e-Buy Gains Ground; "One Schedule" Studied GSA’s e-Buy electronic purchasing tool is gaining traction in its third year online, said Neal Fox, assistant commissioner of the Federal Supply Service. Fox said about 25,000 requests for quotation were posted on the system in fiscal 2004 and he expects the total to rise to 40,000 this year. Using e-Buy, a contracting officer can solicit quotes electronically from all GSA schedule holders who are on GSA Advantage. Fox said the tool makes it easier for contracting officers to get multiple bids and allows Defense Department buyers to satisfy the Section 803 requirement for competitive bidding on GSA schedule purchases above $100,000. “The electronic process is very much a help to (small businesses) because they don’t have a thick pile of paper,” he added. “If you are not in the e-Buy game, you are pretty much missing the future of where the customer is going and where online procurement is going,” he told contractors at the Coalition for Government Procurement conference in Washington June 7. But Bill Gormley, president of Washington Management Group, pointed out that in some categories e-Buy generated 20 or 30 responses from contractors, but only a single bid. He said that indicates that many companies are passing up opportunities because they are not savvy about electronic bidding. Solicitations through e-Buy did produce competition in IT procurements – an average of five bids on each task order, according to the market research firm Federal Sources Inc. Federal Sources said the Air Force, Army, Navy and GSA are the biggest users of e-Buy, but its use is growing in practically every agency. One Schedule to Fit All? Officials of the Federal Supply Service are exploring whether to reduce the number of different schedules – perhaps by combining all 43 of them into one. Fox said he is pushing the idea of “One Schedule” because it would eliminate questions about whether work is within the scope of a particular schedule. He said the idea is “in the conceptual stage.” He acknowledged that writing a single solicitation to cover all schedule contracts is a major challenge, because the solicitation could be thicker than the thickest telephone book. “I want to take the scope issue out of the equation,” he said. “If we don’t get to one, maybe it can be a couple or three… Then we don’t have to talk about staying in scope.” As the preliminary planning continues, Fox said he will seek advice from industry: “This will be a very open process.” Industry officials at the conference were cautious in their assessment, and several acknowledged that the idea took them by surprise.