17 - Critical Information Specific to Schedule 73

7FCM-C4-03-0073-B – REFRESH 32 Critical Information Specific to Schedule 73 Page 1 Critical Information Specific to Schedule 73 The information provided in this document is specific to Schedule 73. Before submitting your offer, please ensure you have met all of the requirements outlined in this document that are applicable to the products or services you are offering, as well as any other applicable general requirements listed in the solicitation attachments (e.g. Information and Instructions to Offerors, Corporate and Project Experience, Commercial Sales Practices Format, etc.).

1. Any offer submitted after July 12, 2018 MUST be submitted with attachments from the Solicitation dated June 12, 2018 (Refresh 32). Offers received after July 12, 2018 that are submitted with documents on versions prior to Refresh 32 will be rejected as non-responsive.

2. On June 23, 2016, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) published a General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) final rule to capture transactional data on procurements across all of its Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) program contracts and Government-wide Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contracts, to include Government-wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs). The Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) Rule requires vendors to electronically report the price the Federal Government paid for an item or service purchased through GSA acquisition vehicles.

As part of the strategic implementation of the rule across all GSA contracts, the agency will introduce the transactional data reporting requirement with a pilot of select products and services in the FSS program. This pilot was introduced in a phased approach beginning in August 2016.

Schedule 73 is participating in the pilot program.

Under this pilot, you will not be required to provide Commercial Sales Practices (CSP) disclosures identifying discounts, terms, and conditions offered to your commercial customers that equal or exceed the discounts , terms, and conditions offered to GSA. Additionally, the requirement to monitor price reduction violations through the Price Reductions clause tracking is removed. Thus, participation in the TDR pilot results in a substantial decrease in the paperwork burden for offerors submitting new offers under the Schedules in the TDR pilot.

Why is the GSA Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) implementing this change? The goals of TDR are to:

- Significantly reduce burden to industry partners by eliminating Commercial Sales Practices (CSP) disclosure and Price Reductions clause (PRC) tracking requirements from Schedule contracts participating in the TDR pilot.

- Reduce contract administration burden for TDR pilot vendors once TDR is implemented.

- Provide business intelligence to strengthen best value decision-making by ordering activities, which will allow customers to take full advantage of the wide variety and complexity of products and services offered by Schedule Partners and pass on savings to the taxpayer.

- Improve competition and increase transparency.

- Support category management and promote smarter buying.

The chart below highlights the differences between a TDR pilot offer and a Traditional/Non-TDR offer:

3. The eOffer system is limited in the number of required documents needed to substantiate a complete offer. There are most likely a number of additional documents you will need to upload in order for your submission to be considered complete. Anything that is not a required document in eOffer should be uploaded as an optional document. You can upload as many ‘Optional’ documents as needed to meet the solicitation requirements. For any document that is required that is not applicable to your submission (i.e. – you are a small business but the Subcontracting Plan is a required document) you may upload a statement on company letterhead stating that the requirement is not applicable to your submission and the reason why it is not applicable.

4. If you are offering ancillaryservices, please see the attachment titled Schedule 73 – Services Pricing Proposal for critical required information pertaining to the submission of these services. Please provide all supplemental documentation as required. Offers for stand- alone services subject the Service Contract Act (SCA), such as repair or maintenance services, must include copies of Wage Determinations applicable to the location(s) of expected performance. Please refer to clause SCP-FSS-002 for services subject to the Service Contract Act.

5. If your current Commercial Price List (CPL) does not cover the majority of the period for your past sales reported in paragraph one (1) of the Commercial Sales Practices Format (CSP-1), you must provide a copy of the CPL that was in effect during that period.

6. Effective November 22, 2010, all products added by modification to current contracts or awarded under new contracts for Special Item Numbers (SINs) 302-49, Refrigeration Equipment - including Blast Freezers, Chillers; Commercial Refrigerators; Commercial Freezers; Dairy Cases; Deli Cases; Walk-In Refrigerators; Walk-In Freezers; Ice Dispensers; Ice Making Equipment; Ice Storage Bins and Carts, SIN 302 15 – Commercial Dishwashers, and SIN 375-361 - Biodegradable Cleaner/Degreaser (Water Based) Non-Phenolic and Non-Petroleum - Products approved by USDA for Food Handling Areas, must meet the following Government standards. Executive Order 13514 (http://www.fedcenter.gov/programs/eo13514/) requires that 95% of all new contract actions are designated for “green” products and/or services through certification guidelines established by governmental agencies. In order to begin implementation of that order, GSA has designated these two SINs on Schedule 73, which will require “green” qualifications. For SIN 302-49, all items, where applicable, must meet Energy Star or Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) requirements (where applicable), and be qualified Energy Star or FEMP compliant. Energy Star lighting specifications can be obtained through the website at http://www.energystar.gov/certified-products/how-product-earns-label?c=products.pr_how_earn. Information on how products earn the ENERGY STAR label can be found at http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.pr_how_earn. Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. For SIN 375-361 all items must be certified as Biopreferred by obtaining certification from the U. S. Department of Agriculture at www.biopreferred.gov. If the items offered are qualified, please make that attestation in writing. Please provide a spreadsheet that references the items and the applicable qualification they meet. If they do not meet the criteria (i.e. - there is no available specifications for the items offered), please make that attestation in writing. If they do not meet the required qualifications and the qualifications are listed and available to meet, you will need to exclude these items from your offer.

