[Mark Lee] 14:09:41
This means our customers are gonna be asked to continue to execute their mission. With less dollars. One way to address this challenge is to analyze your spend and craft better buying strategies.
[Mark Lee] 14:09:55
Government wide policy officials are already following suit. The presence management agenda includes better contracting initiative that asked agencies to use data to buy smarter.
[Mark Lee] 14:10:07
This is further amplified by the Office of Management Budget. Recently, releasing for draft and acquisition data circular.
[Mark Lee] 14:10:16
This calls on each agency to engage in this practice. Furthermore, within the federal government’s category management roombek.
[Mark Lee] 14:10:25
The common nominee are a month’s best in class contract vehicles is the ability to share and use transactional data.
[Mark Lee] 14:10:34
It’s not just the policy officials that are indicating our customers are being driven to use transactional data.
[Mark Lee] 14:10:41
It’s the Oversight community as well. For example, the General Accountability Office recently issued a report at the end of January on federal software licenses.
[Mark Lee] 14:10:51
The report calls on agencies to take action with transactional data to achieve additional savings and savings. A response.
[Mark Lee] 14:11:02
Our customers are coming to GSA for help. And this is where TE is valuable to our customers.
[Mark Lee] 14:11:06
And FY 23 re-mounts approximately 17 1 17.1 billion dollars in transactional data.
[Mark Lee] 14:11:15
And within the category management program, that helps achieve a calculated cost avoidance of about eight-seven 1 billion dollars.
[Mark Lee] 14:11:23
This kind of success only finds our customers wanting more and keep coming back. Now that we discussed the what So why you might be wondering what’s in it for me.
[Mark Lee] 14:11:36
Well, GSA, we want to, we want you to a team the most value of your investment of having a GSA contract.
[Mark Lee] 14:11:44
Me intend to make sure your GSA contract continues to be the goto vehicle for our customers to see doing business with us for years.
[Mark Lee] 14:11:54
Dot com. Today we outlined how TDR is improving customer value. It’s it is also proving is providing value to our industry partners in needling them to be even more successful.
[Mark Lee] 14:12:07
You’ll hear today about how we’re sharing data back with you. To understand what customers are buying and how to better position yourself.
[Mark Lee] 14:12:17
We have documented that TDR makes it easier to do business with GSA. Over the last 7 years, GSA is on public comment 3 times to validate the cost to you, our industry partners of TVR versus the traditional mass business model.
[Mark Lee] 14:12:33
The most recent call for comments came into in 22. These estimates have been validated through acquisition experts in the government.
[Mark Lee] 14:12:44
The public comprising of large and small businesses. Well respected industry associations. And finally, it was improved by the Office of Imagine budgets, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
[Mark Lee] 14:12:58
Essentially that’s the body that oversees government regulations. Based on that 2,002 information collection, the burden associated with TDR dissipation over the legacy mass model is 40% less.
[Mark Lee] 14:13:15
TDR is currently saving industry and estimated 10 million dollars a year in administrative costs. In this burn, reduction in cost savings expands the more we go to participation in TDR.
[Mark Lee] 14:13:32
And it’s grown on average about 11% a year. However, this doesn’t tell the full story.
[Mark Lee] 14:13:38
The opportunity for you is to reduce your meditative costs. And what does that do for you? It freeze up capital.
[Mark Lee] 14:13:46
So that you can increase your competitiveness in the federal marketplace. This will help create a marketplace where you have more resources to devote to serving our customer.
[Mark Lee] 14:13:58
It reduces those barriers of doing business with us.
[Mark Lee] 14:14:03
As I pass the baton to our next set of fantastic speakers, we’ll explain where the what.
[Mark Lee] 14:14:10
Why and how. I’d like to leave you with a few key thoughts. GSA in and our industry partners are implementing TDR to increase transparency into what our customers are buying.
[Mark Lee] 14:14:23
So we can better meet their needs. Our customers expect us to provide insight into what they’re buying.
[Mark Lee] 14:14:30
And to use that data. To provide better value. TDR implementation increases the value to you of holding a GSA contract.
[Mark Lee] 14:14:41
Provides you with better insight to be successful. It makes it easier and more cost effective to do business with.
[Mark Lee] 14:14:50
Now I’d like to turn it over to Greg Adams by a deputy, assistant commissioner and the newly appointed Basswide TDR program manager.
[Mark Lee] 14:15:00
Greg, take it away.
[Greg Rollins] 14:15:02
Thank you, Mark. So, like to talk to you a bit today about TDR maturation and really that is foundational to this to what we want to talk to you about today.
[Greg Rollins] 14:15:16
So Passes made a great deal of continued progress on our path towards TDR maturation over over the past several years with really a heavy focus within within the last year.
[Greg Rollins] 14:15:27
So what you see here is a four- strategy to help us mature TDR. So let me talk you through some of these problems and you know we’ll go from there and see where the conversation takes us.
[Greg Rollins] 14:15:37
Classification management is, is one of the first, and I’ll dive more into this, later on, but we’ve developed fast-wide integrated product teams and classified our Sins based on the recognition that varying areas of the program have differing needs and differing levels of maturity related to TDR data.
