GSA E-Offer Analysis - Essay Example

GSAWantsYou GSA’s eOffer offers an online, easy, paperless contracting atmosphere that adheres with FAR rules, and caters GSA’s eco-friendly objectives effectively and rapidly, with less paperwork. The eOffer system facilitates probable industry associates to forward an electronic offer to the latest quotations (solicitation) by adhering a step-by-step process. The process may be saved for the purpose of later visits for updating or adding further materials. For using eOffer of GSA, it is necessary to acquire digital signature also. A contracting officer of GSA will be reviewing the offer submitted by a bidder. After the initial review, the contracting officer will discuss the contractual conditions and terms and may include the review of the price quoted. If the prices quoted are reasonable and fair, and if the offer is offering benefits to U.S. government, an” IT Schedule 70 contract will be supplied”. The successful bidder should see that the terms and conditions of his contract should be in line with federal law. A vendor faces the risk of loss of his proprietary or trade secrets if there is a cyber-attacks on GSA’s eOffer site. There is an advanced persistent threat due to bypass of customary security on systems. As per the New York Times (20 September 2013), Chinese hackers focused on U.S. defense contractors who specialized in drone technology. As per Department of Defense (DoDs), by employing F-35 data secure within the department, there existed cyber issues. Thus, it is necessary to have cyber security assessments for the bids made through online. There should be proper risk management, risk transfer mechanism in force (O’Connor & Wangemann, 2013). Answer to Question 2. As per the Small Business Act of 1953, small businesses should get a “fair percentage” of federal contracts and that small businesses should be provided with the “maximum practical opportunity “to engage in federal contracting. Further, the above, act established the “Small Business Administration (SBA) to help small businesses and to make sure that they receive a “fair percentage” of federal contracts. Further, Congress has established a twenty-three percentage of government-wide goal for awarding of contracts to small businesses. GSA strongly back the participation of small business concerns in the GSA Schedules Program. GSA in this case, may use notice of service-Disabled Veteran –Owned Small Businesses Set-Aside, and in such cases, order can be reserved for a single firm to be declared as qualified firm. GSA maintains a separate portal for submission of bids by small business electronically. Every probable GSA contractor must complete a chain of steps and certifications before the agency award access to the portal. A small-business owner should enroll for the compulsory GSA “Pathways to Success” online training course else he may also attend a workshop in person. A small business has to obtain DUNS number and Dun number recognizes the small business by its actual location by employing a uniform 9-digit credential code. The small business has to obtain an electronic digital signature to login and upload his e-bid at offer.gsa.gov. It is advised that the small business should create an electronic copy of the bid submitted to GSA eOffer portal, for the record purpose and for future references. Submitting eOffer bid is not only time saving but also cost saving, eliminates the physical submission and helps to fast and speedy order process, and it is also transparent.(Kolhekar, 2012).  Answer to 3 GSA has a clause namely the “Most -Favored Customer” (MFC) clause.MFC refers to entities or individuals that offer the best discounts, prices, and /or concessions in spite of selling terms and conditions. It demands the bidder to quote the government at least the best price if it has given to an earlier customer. GSA employs this clause for its schedules. GSA in evaluating the price , it will be focusing on most favored pricing as the footing of awarding a contract that guarantees some quantum of price competition as GSA is looking at as if the contractor is offering the price to its most- favored customer footed upon volume , history , the price relationship and at competitive rates. Thus, MFC denotes competitive price (Oyer, Haugh& Langstraat, 2013) Answer to Question 4 GSA has set objectives allocating some percentage of contracting dollars be employed in buying from small business. GSA understands the significant contribution made by veteran, women-owned, minority and small business to U.S. economy. GSA offers more advantages to small business owned by women entrepreneurs, disadvantaged, veteran-owned, and service-disabled veteran owned, HUBZone –certified small businesses. GSA also encourages the establishment of contract teams, especially among small business, to offer government buyers with “total” solutions. GSA has taken adequate steps to offer GSA Small Business Resource Kit to help the small vendors that offer services, products and solutions to the GSA. The main aim of the Small Business Resource Kit is to offer information, and the Kits will help the small suppliers to become better positioned to complete for contracts and sub-contracts at the GSA. To accomplish this goal, the Small Business Resource Effort kit is acting as references, with the help of other outside critical information for competent suppliers, by leveraging the technology to offer education as per requirements and offers connectivity through accessibility, resourcing, coaching, counseling and guidance wherever applicable (Pakroo 2010). .Answer to Question 5 By doing extensive market research, one can search out which Federal agencies are buying what professional services or products. One should first collect information about the federal target market for increasing your chance to be the supplier to the federal government. The following are the three different marketing methods used to market to the federal government. 1. Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) FPDS is the part and parcel of “U.S. General Services Administration function and retains the Federal Procurement System”. Federal contracting information is being stored centrally, and this is known as FPDS. For those purchase offers over $24,000 are being stored in the system, and it also maintains summary data of purchases of less than $25,000. Annually, more than $200 billion worth of products and services are sourced by the executive branch departments and agencies. From the system, one can understand who bought from whom, what has been purchased, the details of quantity purchased and when and where? By going through the site, one can find out the details of potential customers. 2. FedBizOpps (FPO) Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) which is administered by the General Services Administration (GSA) which has been earmarked as the unique source of the federal government procurement platform that exceed $25,000. The specialty is that unlike GSA eOffer portal, there is no need to have either username or password, to login into FedBizOpps website. It is the single point- of- entry (GPE) for all of the federal government buying opportunities over $ 25,000. With the help of FedBizOpps, a vendor can directly advertise his products and services by uploading information about his business into the site through the Internet. With the help of the above website, suppliers who are searching for Federal markets for the services and products can indulge in search, watch and retrieve opportunities beseeched by the entire Federal contracting community. FedBizOpps is not only the fastest but also less expensive way to monitor the daily bids or solicitations made by the federal government and agencies and this facility is available free of charge at the FedBizOpps (FPO) web address. For the suppliers, the FedBizOpps system offers the following advantages. The facility to browse live buying announcements by classification code, posted date, awards and Set-Aside Type for a specific location, office or agency. The capability to research for buying notices through the use of the FBO Award/ Synopsis search webpage. (Corbin, 2007, p.7). “Federal Acquisition Jump Station” The above scheme offers the names of websites of federal procurement information with agency wise details. One can be able to get, among other things, publication of future and current buying details, solicitations, and federal buying norms. This offers an instant link to all federal buying statistics on the Internet. With the help of the above site, a supplier can link to agencies and government departments to gather information about buying forecasts, solicitations , public announcements , small business help information, how to guides, and federal buying regulations. With the assistance of Jumpstation, all the government agencies detailed in the website can be accessed including the NASA centers. With the help of the above website, one can also access and search for FAR and other agency supplements (Federal Facilities Council,2007, p.35). References Corbin J. (2007). The Beginners Guide to Government Contracting. New York; Lulu. Federal Facilities Council. (2007). Electronic Commerce for the Procurement of Construction and Architect. New York: National Academic Press. Kolhekar, S. (2012). Entrepreneurship in federal government contracting and relevance of critical success factor analysis for small businesses. Maryland: University of Maryland University College O’Connor T & Wangemann MA. (2013). Federal Contracting Answer Book: Third Edition. New York: Management Concepts Inc. Oyer DJ, Haugh LR & Langstraat CJ. (2013). Accounting for Government Contracts: Federal Acquisition. New York: LexisNexis. Pakroo. P H. (2010). The Small Business Start-Up Kit for California. New York: Nola. Read More