The General Services Administration has provided updates on programs that the Federal Acquisition Service has launched during fiscal year 2016.Tom Sharpe, FAS commissioner at GSA, wrote in a blog post published Nov. 7 that the agency’s Acquisition Gateway, a platform that seeks to support category management, has reached 10,000 users in FY 2016.
GSA also rolled out the Formatted Product Tool designed to promote competitive pricing and standardize data as well as the Transactional Data Reporting rule, which seeks to collect transactional data for products and services procured through acquisition vehicles, as part of the Multiple Award Schedule Transformation Initiative.
Sharpe said that FAS’ product and utilization rate rose by 6 percent in the past year and achieved engagement and satisfaction ratings of 76 percent, a 6 percent increase from the previous year.
He also cited the programs launched under the Making it Easier initiative that aims to provide small businesses and start-ups with tools to facilitate transaction with the federal government and get on contract schedules.
These include the MAS Welcome Package, FASt Lane, Plain Language Roadmap and the Startup Springboard.
FAS has developed special item numbers for health information technology and cybersecurity services under the IT Schedule 70 contract vehicle, Sharpe added.
