Are you up to speed on cooperative agreements in SLED?

This often-overlooked tool can expedite procurement for sellers

By Benjamin Harris, SLED Market Intelligence Analyst, immixGroup

Newcomers to the state, local and education (SLED) market need a better understanding of certain contracting vehicles as they make their way through this area of procurement. A fundamental difference exists between the standard purchasing agreements used widely in the federal market and “cooperative agreements,” or cooperative purchasing contracts, that are part of the SLED sales toolbox.

SLED Contract Spotlight on The Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC)

While it’s a niche contract, it has the potential to reach into all but three states

By Jessica Wilhelm, Contract Specialist, immixGroup

It’s often the “biggest” and “broadest” contract vehicles that gain the most attention in the public sector. And with good reason, as organizations with limited time and resources often find many opportunities in such contract vehicles. However,  the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, or MHEC, (Midwestern Higher Education Compact mhec.org) IT Security Services Contract, while being a niche contract, is worth examining.  It is unique and worth considering for those organizations that are searching for SLED opportunities.  

GSA Advantage suspensions and how your GSA contract is impacted

Order status reporting, why its important, and what to do if your contract is suspended

By Gina Brown, Manager, Federal Contracts, immixGroup

If you have a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract, you are familiar with the requirement to have your approved GSA offering uploaded onto GSA Advantage — the online shopping and ordering system. Recently, GSA surveyed agency customers and found customers wanted greater visibility into order status (e.g., shipped, cancelled, backordered). With this awareness, GSA set a goal to improve the customer buying experience and released a mass modification that required all MAS contract holders to provide a status on all GSA Advantage orders received in the GSA Advantage Purchase Order Portal.

Understanding the GSA Ascend BPA

By Tara Franzonello, Program Development Manager, immixGroup

The General Services Administration’s FAS ITC (Federal Acquisition Service, Information Technology Center) is standardizing cloud acquisition with the “Ascend” blanket purchase agreement (BPA). Here’s what you need to know:

Ascend is a multiple-award blanket purchase agreement against the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Special Item Numbers 518210C cloud and cloud-related IT professional services and 54151S IT professional services. It is intended to help agencies simplify cloud acquisition and meet cybersecurity requirements.

BPA task orders can be placed under any of three independent primary pools identified by the government: