FAR & Beyond: GSA’s TDR expansion – The journey continues

This column was originally published on Roger Waldron’s blog at The Coalition for Government Procurement and was republished here with permission from the author.

On July 17, the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) published an advanced notice for refresh 22 of the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) solicitation. Refresh 22 included the expansion of Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) as an option for contractors to 67 new special item numbers (SINs) covering non-configurable products. This TDR expansion is another positive step forward for GSA as it seeks to modernize the program by creating a market-centric framework that enhances competition, value and innovation. GSA is to be commended for its efforts to date in adopting and implementing TDR.

The TDR journey to date

GSA first announced the “TDR pilot” concept in 2015. Over the course of the next year, GSA engaged in the public rule-making process, culminating in a 2016 final General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) rule implementing TDR for certain MAS Special Item Numbers (SINs). Over the next four years, GSA fine-tuned the applicability/scope of TDR, established evaluation criteria, and monitored TDR performance. During this time, GSA also publicly announced “TDR pilot” performance results. The year-over-year results showed steady progress in the performance results for TDR.

In 2021, after reviewing the fiscal 2020 evaluation results, GSA decided that the “TDR pilot” was eligible for expansion. The performance results showed that contract level pricing was better under TDR than under most favored customer (MFC) pricing. Small businesses generated stronger growth under TDR than small businesses under MFC pricing. The results also showed significant improvement in the completeness of the data and its overall use by contracting officers. GSA also consistently pointed to TDR data management as an effective tool in addressing security issues, including supply chain risk management. GSA identified additional benefits, including enhancing transparency across the federal market and increasing opportunities to leverage data towards best value acquisition strategies.

The expansion of TDR as an option to 67 additional SINs is another positive step in enhancing competition, reducing burdens, and increasing transparency for MAS customer agencies and contractors. As TDR expands, GSA, customer agencies, and contractors will gain even greater insight into buying patterns and agency needs across the federal market. This market transparency will drive improved acquisition strategies that will deliver sound business opportunities for contractors that deliver best value solutions to customer agencies.

Significantly, TDR also reduces burdensome contract administration costs for GSA and its MAS contractors by eliminating the price reduction clause (PRC). The PRC is a vestige of the 1980s MAS program and serves as a significant barrier to entry. The PRC penalizes MAS contractors, including small businesses, for competing in the private sector. TDR, in stark contrast, is a pro-competition measure for GSA, customer agencies, and MAS contractors.

The next steps on the journey

As GSA contemplates the next steps on the TDR journey, engagement with its industry partners will be vital. For example, expansion of TDR into highly configurable products, like furniture and information technology, would require individual companies potentially to report billions and billions of data points. The burden would be crushing for contractors and the data tsunami would overwhelm GSA. Robust engagement would help GSA understand the breadth of the challenges faced by its industry partners and allow collaboration around a solution that works for particular, more complex products and industries.

Regarding TDR for services, questions remain on what information should be reported and how useful that information would be given the unique nature of agency-specific service requirements. Moreover, some in industry see TDR for services as a stalking horse for standardized labor categories. Standardized labor categories are inconsistent with commercial practice and reflect a low price, technically acceptable approach to service requirements, which does not align with the manner in which those services customarily are solicited and delivered.

Finally, GSA must continue to focus on the training and professional development of the acquisition workforce. It is a management challenge, as well as an opportunity, to move from negotiations based on MFC to a more traditional Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.404 like analysis under TDR. Training, including in person training, can support TDR implementation by providing the workforce with the skills and knowledge to efficiently and effectively manage TDR-based offers and contracts. Foundational to supporting the acquisition workforce will be sound pricing guidance that is consistent with law and regulation while being practical and executable. Transparency in the development of any pricing guidance that impacts MAS contractors will be vital to the long-term success of TDR and the MAS program.

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