GSA acquisition team gets down to business

Steve Kempf wants FAS to be the No. 1 brand in acquisition

Some agency leaders can inspire employees with a vision of the future and motivate them to work hard to achieve it. Those leaders enter as if they rode in on a white stallion.

Other leaders arrive on a workhorse. They aren’t hailed with cheers or thunderous applause. Instead, they make people realize that it’s time to get down to business.

Steve Kempf has been commissioner of the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service since July, and he arrived leading a workhorse. In an interview before taking on that role, Kempf said his strategy “will largely be in the context of this administration, GSA’s current thinking and then finally where FAS wants to take the [Multiple Award] Schedules program.”

Kempf gave his first speech as commissioner Nov. 2 at the Coalition for Government Procurement’s annual Fall Conference. The gathering lacked an atmosphere of excitement or lavish praise for Kempf.

“He’s not making a lot of waves, and there are no big steps,” said John Howell, a partner at the Sullivan and Worcester law firm, after the speech.

It seems that the leaders on white stallions are already here and have cast their grand visions. Kempf specifically referenced Obama administration officials “who see GSA as an asset” and GSA Administrator Martha Johnson. Johnson has enthused GSA employees since 2009 with her vision of customer intimacy, innovation and operational excellence.

Kempf’s vision is simple, and it’s about work. “It’s very important for us to meet our obligations and our commitments” to make FAS the No. 1 brand, he said.

He said that in the next decade, FAS will become agencies’ first choice when they need to make a purchase because FAS will offer easy-to-use tools, fast service and a wealth of options.

Kempf is moving ahead on many fronts by taking the infrastructure that was already in place and making it work. He is launching new Web-based tools, including eOffer/eMod, which allows companies to electronically submit new offers and requested modifications to their schedule contracts. Early in 2011, GSA officials plan to enable government customers to manage their contracts online with such tools.

Kempf also said he recognizes the growing importance of data in this era of transparency. He said FAS customers need to have easy access to data about sales and pricing so they can see whether they’re getting the best deal for their money. And he plans to get that information for them.

A Knack for Getting Things Done

Roger Waldron, new president of the Coalition for Government Procurement and a retired GSA official, said Kempf is working on projects that started during Waldron’s tenure at the agency.

“He’s carrying them to fruition,” Waldron said, adding that the projects are important building blocks.

Although Kempf is not making waves, Howell and others are quick to say he was a good choice for FAS commissioner.

A GSA employee who attended the conference said Kempf knows FAS well. He joined GSA in 1992 as a marketing coordinator at the Office of Technology Assistance and has since held leadership positions at the Federal Systems Integration and Management Center, the Office of Integrated Technology Services and FAS.

Kempf knows FAS' challenges because he has been on the front lines for years and has worked on the operational and strategic sides, said the employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The employee added that Kempf couples experience with research. Kempf marshals his resources well and can often point employees to research that is relevant to their particular projects.

Kempf’s success as FAS commissioner will likely center on collecting more data about pricing and transparency. He will also be a leader in the emerging world of green procurement, the employee said.

Furthermore, Kempf is down to earth and doesn’t think of himself as above everyone else. “He’s not in an ivory tower or on a high horse,” the employee said.

Read the story: FCW.com - GSA acquisition team gets down to business

GSA contract expiration reflects market needs, experts say

GSA official says many GWACs won't be renewed as GSA markets its Alliant and Alliant Small Business contracts

The General Services Administration's plan to let many of its governmentwide information technology contracts expire, largely ending the era of big governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs), reflects the evolving needs of the market, experts say.

They say the federal IT market’s sales have been driving GSA to end and merge GWACs for several years now. There are too many GWACs, causing too much overlap of services. The result is scattered sales while the cost of running the contracts still dips deeply into GSA’s pockets.

GSA will continue to support only Alliant, its small-business companion contract and a few GWACs targeted to companies in specific socioeconomic categories, said Ed O’Hare, assistant commissioner of the Office of Integrated Technology Services at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service.

For the long term, though, GSA will likely merge the GWAC program with the widely used Multiple Award Schedules program. “But that will take years, not months,” O’Hare said.

Before ending the GWAC program, GSA will first winnow down the number of marginally performing GWACs, such as Commerce Information Technology Solutions-NexGen, said Larry Allen, president of the Coalition for Government Procurement. In recent years, GSA has taken over several GWACs, such as COMMITS from the Commerce Department, and now the agency needs to streamline its efforts, he added.

GSA has said for more than a year that the overlapping GWACs are expensive for government and industry and should be pared down, said Bill Perlowitz, vice president of advanced technology at Apptis. No one should be surprised that the agency is saying it won’t renew many GWACs, particularly given the Obama administration’s desire for a more efficient government.

“GSA would be streamlining things” to close down or merge GWACs into its schedules program, said Hope Lane, officer of government contracts consulting at Aronson and Co.

Total IT sales figures have slipped slightly in the past several years. The fallout in 2004 over GSA’s mishandling of the Defense Department’s money has caused some DOD customers to turn to other IT contracts, such as the Navy Department’s SeaPort-e, Lane said.

Meanwhile, sales on GSA’s massive Schedule 70 have remained relatively flat at about $17 billion annually for the past three years, according to government figures.

The recently awarded Alliant and Alliant Small Business GWACs, which were delayed for two years, have a wide choice of services, which makes many other GWACs unnecessary, experts say.

"You can get pretty much anything you want from Alliant," Lane said.

Courtney Fairchild, president of Global Services, said GSA’s Alliant contracts, which were awarded earlier this year, were always meant to replace the expiring GWACs.

“I suppose the real question for industry is whether or not government agencies have enough faith in the Alliant contract to switch over,” she said.

Agencies that shy away from Alliant will still have the option to work with one of more than 15,000 companies in the schedules program.

GWACs offer options to agencies that the schedules program can’t, such as cost-reimbursement contracts. Unless GSA can tweak the schedules program’s rules to change that, GWACs will always have a place, Allen said.

In addition, GSA would have a tough time closing the socioeconomic-based GWACs, such as the 8(a) small-business Streamlined Technology Acquisition Resources for Services and the Veterans Technology Services GWACs.

“Would you want to stand before Congress and try to explain why you ended those contracts?” Allen asked.

On the other hand, any attempt to merge the GWAC and schedules programs would be “consistent with the spirit and message of the creation of the recent Federal Acquisition Service,” Fairchild said.

The reorganization of the Federal Technology Service and the Federal Supply Service into FAS allowed GSA to scrap dueling and repetitive contracts that might confuse customers.

Read the story: Washingtontechnology.com News - GSA contract expiration reflects market needs, experts say

GSA schedules might get state, local business

Cities and states soon might have more access to the General Services Administration’s Multiple Award Schedules contracts, if several new bills reach the president’s desk.

Last week, Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, introduced legislation that would allow state and local governments to use stimulus money to buy from among the more than 11 million supplies and services available on the schedules contracts.

Towns’ bill, the Enhanced Oversight of State and Local Economic Recovery Act (H.R. 2182), pushes forward his notion that the schedules contracts should be open to more than federal agencies. In 2008, President George W. Bush signed Towns' Local Preparedness Acquisition Act, which gave states and cities access to law enforcement and security-related schedule contracts.

Similarly, Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) introduced the Green Acquisition Act (H.R. 1766) on March 26. It would grant state and local governments access to the schedules contracts for environmentally preferable commodities and services. The bill was sent to Towns’ committee for consideration, and the legislation received a positive response, said Adam Sharon, a spokesman for Meek.

Meek introduced the bill after talking with several Miami-Dade County officials about the money they would save by buying green products from the federal schedules contracts.

“The ability to obtain green goods and services with this method will make our taxpayers’ dollars go a long way,” County Commissioner Sally Heyman said in April. She estimated that state and local governments would add $1 trillion in additional sales annually by opening GSA’s schedules.

Since 2002, state and local governments have been allowed to buy information technology products and disaster recovery products from GSA schedules using cooperative purchasing agreements.

Those agreements have boosted GSA’s sales on its IT Schedule specifically. Orders from states and localities jumped from $17.9 million in fiscal 2003 to $521.8 million in 2008, according to Input, a market research firm. And 2009’s orders are outpacing 2008, despite the economic downturn.

Read the story: FCW.com News - GSA schedules might get state, local business

MAS panel wants more feedback

Government and industry have willingly and generously shared their opinions on improving the General Services Administration’s schedules program, but the most important constituency has been relatively silent.

In four meetings that the Multiple Award Schedule Advisory Panel has held since May, only one customer agency has spoken before the panel, Eldred Jackson, deputy director of administration at the Justice Department’s Justice Program Office.

Read the story: FCW.com News - MAS panel wants more feedback

New law opens some of GSA's contracts

President Bush signed a bill that opens some of the General Services Administration’s contracts to state and local governments to make some purchases.

The Local Preparedness Acquisition Act (H.R. 3179), signed June 26, authorizes state and local governments to use GSA’s Multiple Award Schedules to buy law enforcement and security-related items, including firefighting and rescue equipment.

Jim Williams, the president’s nominee for GSA administrator, has said he supports the legislation but wants to open all schedules contracts for use by state and local governments.

Read the story: FCW.com News - New law opens some of GSA's contracts

Are schedule prices a good deal?

The Multiple Award Schedule Advisory Panel discovered its mission last week. Meeting for the fourth time, the panel narrowed its attention to five areas.

The panel will focus on stakeholders’ views of the schedules program, their expectations, the program’s business model, pricing policies and whether companies in the program offer agencies the same price they would offer their most-favored commercial customers.

The overarching question facing the panel is whether General Services Administration contracts offer agencies the lowest price.

Read the story: FCW.com News - Are schedule prices a good deal?

Panel seeks input from GSA's customers

Career officials from several agencies could receive invitations to speak to a panel that's reviewing the General Services Administration’s Multiple Award Schedules program.

At a meeting June 17, the Multiple Award Schedule Advisory Panel said it will request input from auditors, inspectors general, officials at large and small agencies, and congressional staff members so the members can get a better sense of what’s happening with the $36 billion buying program run by GSA.

Read the story: FCW.com News - Panel seeks input from GSA's customers