9/11 20th Anniversary: Here’s What’s New With the GSA Schedule

Learn how the GSA developed new processes and policies to modernize its programs and tools to address new threats, including cybersecurity.

Twenty years after 9/11, General Services Administration (GSA) has worked to include new technology to keep us safe and make improvements to the procurement process as different kinds of threats have developed.

With the hacking of government systems and critical infrastructure, the GSA developed new processes and policies to modernize their programs and tools. They modified the SAM.gov website — the official site for registering to do business with the federal government — to be inclusive of important publicly available. It is the required site for registration as a government contractor.

GSA recently discontinued the need for Digital Certificates to access GSA eTools moving to multifactor authentication. They created a new sales reporting website. In October 2019, a historic change was implemented by the GSA as they launched their new Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program. In Phase I, the agency consolidated all of the 24 GSA MAS programs into a single solicitation. This eliminated the confusing decision of which GSA Schedule Contract(s) to specify.

The Special Item Numbers (SINs) describing the products and services were revised and consolidated per the most appropriate Large Category of products and services. The SINs were revised to more closely resemble corresponding North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes. Phase II required existing contract holders to modify their GSA contracts per the new SINs and implemented other GSA regulatory requirements.

Phase III now underway will work with existing contract holders with more than one contract to consolidate into a single MAS contract. This phase may take a bit more time to accommodate contracts with unfinished, ongoing projects. Contractors will work with their contracting officers to ensure a smooth transit and implementation.

The adminstration has revised important products and services categories related to identity management and FIPS-201 for logical and physical access control. For example, under the Security and Protection Large Category SIN 334290PACS represents approved PACS products on the GSA Approved Product List (GSA APL). Labor SIN 541330SEC represents CSEIP-certified staff.

There are other solutions SINs that include products and services. The following renamed SINs are related to IT security solutions under the IT Large Category such as SIN 514519ICAM, SIN 541519PKI, SIN 541519PIV, SIN 541519HACS (cybersecurity). The agency also created miscellaneous SINs complimentary to any Large Category such as SIN 238910 Site Preparation and Installation and SIN ANCRA ancillary items and services.

The new GSA solicitation number is 47QSMD20R0001. Version refresh No. 7 was released in August. To view GSA offerings and requirements, go here.


Lynn de Seve is Founder and President of GSA Schedules. Contact her at [email protected].

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