ROLLING THE DICE IN DC How the Federal Sales Game is Really Played (2006)
• GSA SCHEDULES The Shortest Path to Federal Sales Dollars (2008)
• CRACKING THE $500 BILLION FEDERAL MARKET The Small Business Guide to Federal Sales (2010)
  

The three books are available for purchase through Amazon.com or complementary copies can be downloaded by clicking on the titles above.

The books attempted to inform readers about how the federal sales game is played in the trenches. They present "how-to" information, the information is still relevant, not much has changed in government contracting over the years.

Like the earlier books, this installment series is focused on selling services and complex hard goods, and software (selling commodities is a low priced crap-shoot).

Series Installments:

1. The Government Has All of the Cards
2. It's Not as Bad as it Appears
3. Trying to Become an Insider by Cold Calling is Expensive
4. Insiders Use Their Contracts to Sell to More Customers
5. Becoming an Insider Costs Time and Money
6. Public Bids
7. Incumbent Contractors Win Repeating Contracts
8. Multiple Award Contracts, the Tidal Wave of the Future
9. How Big and Important are MACs?
10. GSA Schedules: The Biggest and Most Sought After MAC
11. GSA Schedules are Expensive to Get and Not for Everyone
12. The Subcontracting Channel
13. Conclusion 
    

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