GSA Schedules: "The Way" to Grow in the Federal Market

Over $30 billion dollars of federal contracts are awarded annually through small business friendly GSA schedules. GSA schedules are a favored mechanism for federal buyers to contract awards to avoid the delays and piles of paperwork required for a public competition.

Fedmarket is offering a complimentary 10 installment primer on GSA Schedules and why they are such crucial "seed contracts" for small businesses to win federal contracts. As the titles suggest, the 10 installments in the series tell readers why they should seek a GSA schedule.

1. Federal Buyers Use GSA Schedules Extensively to Make Quick and Easy Buys
2. Companies Do Not Need Federal Experience to Be Awarded a GSA Schedule Contract
3. GSA Schedule Companies Can Bid Quickly with Limited Competition
4. GSA Schedules Promote Awarding Contracts to Small Businesses
5. How to Apply for a GSA Schedule
6. How to Sell with a GSA Schedule
7. Small Service Businesses Need a MAC to Grow
8. How GSA Schedules are Used to Award Service Contracts
9. How GSA Schedules are Used to Award Product Contracts
10. A Prime Opportunity: Reselling Products Through GSA Schedules

3. GSA Schedule Companies Can Bid Quickly with Limited Competition

Federal buyers use GSA schedules to buy over $30 billion annually in products and services because GSA schedules reduce competition for the express purpose of saving purchasing time and contracting staff time. The reduction in competition is allowable under federal procurement regulations because competition took place in the process of awarding schedule contracts.

Buyers like GSA schedules based on their expediency and companies like them because buyers like them. Many federal purchases become useless unless they can be done quickly, e.g., we need a critical product because we are out-of-stock or we need a quick fix to a mission sensitive computer system.

Exact numbers are not available but a rough estimate is that GSA schedule purchases can save the buyer about 90 percent or more of the staff cost, and the elapsed time required for a completely open bid.  In elapsed time a GSA buy can be done in several weeks or less as opposed to months for a public bid. (Public bids are laden with red tape and require months of staff time to evaluate). 

Most GSA buys require only the receipt of three (3) bids as opposed to 20 - 30 or more for a public bid. Product buys made from the GSA e-commerce site can be sole source.

Visit Fedmarket