Manufacturers of technology must now evaluate a newly proposed system for determining the country of origin of manufactured items because the old "substantial-transformation" test will likely give way to a "tariff-shift" test.
Acquisition policy-makers all seem to agree that acquisition planning is the key activity required to make wise procurement decisions, yet the system doesn't measure this activity. Rather, it appears that the more thoroughly it is done - at least for the purchase of technology - the less likely the procurement will be categorized as competitive.
I went ahead and did it. Everyone has been talking about Web 2.0, and I finally figured I'd better get on board before the Generation Y crowd eats my lunch and leaves me in the dust with the rest of the baby boomers.
To the credit of former GSAAdministrator Lurita Doan and Acting AdministratorDavid Bibb, GSA's Multiple Award Schedule AdvisoryPanel is moving forward. The next meeting of the 15-memberpanel was scheduled to be held May 22 at the GSA auditorium.Such meetings are open to industry.
A recent Input Inc. report shows that state and local purchases under GSA's IT schedules grew to $361.2 million in 2007, a marked increase compared to 2006. Inputprojects sales under cooperative purchasing to continue to grow at a compound annual rate of 24.6 percent, surpassing $1 billion by 2012.
A common business strategy in the federal market is tostart as a small business, taking advantage of the socioeconomicpolicy that requires large businesses to subcontractto small, disadvantaged businesses andagencies to award 23 percent of their prime contracts to them.
SmartBuy will make it more difficult for buyers to circumvent enterprise software agreements, but where there's a will, there's a way.
The three whistle-blower cases DOJ joined against Accenture Ltd., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. represent the biggest challenge to manufacturers of commercial products in this decade.
October marks the start of the federal fiscal year, and as in every year since 1994,Congress and the president have failed to give agencies their annual spending authority on time.
One of the all-encompassing, farthest-reaching questions in the world of public contracting is how to create meaningful competition within the procurement system and measure the results in a transparent way.