Let's assume that your company is an information technology service business that has sold a web site development project to an end user at a military base in your area. Your company is new to the market and does not have a GSA Schedule contract or a GWAC (another type of multi-vendor contract). For deals that exceed $25,000, your company has only two options. The options are as follows:

1. The end user and the contracting officer may arrange for your business to receive a subcontract with one of the base's prime contractors. This solution could be accomplished quickly with minimal competition but then you are under the thumb of the prime contractor. The prime contractor will try to reduce your profits so it can take a profit on the subcontract. The prime will also try to minimize your exposure to the customer -- the person to whom you sold in the first place -- as you would if you were in the prime's shoes.
   
   
2. The end user and the contracting officer may decide that their only alternative is to publish the requirements for the project as a public bid. This is a less attractive alternative because the public bid will (i) require your company to write an expensive proposal, (ii) expose your business to competition from others interested in the project, and (iii) force you to wait an average of two hundred days or more for an award decision to be made.

Neither of these two options is ideal. A multi-vendor contract would allow you to close the deal in a matter of weeks, as opposed to months, and competition for the project would be reduced significantly. In short, a GSA Schedule contract is the best multi-vendor contract for a small to medium-sized company.

The moral of this story is that your company should work towards getting on Schedule so it has a closing mechanism and it's never too soon to begin the GSA Schedule application and approval process.