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Issue link: https://ssn.epubxp.com/i/671662
6 Q 1 2 0 1 6 Q1 By Lynn A. de Seve S pring is upon us and so are various GSA security meetings, events and other forums for industry partners interested in learning and participating in upcoming government acquisition planning and opportunities. The Security Industry Association (SIA) Procurement Policy Working Group and Government Relations Committee is tracking government initiatives, participating in events, as well as hosting some informative sessions on GSA physical access control systems (PACS) promotion and other GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Transformation implementations. GSA Schedule 84 offcials continue the PACS conversation that began at the SIA ISC East forum and continued during the SIA webcast with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) on January 15. A key focus of the January webinar was to discuss planned changes to PACS and authentication products and services on Schedules 70 and 84 -- effective per GSA's mass contract modifcations issued on Feb. 4, 2016. The new GSA Special Item Numbers (SINs) for products and services appearing on the GSA Approved Product List (APL) are now offcially part of the Schedule 84 program. Special Item Number (SIN) 246 35-7 is in effect for those companies whose products are listed on the GSA Approved Products List (APL), and SIN 246-60 (5) is available for those companies that have met the requirements for completing the FICAM solution training and certifcation. Additionally, companies must appear on the APL for integrators. With these changes in place, GSA is working to promote their program and to help federal agencies. As part of their implementation, GSA expressed a need for industry expertise and feedback to assist them in their efforts to move forward to educate, inform and offer a contracting solution where the agencies can buy PACS from the Schedule 84 program. In addition to improving the program to make the identifcation of PACS products and services more visible to agencies GSA Seeks Procurement Solutions for PACS and Announces MAS Transformation Initiatives and bringing standards current, GSA discussed their interest in creating a new blanket purchase agreement (BPA) for PACS to make it easier for agencies to both understand and procure PACS through the Schedule 84 program. On March 2, GSA's Schedule 84 staff conducted a virtual industry day to seek feedback and engage in an open forum conversation with the Schedule 84 industry partners on PACS solutions for the federal government. After posting an RFI in GSA eBuy for Schedule 84 contractors offering PACS products and solutions to participate in a the conference call, participants were encouraged to voice their ideas with anonymity to foster open communication. With the concept of creating a "multiple award" BPA to enable customers to buy a prepackaged solution, GSA asked for commonalities supporting customer requirements in purchasing PACs. GSA eBuy will receive written comments and suggestions from the schedule partners. Christopher Redmond, Schedule 84 Branch Chief and his staff were available to continue the discussion on PACS and answer questions about the 84 program from Government industry at a meeting hosted by SIA during ISC West on April 6. New initiatives are being rolled out at GSA Industry Days. A key initiative is Category Management to improve the acquisition process in assisting Government agencies with one source for smarter acquisition. GSA has gone live with a public view of their Acquisition Gateway online portal. Category Hallways were created at the Acquisition Gateway which is open for commercial business to review at this time. To see what has been posted in the security hallway go to https://hallways.cap.gsa.gov/app/#/ gateway/security-protection . Security white papers and other information on PACS are posted in the Acquisition Gateway for security. On May 3-4, GSA Schedule 84 will hold their Annual GSA Industry Days in Fort Worth, TX. If you are a Schedule 84 Contract holder, this is an opportunity to become better informed on GSA common regulations, requirements, compliance issues, and upcoming changes to the GSA Program. The agenda will cover best practices for submitting modifcations, a discussion of contractor assessment visits, tips from a customer's perspective, break- out sessions for topics of interest and an opportunity to meet your contracting offcer. Furthermore, the conference will provide invaluable and enlightening Q & A sessions with the community of fellow schedule holders and the GSA management team. This event will be held at the Federal Building in Ft. Worth, TX but worth the trip whether you are a rookie or an experiences GSA contractor. Several new initiatives will be announced including GSA's discussion on Transactional Data Reporting (TDR). We have heard the TDR fnal rule may be posted in the Federal Register as early as May 2016. GSA has advised training will be provided to vendors as well as contracting offcers on the reporting and the TDR repository. As the next step and follow on to the Competitive Pricing Initiative GSA will roll out their Formatted Pricing Tool (FPT). The new tool will aid in the pricing analysis of identical items for new offers and modifcations for vendors and contracting offcers. To help improve GSA processes GSA will also launch Making It Easier (MIE). The SIA Government Procurement Policy Working Group and Government Relations Committee encourages security industry professionals to join our working group to keep up to date on all of the happenings with Schedules programs and other Federal, State and Local Government procurement issues and initiatives of interest to the security community. Lynn A. de Seve is president of GSA Schedules Inc. and chair of the SIA Procurement Policy Working Group. She can be contacted at lynn@gsa-schedules. com.