Transparent In Scope

At http://www.gsa.gov/alliantsb, you’ll find the online tools to facilitate the buying process and the transparency and oversight that the “new normal” demands. 

One of the beauties of Alliant SB is that GSA no longer has to keep track of the thousands of new IT solutions flooding the market each year just to make sure that each and every addition is within the scope of the contract. Because as technology evolves, everything IT is in scope.

But sometimes an IT buyer may still not be sure. So first check out the Alliant SB Ordering Guide; there is specific information on what is in or not in scope said Alliant SB program manager Jim Ghiloni in a recent interview with 1105 Government Information Group Custom Media.

But if you still want one the GSA Small Business GWAC Center provides “Scope Compatibility Reviews for Prospective Orders and Modifications”. This value added service for OCOs and their industry partners provides a way for them to learn whether SOWs/SOOs and any proposed modifications to existing orders are within the Alliant SB scope.

Ghiloni said it’s easy to get them done. First go to www.gsa.gov/alliantsb and download the Scope Compatibility Review Request Form. Complete the form with questions and email to SOWreview@gsa.gov. It’s that easy and you can expect a quick turn-around telling you whether it is in scope for Alliant SB or not. Scope Compatibility Reviews are available at no cost on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Transparent Alliant
Transparency and oversight are mantras of the Obama Administration as it relates to federal acquisition. That fact has not been lost on GSA said Ghiloni.

“Because we are authorized by OMB specifically to manage these contracts and we report to them on an annual basis, we’ve implemented a variety of oversight programs, including this Scope Review process, to ensure that the contracts are being used appropriately,” explained Ghiloni.

“What we are looking for when we do a Scope Review is to make sure that the fundamental requirement is an IT requirement. If someone’s requirement for example is to build a new military base and they just so happen to have to run some cables through that, that’s not really an IT requirement, it’s not appropriate for use under this contract,” explained Ghiloni. “However, if you are opening up the base; and you have a specific requirement related to the IT piece of it by itself then that is appropriate.”

Because it is a GWAC expert, GSA has the expertise to review the grey areas Ghiloni explained. “We review these things to make sure that the customer understands what the scope of the contract is; ensure that what they are purchasing is ultimately IT and we feel that that provides a level of oversight and confidence in the use of our contracts.”

The bottom line to customers GSA offers extra value both to the customers themselves, who obviously don’t want to get into any trouble, but also to the incoming administration to reassure them that there is oversight, that we are not misusing the process Ghiloni noted.

Online Tools
At www.gsa.gov/alliantsb you’ll find all the documentation and online tools you need to use Alliant SB explained Ghiloni.

“We post the contract itself in the document library. We have FAQs; we list of all the contract holders with points of contact; we have information about this Scope Review process,” said Ghiloni.

”Our goal with the web is to make it easy for customers to get the information they need on our contracts, including ordering guides in one or two clicks on the website; then give them the contact information so that they can follow up with us in person through a phone call or a meeting.”

GSA’s e-Buy (http://www.ebuy.gsa.gov) is a part of GSA Advantage where customers can use the automated system to actually distribute RFPs for customers. Then, after the award is made, customers can use the GWAC management module keeps track of their orders, the amount of money that’s been obligated and dispersed.

At the same time GSA requires Industry Partners to report their invoice data, their contract line item data and their waiver category usage online. “So we are collecting a lot of information on the back-end after work has started that we can then make available to customers to show what’s been done, what’s been spent,” noted Ghiloni. “Then we ultimately aggregate some of that data to provide information to customers for estimations, and other information they might need.”

What this means that for example if after a year GSA has accumulated a lot of data about labor category pricing on specific Alliant SB orders, the agency can aggregate that data and make it available for customers to use to estimate costs on their procurements using real data, not just say ceiling rates or estimations but actual data from what’s been spent on the contract across all the task orders.

Alliant 2.0
“We really want to engage in the GWAC program the Web and Web 2.0 and the different social networking tools that are available now,” added Ghiloni.

One of the advantages GSA has is it is exposed to what every agency does and has contacts and customers in every federal agency, civilian and defense.

“We have access to a lot of best practices about what customers have done in making the awards; what has worked, what hasn’t worked, what
evaluation factors they’ve used, what performance metrics they’ve discovered, things like that,” said Ghiloni.

“If we can collect that information, sanitize it for public consumption, and then share it through our web presence then that’s just going to provide lots of extra value ultimately to the tax payer through the federal acquisition,” added Ghiloni.

Making improvements in the federal IT acquisition through the dissemination of best practices is what GSA is uniquely positioned to do. “We are not there right now but that’s certainly the direction we are moving towards over the next year or so,” said Ghiloni. With Alliant SB, GSA is well on its way.