The General Services Administration has introduced several tools to the Information Technology Schedule 70 contract vehicle in an effort to update GSA’s Multiple Award Schedules program and streamline the acquisition process for federal agencies.
Mary Davie, assistant commissioner of the integrated technology service office at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, wrote in a blog post published Friday that the agency launched the Competitive Pricing Initiative that works to address price variability in identical products offered through MAS contracts.
GSA also gathered Universal Price Codes and asked contractors to standardize part numbers in order to help government buyers compare prices and products from various vendors, Davie said.
Other tools that the agency implemented to facilitate price comparisons and negotiations for federal buyers, MAS contractors and contracting officers include the Horizontal Pricing Analysis application, GSA Price Point platform and the Formatted Product Tool.
She also mentioned GSA’s plan to conduct a pilot program to implement the Transactional Data Reporting rule, which aims to require federal contractors to report transactional acquisition data and remove disclosure and tracking requirements for vendors.
“With the new Transactional Data Reporting pilot we’ll start to collect and share more information on what the government buys and how much we pay for products and services,†Davie wrote.
