General Services Administration (GSA) has announced major changes coming to the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) upcoming Refresh 26 to Solicitation 47QSMD20R0001. This Refresh will also require a Mass Mod for schedule holders to review and accept.

Retiring SINs

GSA has announced they are retiring 32 Special Item Numbers (SINs). The retirement of the SINs is said to help optimize the GSA Schedule program and offerings. The SINs being retired are said to have had insufficient market demand, high administrative costs compared to need or are available through other duplicative avenues.

Once the refresh is live, a unilateral modification will be sent to affected vendors removing the retired SIN. Vendors will be required to update their FSS price lists and catalogs to reflect the update.

If some item under retiring SINs are a fit for a remaining SIN, you may request a modification to move the products; however, not all products may be approved as the administrations intention is not to move and combine offerings, but to “optimize” the schedule.

A table of the affected SINs are below

Template Updates

Also included in this refresh are updates and revisions to the Products and Services/Trainings Price Proposal Templates for both offer and modifications. The new templates will have updated instructions on Tab A and renamed columns. The columns will be named “MFC Price” instead of the current “Commercial MFC Price. and “Discount offered to MFC” instead of “Discount offered to Commercial MFC”. All new offer templates and modification templates will be available online when the refresh is released.

I-FSS-600 Clause changes

GSA is proposing additions to the clause as follows: (Additions in bold)

• All Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) and commercial type products are prohibited from being duplicated and published to the Text File posted on the GSA Advantage environment (includes GSA eLibrary and GSA eBuy).
• All Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) and commercial type products should be published for sale on GSA Advantage OR to the Text File posted on the GSA Advantage environment (includes GSA eLibrary and GSA eBuy).
• All Services offerings are prohibited from being duplicated and published to the Price List generated by the FAS Catalog Platform (FCP) AND the Text File posted on the GSA Advantage environment (includes GSA eLibrary and GSA eBuy).
• All Service offerings should be published to a Price List generated by FCP OR to the Text File posted on the GSA Advantage environment (includes GSA eLibrary and GSA eBuy).

New Subcategory

SIN 518210C Cloud Computing and Cloud Related IT Professional Services will move from the IT Solution Subcategory to the new Subcategory Cloud Services (F01). With this move, the description of the SIN will be updated to include “cloud based artificial intelligence/machine learning.”

518210FM Financial Management Quality Service Management Office (FM QSMO) Core Financial Management (FM) Solutions and IT Professional Services will also be moving form the IT Solutions Subcategory to the new Subcategory Financial Management Services (F03).

As a result of the new subcategories, the SIN instructions will be updated.

Changes to Large Category, Subcategory, or SIN revisions:

GSA Released the following:

1. Office Management (A)
   1. Office Supplies (A09): OS4 SINs 339940OS4 – Office Products and Supplies & 339940OVER – Overseas Office Products and Supplies
      1. Update category specific attachment, Letter of Compliance, located on Multiple Award Schedule page, by updating the ARO days from 4 business days to 7 calendar days. See ‘Standard delivery anywhere CONUS within 7 calendar days (339940OS4 only)’ on page 4.
2. Furniture and Furnishings (C)
   1. Household Dormitory & Quarters Furniture Subcategory instructions (C04) & Miscellaneous Furniture Subcategory (C05) SIN(s) 337127CISB Correctional Institution Furniture (SBSA), 337127CI Correctional Institution Furniture and 337127INT International Furniture Products
      1. Remove all references to “Testing must be performed by one of the accredited test labs listed in the most current version of the purchase description 3QSAB 11-613A.”
3. Information Technology (F)
   1. Add the following language to the “General Information” section of the IT Large Category: The use of Government data for the purpose of training artificial intelligence/machine learning models and systems is prohibited without explicit written authorization from the ordering activity contracting officer.
      Definition: Government data means any information, (including metadata), document, media, or machine-readable material regardless of physical form or characteristics that is created or obtained by the Government, or a contractor on behalf of the Government, in the course of official Government business.
   2. Update Section I ‘Instructions for all IT Offerors’ to add two (2) new subcategories in the IT Category Attachment
      1. Cloud Services Subcategory (F01)
      2. Financial Management Services Subcategory (F03)
   3. IT Services Subcategory (F05): SIN 54151HACS Highly Adaptive Cybersecurity Services (HACS) i. A new optional subgroup, ‘Incident Handling and Event Management (IHEM)’, will be added.
4. Professional Services (H)
   1. Business Administrative Services Subcategory (H01): Revise SIN 541611 instructions to address administrative changes in response to offeror inquiries regarding the subgroup.
5. Security and Protection (J)
   1. Protective Equipment Subcategory (J02): Add the following instructions to SIN 336413 Aircraft Armoring and Helicopter Equipment
      1. The award of rotary-wing or fixed-wing aircraft is explicitly excluded under this SIN. Offerors shall not submit proposals for the sale, lease, or procurement of fully assembled aircraft, including but not limited to helicopters and airplanes.

GSA MAS Refresh 26 Webinar

Our team highly recommends that schedule holders attend GSA’s  webinar to review the changes and answer any questions. Coley GCS advisors will be attending and will provide updates to this blog from any new information that is released. The webinar information is:

• Date: Thursday, April 10^th
• Time: 1pm Eastern Time.
• Event Link: https://gsa.zoomgov.com/j/1603190032?pwd=ajekHH38I3JT1tJpvNwo09DMuK5XA.2kLDplPoHSKG2rri
• Passcode: 977291
• Dial by phone instructions:  here.

Coley GCS can assist you with price list revisions and uploads following these changes, reach out to Coley at hello@coleygcs.com for help.

Coley has over 24 years’ experience helping thousands of companies obtain and maintain their GSA Schedule. If you have questions about these changes and how it affects your current or future work with GSA, Contact us today at hello@coleygcs.com or 210-402-6766 or schedule a consultation to discuss your path forward with GSA contracting. For additional business development tools and a community of growth-oriented contractors, visit FedMap.us—the leading online resource dedicated to accelerating success in government contracting.