Page 3 - FCW, July 2020

Trending
GSA chooses 3 companies for e-marketplace test
$15B
was the ceiling for the now-cancelled Alliant 2 Small Business contract
The General Services Administration has tapped three e-marketplace providers for a proof of concept under its Commercial Platforms initiative. It is the first step toward letting government buyers use familiar commercial platforms to conduct low-dollar acquisitions.
Amazon, Fisher Scientific and Overstock.com will each provide a GSA-approved online marketplace where agency employees can use government-issued purchase cards to buy commercial products priced below the micro-purchase threshold of $10,000, according to GSA. Officials expected the initial service to be available by the end of July and last for up to three years.
Congress mandated e-commerce portals for federal buyers in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. Lawmakers had initially pressed for a $250,000 acquisition threshold for e-commerce, but that was lowered to the $10,000 level after multiple rounds of consultation with industry and other stakeholders.
The three contracts were awarded
through the Center of Innovative Acquisition at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service. According to one industry source, the contracts come with no startup costs for the government. Instead, the awardees are customizing their platforms for agency purchasers with the goal of recouping those costs through e-marketplace sales.
“I’m excited for the path ahead — especially the spend data.”
Julie Dunne Federal Acquisition Service
FAS Commissioner Julie Dunne said the proof of concept will start small and be refined through repeated testing. The agency will continue to solicit stakeholder feedback throughout development.
“I’m excited for the path ahead — especially the spend data,” Dunne said. “Such data will help with compliance in areas like AbilityOne, small business
and supply chain risk management.” GSA issued the original solicitation last October and tweaked it in January with some provisions that gave offerors more flexibility and discretion in how to meet GSA’s
requirements.
A key issue remains agency buy-
in. In the original solicitation, GSA cautioned prospective vendors that it had no indicators to predict whether agencies would welcome the opportunity to conduct micro- purchases via commercial platforms.
“Adoption is often gradual with new initiatives, and the government is unable to predict how quickly agencies may adopt use of the marketplaces and how much of their spend might go through them,” the agency said in the solicitation.
The Commercial Platforms initiative is one of four key modernization projects in GSA’s Federal Marketplace Strategy, which seeks to simplify the buying and selling experience for customers, suppliers and acquisition managers.
— Mark Rockwell
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