[Greg Rollins] 14:15:55
We’ve defined rigorous expansion criteria and again we’ll cover this more. In depth later on which act as our goalpost for any future expansion of TDR and this was something that was a corrective action plan deliverable and we’ve been working with our Office of Inspector General on.
[Greg Rollins] 14:16:12
We’ve, matured our internal controls and defined equities among various fast-wide organizations that contribute to communication, systems development, training and policy.
[Greg Rollins] 14:16:25
That’s the cross-bass work streams. And we’ve initiated monthly fast executive TDR meetings.
[Greg Rollins] 14:16:30
And what you’re focusing on progress towards our shared goals of further maturation. And that certainly is critical to our long-term alignment.
[Greg Rollins] 14:16:40
So all of this, you know, speaks to this foundation of data quality. So let me dive into that a little bit more.
[Greg Rollins] 14:16:48
So if we hit our next slide. We can’t mature our data without foundational data quality.
[Greg Rollins] 14:16:56
So what you see here are efforts to improve multiple dimensions of data quality. So first one would be completeness.
[Greg Rollins] 14:17:04
You know, we are continuing compliance sweeps for non reporters to ensure that our data set is comprehensive and that really speaks to the value proposition, you know, for all of our stakeholders, from customers to, you know, GSA to industry partners yourselves.
[Greg Rollins] 14:17:20
You know, our TDR data is regularly reviewed, including by teams and the business portfolios.
[Greg Rollins] 14:17:26
We’re reaching out directly to vendors, you know, leading to more and more quality data. So that certainly has been, has been a large focus.
[Greg Rollins] 14:17:34
When we talk about consistency, we’re, and you know, we’ll explain this more later on, but we’re deploying soft flags on select fields to provide feedback to vendors in in quarter 3 of this year.
[Greg Rollins] 14:17:46
So, you know, that provides information in real time back to industry to help improve data quality.
[Greg Rollins] 14:17:53
We’re also piloting a sample contract report on TDR data with a handful of vendors right now which provides detailed data on a number of facets including unmatched transactions.
[Greg Rollins] 14:18:05
Items that for whatever reason were recorded as selling above the catalog price items which contain bad data service line items which actually have been marked as returned were like I said trying this out with a very small audience right now of vendors who have previously expressed interest in taking, a vendors who have previously expressed interest in taking, you know, steps to improve their, their transactional data submissions and we’re intending to pilot iterate, and taking, you know, steps to improve
[Greg Rollins] 14:18:40
their, their transactional data submissions and taking, you know, steps to improve their, their transactional data submissions and taking, you know, steps to improve their, their transactional data submissions and we’re intend When we talk about accuracy, we’ve launched a industrial operations analyst assessments with a new TDR question in quarter 2 of this year.
[Greg Rollins] 14:18:51
So our manual internal manual for our highaways was updated to add a TDR specific data quality question.
[Greg Rollins] 14:19:00
And our IOS are responsible for reviewing data quality fields in the TDR submission to make sure.
[Greg Rollins] 14:19:06
So they’re looking at manufacturer name, manufacturer a part number for products. Unit of measure, quantity, price paid for, both products and for services.
[Greg Rollins] 14:19:15
And when that field or if that the data in the data fields identified if there’s a match. That’s great when there’s not a match between the information in the TDR data set and the approved mass price list.
[Greg Rollins] 14:19:30
You know, this, the IOS are empowered to work with vendors around corrective action to make sure that improves.
[Greg Rollins] 14:19:36
When we talk about timeliness, we’re validating sales reporting portal data against our daily authoritative catalog repository.
[Greg Rollins] 14:19:47
So, you know, that really means that we’re integrating differing systems behind the scenes with the goal of getting information to analysts in the acquisition workforce more quickly without manual intervention.
[Greg Rollins] 14:19:58
For example, rather than match against potentially outdated advantage catalog information, you know, we’ll start to match against real-time catalog data that’s updated daily and in the ACR where it’s available.
[Greg Rollins] 14:20:12
We’re rolling out new controls and validations to identify when vendor reported SRP submissions contain mismatches compared to that ACR in quarter 3.
[Greg Rollins] 14:20:22
And that’s really significant because the more dynamic ACR will contain more timely, accurate, and comprehensive data day to day, which is in comparison to that advantage catalog.
[Greg Rollins] 14:20:33
When we’re talking about validity, we’re adding, flags for a manufacturer name, manufacture a part number, unit of measure or mismatches.
[Greg Rollins] 14:20:43
So flag matching is expected to be added in quarter 3. And really this speaks to any actions we can take to get clean and quality data into the systems the first time before COOK to get clean and quality data into the systems the first time before CO intervention is our goal.
[Greg Rollins] 14:21:03
You know, by delivering soft flags to our industry partners and asking, the first time before CEO intervention is our goal.
[Greg Rollins] 14:21:08
You know, by delivering soft flags to our industry partners and asking, you know, by delivering soft flags to our industry partners and asking, Hey, this doesn’t match.
[Greg Rollins] 14:21:13
Did you really mean this? We can increase our front end data quality significantly. And with the changes to the catalog program, you know, that quality data will now persist through the entire contract life cycle, which is, is, certainly, critical.