7. NAICS Codes – You are required to update your SAM registration to reflect the applicable NAICS (North American Industry Classification Codes) based on the scope of the products and/or services you are offering. Our solicitation limits us to selecting a finite number of NAICS to associate with each SIN. If the NAICS listed in the solicitation do not match the scope of your offering, you will need to register the applicable NAICS in SAM in addition to registering at least one of the NAICS reflected in the solicitation for each SIN being offered . If you certify your company as an Other Than Small business in SAM for purposes of the applicable NAICS, your firm will be required to submit a Small Business Subcontracting Plan for approval with the offer. Failure to submit a Subcontracting Plan if you certify as a large business in SAM will result in rejection of your offer.

NOTE: NAICS codes under Sectors 42, 44, and 45 shall not be used to classify Government acquisitions for supplies. The applicable manufacturing NAICS codes for each SIN shall be utilized, regardless if the Offeror is or is not a/the manufacturer of the products being offered. The non-manufacturer rule will be applicable for size determination in accordance with the requirements of 13 CFR 121.406.

8. Per the solicitation document Part 1 - Goods & Services in the current refresh: “Offeror must provide a full and broad offering on services and/or products. Offers will not be accepted with only limited item/offering (product. labor category, training course, or fixed-price service) unless it represents a total solution for the Special Item Numbers (SINs).”

If the products or products being offered require services to provide a total solution to the end user, then services should be offered with the initial eOffer submission. Individual products are often utilized as part of a larger project for a Federal customer. These products are purchased by a 3rd party such as a General Contractor and they then provide the services to install the needed item, thus providing the eligible Federal agency the needed turnkey solution. Purchases of this nature by a 3rd party are not considered reportable sales under a Multiple Award Schedule contract (Unless procured under a FAR 51 deviation that allows purchase by general contractors of an item at pass through cost in order to provide the total solution to the customer. This is done through written authorization by the procuring Federal agency. Purchases of this nature are small and not taken into consideration when determining if a Federal market for the items in question exists).

Many Federal agencies do not have the resources to perform needed product specific installations and often times, manufacturers warranties can be voided if not installed by licensed contractors. If the Federal agency cannot readily perform self installation of the items in question (and self installation is not a commercial practice), services must be offered to provide the customer the total solution. Please review the solicitation for full documentation requirements related to services. Services offered should mirror commercial practices as you will have to provide project summaries of recently completed projects with supporting detailed cost information. Commercial practices and purchasing history will be discussed and verified through required solicitation documentation. We will determine that scope of products offered will result in direct reportable sales by eligible Federal agencies.

9. Please provide product literature/specifications for all items offered so a determination of suitability can be made. Offers will not be accepted if this determination cannot be made. If there are a large number of spec/product literature sheets, please upload these into several large files as opposed to a large number of small files.

10. Financial documentation (Income Statement and Balance Sheet) from your firm’s last 2 fiscal years must be submitted with your Schedule 73 offer (For all offers – products or services or some combination of). Your offer will be rejected if these are not provided.

11. Please note with all offers, the offer must be submitted by an official within the company – CEO, President, VP, board member, etc.. If the offer is digitally submitted by an employee where it cannot be determined that they can financially commit the company, a letter must accompany the offer allowing the digital signer in question to have the authority to submit the offer on behalf of the company. The letter needs to be written and signed by someone who can financially commit the company. For offers submitted by a 3rd party agent or consultant, please include at a minimum one employee of the company with the authority to sign contract documents as an authorized negotiator.

12. Please provide a copy of your standard commercial warrant and restocking policy.

13. Post-award documents (Modification package, Option package, etc.) will no longer be posted in FedBizOpps with the solicitation. Rather, they will be located on the Greater Southwest Acquisition Website. To access this website, please go to gsa.gov and keyword search ‘Post Award Schedule 56’ to access all post award documentation.

14. If the products you are offering contain Hazardous Material in accordance with clause 52.223-3, you must provide the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) that meet the requirements 29 CFR 1910.1200(g) and the latest version of Federal Standard No. 313, for all hazardous material identified in paragraph (b) of clause 52.223-3. Please upload these as optional documents in the eOffer system.

15. If products with a shelf life are offered under Special Item Number (SIN) 302-2, they must have a shelf life of one year from the date of ship (not date of production). You must certify via signed letter submitted with your offer that all items offered have a shelf stable life of one year from the date they will be shipped to the customer in question. If you are not able to make this certification, your offer will be rejected. Acceptable food items to support disaster recovery are bottled water, potable water, non-perishable meals including Meals Ready-to-Eat (MRE’s), Emergency Food Kits, and Emergency Meals.