Public bids under the federal government's "full and open competition rules" are horrendously inefficient. End-users and official buyers do not like to use public bids. Once a program administrator has identified a need, or reached a decision to buy a particular product or service, he or she typically wants the product or solution of choice as soon as possible. Bureaucrats are human, and they're not patient.

Public bids require significant amounts of time to prepare the bid documents, write the solicitation, evaluate proposals once they've been submitted, and work through final negotiations to contract award. This process can easily take anywhere from six months to a year. All of this work, combined with the possibility that a losing bidder could protest the contract award, causing even more work and time to elapse, adds up to a general distaste for the public bidding process. It is no surprise, then, that the use of GSA Schedules has skyrocketed in recent years.

GSA designed Schedule procurement rules for speed and efficiency. A highly efficient purchasing procedure may inherently result in less competition and higher prices, but many believe that the net gain in saved time and administrative cost is worth it.