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Everything you need to know about landing government video contracts.

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  1. Introduction
  2. Marketing to the Government
    1. Know the Rules!
    2. Selling to the Feds
      1. Calendar Concerns
      2. Procurement Vehicles
      3. Getting to Know You
    3. Congratulations! It's an e-Buy!
    4. Why Companies Need a Core Government Sales Group
  3. GSA Schedule Contracts
    1. Today GSA, Tomorrow the World
    2. Placing GSA Schedule Orders
    3. What GAO is Saying About Schedule Orders
    4. Incidentally Yours
    5. Leasing Nuts and Bolts
    6. Industrial Funding Fee Update
    7. Industrial Funding Fee in Legal Practice
    8. Mod Squad
    9. Back Door Schedules
  4. GSA Initiatives
    1. Evergreen, Everblue?
    2. Consolidated Contracting
    3. E-GSA
    4. GSA Is Getting It Right -- Are You?
  5. BPAs and Getting Paid
    1. BPAs 101
      1. An Introduction to Blanket Purchase Agreements
      2. GSA Schedule BPAs
      3. BPAs and the Law
    2. Ordering from BPAs
    3. Getting Paid
  6. Formal Competition
    1. GAO Bid Protest and Debriefing Procedures
    2. Filing a Timely Protest
    3. Bid Protests: What Happens After Filing
    4. Bid Protest Update
  7. Small Business Contracting
    1. Certifiably Small
    2. Small Business Contracting With the Government
    3. Small Business Subcontracting
    4. HUBba HUBba
  8. Special Requirements
    1. Are You a Sub?
    2. Federal Acquisition of Foreign Products
    3. Record Retention
    4. Procurement Integrity
    5. A Necessary Distance
    6. Suspension and Debarment
    7. The Freedom of Information Act
    8. Section 508: What You Need to Know
    9. Section 508: Now In Effect
    10. Federal Isn't the Only Avenue for Government Spending
  9. Federal Links

    E-GSA

    The letter "E." Derived from the Phoenician alphabet, and evolved by the Greeks into "Epsilon." Used by my daughter in a long series at a very high pitch to report the presence of mice in the garage. Used by everyone else as shorthand for "electronic."

    E-Government is a steadily growing trend. It's actually more than just a trend, it's the way business-to-government and government-to-consumers are headed. Like it or not, you'd better learn about e-Government and eventually, learn to love it.

    The day will come, sooner or later, when e-Government will be the only way you do business with the feds. Remember the venerable Commerce Business Daily? It's now defunct, replaced by fedbizops.com, and you don't have a choice about it. Remember submitting and paying the Industrial Funding Fee on paper?

    Following the E-Government Act of 2002, agencies are supposed to use electronic means, including online forms, Internet training, and interactive Web sites, to improve and enhance their interactions with their constituents. More than most agencies, however, GSA has embraced the e-Government initiative. Here is some of what GSA is doing to effectuate e-Government:

    eOffer is a paperless, fully electronic contract submission and award process. It allows a vendor to respond electronically to a GSA Schedule solicitation, prepare and submit a proposal, and interact with the GSA Contracting Specialist to negotiate the pricing, terms, and conditions. eOffer provides a progressive series of user friendly screen displays that guide an offeror through each step in the proposal preparation process. It also allows GSA to authenticate a user's identity, and keeps the offeror's proprietary information confidential. After the GSA Schedule proposal is electronically signed and submitted, the completed proposal is electronically routed to the proper GSA Schedule procurement office for negotiation.

    Quick-Mod is GSA's newest electronic contract modification initiative. Still in its trial stages, Quick-Mod speeds up the GSA Schedule modification process by allowing GSA Schedule contractors to add certain classes of products in pre-approved categories to their Schedules, and upload them to GSA Advantage!, as soon as they are available commercially. Initially it would apply only to goods, not services, and contractors would be required monthly to submit a snapshot of recent uploads to give GSA an audit trail to check on accurate pricing.

    Quick-Mod potentially has many useful savings: It avoids the reams of paper commercial pricelists that would otherwise be submitted in support of a modification; it speeds up the modification proposal approval process; it allows GSA personnel to spend their time on other, more pressing matters, such as processing renewals and new Schedule contracts; and it allows contractors to add new items as soon as they are available commercially, rather than having to wait several months before they are presented to the federal buyer community.

    GSA Advantage!, the online GSA Schedule contract central Web site, is in the process of being improved by GSA. Enhancements will provide easier access, as well as improved browsing and search and filtering capabilities.

    e-Buy, which is part of GSA Advantage!, is an online notice and quote system. It's designed to enable agencies to notify GSA Schedule contractors about procurement opportunities, and to provide agencies with the benefits of competition among potential GSA Schedule sources. The e-Buy system is available only to GSA Schedule contractors.

    e-Resolve gives ordering activities that have placed an order under a GSA Schedule contract the means to report a problem or submit an inquiry about products and services offered on a Schedule. The FSS National Customer Service Center processes requests for assistance.

    Schedules e-Library makes GSA Schedule contract award data available to the public. It provides information on which vendors have a contract, the contract number, and what items are available on the contract.

    FSS Virtual Campus provides users with online training, including GSA Schedules information. It's available 24/7.

    Schedule Sales Query allows users to obtain GSA Schedule sales information that has been reported by contractors for over the past five fiscal years.

    The Federal Procurement Data System, operated by Federal Procurement Data Center, is the central repository of statistical information on federal government contracting. The FPDS system maintains information on contract actions more than $25,000.

    Vendor Support Center (VSC) assists vendors in the preparation and submission of electronic catalog files to GSA Advantage! The VSC also helps vendors submit and report sales data.

    The only thing GSA needs to do now is decide whether or not it should hyphenate its e-solutions. There's e-Buy and e-Resolve, but eOffer. Personally I'm for hyphenation. Well, got to go -- I can hear from the sound of E that there are mice in my garage.




Copyright Andrew Mohr 2000. All Rights Reserved Disclaimer:
This information in this site is for informational purposes only. It is not legal advice and may not be relied upon. For legal advice about any of the topics discussed in this book, please seek the advice of legal counsel.