Recently announced changes by the U.S. General Services
Administration (GSA) Greater Southwest Acquisition Center
will result in fixed labor pricing for security contracting
via GSA schedules. Although word of the upcoming change was
passed to the contract holders through an emailed impact
survey, the reasons behind the change and an official
notification has not made. But GSA says it is not up for
discussion, the decision has been made.  Many contractors
and their dealers may be caught completely unaware.

GSA contract consultant Lynn de Seve, president of GSA Schedules Inc., states the GSA Contracting Officers have told us this is a done deal. This change will have a huge effect on dealers, integrators and other contractors conducting government work through the GSA. “These changes will have a significant impact on everyone from manufacturers to small dealers and nationwide integrators. A manufacturer selling exclusively through its dealers and distributors can no longer market solutions per this change,” says de Seve, writer of several articles for SSI and who is critical of the move. “As they are unable to set dealer or nationwide pricing for ancillary services they will not be able to participate in the GSA program, thus eliminating competition, increasing the costs for the government and taxpayer, and removing hundreds of small businesses – many of which are disadvantaged-owned businesses – from the program. I think it will short-change the program and in the end, the government client will suffer the most.”

GSA recently decided to no longer offer unpriced ancillary services under special item numbers (SINs) 246-50 and 51 for services, including installation and integration listed under Schedule 084. These services allowed GSA manufacturers with authorized GSA dealers and integrators to offer installation, maintenance and training services for the equipment that is listed on the GSA Contract for security and facilities management.

The GSA’s Greater Southwest Acquisition Center will hold an “Industry Day” meeting on April 20 to discuss pricing methodologies for the currently unpriced services offered under Schedule 084. The meeting will take place from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Fritz Lanham Federal Building in Fort Worth, Texas. For more information on this forum, contact [email protected].

Look for SSI‘s June issue for more on GSA’s new pricing strategy.

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our FREE digital newsletters!

Related Content