Contracting Cone
FAR Based Strategies
Federal Supply Schedules – FAR 8.4
Commercial Items – FAR 12
Simplified Acquisitions – FAR 13
Contracting by Negotiation – FAR 15
IDIQ – FAR 16.5
Letter Contract – FAR 16.603
Agreements – FAR 16.7
Small Business – FAR 19
BAA – FAR 35.016
SBIR/STTR
Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO)
Non-FAR Based Strategies
Other Transactions (OT)
Procurement for Experiments (2373)
R&D Agreements
Cooperative R&D Agreement (CRADA)
Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA)
Technology Investment Agreement (TIA)
Schedule Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA)
Agencies can establish a Schedule BPA to simplify the acquisition of recurring needs for services or products that are on federal supply schedules. The Schedule BPA might cover a single product or service, or supplies or services the contractor might have on several different schedules. BPAs may be established with a single schedule contractor or with multiple schedule contractors for the same supplies or services. Multiple-award BPAs are preferred.
Common Applications
- Commercial products and services
- Information Technology (IT) product and services
- Health IT services and solutions
- Cyber services and solutions
- Cloud services and solutions
- Software licenses
- Telecommunications and wireless services
Restrictions
- Cannot use cost-type contracts
- Requires best approach determination and finding for actions that meet threshold
Pros |
Cons |
| Opportunity to combine repetitive GSA orders under a BPA reduces procurement lead time and administrative costs | Limitation of firm-fixed-price (FFP) or time and materials (T&M) pricing arrangements may not be appropriate or suitable for complex requirements |
| Ability to establish agreements with multiple vendors maintains competition and reduces cost, schedule, and performance risk associated with a single vendor source | GSA Schedule offering of only commercial services and products reduces flexibility in acquiring capabilities |
| Increases flexibility to plan for anticipated purchases without immediate funding, no required minimum guarantee, or maximum ceiling | Standard schedule commercial rights and licenses increases burden on Government to ensure specialized rights are explicit. |
| Ability to negotiate further price discounts from established schedule rates, and potential volume, increases cost avoidance | |
| Access to pre-vetted, qualified contractors reduces performance risk in execution | |
| GSA streamlined procedures provides opportunity to quickly meet socioeconomic goals |
References