[Greg Rollins] 14:21:25
Lastly, I, speak to uniqueness. We’re continuing to explore unique identifiers across the board and including looking at them for services.
[Greg Rollins] 14:21:26
Which in future will help us better ensure a single apple is matched to a single apple. You know, that says ancillary benefits of helping us clarify our internal dashboarding as well, but certainly making sure that we’re getting that information and only looking at it once.
[Greg Rollins] 14:21:41
Is critical. So, let me talk to you about transactional data and how we’re leveraging that for business intelligence because you might be wondering you know what is all this focus on data quality mean for me?
[Greg Rollins] 14:21:56
So this is a great use case on how TDR data can be used to help both industry and government through our compliance and pricing report under the Fast Catalog program initiative.
[Greg Rollins] 14:22:06
So the fast catalog program is another critical fast initiative, which is receiving a good deal of positive feedback without going too deep into into catalog in general the project is seeking to modernize and automate our catalog management processes.
[Greg Rollins] 14:22:22
So that there’s consistent automated flow of data from offer MoD through and through to the e-commerce solution, leveraging the fast catalog platform.
[Greg Rollins] 14:22:32
So one hallmark of a fast catalog efforts is information transparency. So in our legacy business processes, CEOs would run analysis on vendor submitted data prior to initiating negotiations.
[Greg Rollins] 14:22:45
And we’ve heard a consistent ask for industry to have visibility into that same data. The compliance and pricing report you see on the page, in front of you is our answer to that question.
[Greg Rollins] 14:22:54
We leverage a common tool set to analyze prices and provide valuable market intelligence on not only pricing, but on a host of compliance issues back to the vendor when you went on the first moment your data hits our systems prior to even MoD submission.
[Greg Rollins] 14:23:08
So this facilitates more meaningful conversations between government and industry and streamlines business processes resulting in additional time savings.
[Greg Rollins] 14:23:18
Transactional data is one of the critical datasets powering this business intelligence. I do want to touch on one key point there is that GSA and we’ve been very deliberate and how we looked at this, but GSA only incorporates curated TDR data into the model that you see in front of you, where we have at least 5 order-level transactions.
[Greg Rollins] 14:23:38
And we omit data for orders with quantities greater than 5. So we’re very deliberate in ensuring not only like items but like quantities were included for the purposes of price comparison.
[Greg Rollins] 14:23:48
The fast catalog program is in the process of scaling up and adding a few 100 vendors per month through the end of 2024.
[Greg Rollins] 14:23:59
So if you haven’t heard about this one yet for products vendors you should soon but this one yet for products vendors you should soon but this is a great example of the benefit of TDR data.
[Greg Rollins] 14:24:05
So, I said at the beginning of the presentation that, I’d, speak to you a little bit more about classification management.
[Greg Rollins] 14:24:11
So this is one of the strategic pillars that we’re using to further mature TDR.
[Greg Rollins] 14:24:17
And we needed to set subject matter experts who are knowledgeable about the products and services being offered to the task of defining and finalizing our classification based approach.
[Greg Rollins] 14:24:27
So one of the reasons we pursued this classification process was the realization that we have different levels of knowledge and sophistication in dealing with transactional data in different areas of our offerings.
[Greg Rollins] 14:24:40
You know, non configurable products seems the most mature. We’ve been leveraging transactional data on non-configurable products for a number of years, but realize we have more to learn in other areas.
[Greg Rollins] 14:24:48
So over the summer, mass SMEs initially classified the Sins into these groupings. Integrated product teams were stood up and took a deeper dive to validate and further define these classifications.
[Greg Rollins] 14:25:00
And since then, the classification team have delivered recommendations on the mass TDR, data collection elements that we intend to roll out for products and services.
[Greg Rollins] 14:25:10
So these classification teams are responsible for evaluating progress towards achievement of our mass TDR expansion criterion.
[Greg Rollins] 14:25:19
We’ll talk more about that later on. And in fact, let’s dive into it a little bit more on the next slide.
[Greg Rollins] 14:25:24
So when we talk about expansion criteria, this is strategic pillar number 2. The fast commissioner signed a mass expansion expansion criteria decision memo back on note in November.
[Greg Rollins] 14:25:41
And this is a deliverable as I mentioned that was provided to to our Office of Inspector General.
[Greg Rollins] 14:25:45
What you see is 5 different classification areas with associated subtasks. And all of our classification areas with associated subtask.
[Greg Rollins] 14:25:54
And all of our classification teams have been meeting to discuss. And all of our classification teams have been meeting to discuss the expansion.
[Greg Rollins] 14:25:58
And all of our classification teams have been meeting to discuss the expansion criteria, and all of our classification teams have been meeting to discuss the expansion criteria, and develop plans in accordance with these.
[Greg Rollins] 14:26:02
All of our classification criteria, and develop plans, in accordance with these.
[Greg Rollins] 14:26:09
All, of our classification teams have completed task one around classifying, in accordance with these.
[Greg Rollins] 14:26:17
All of our classification criteria, and develop plans in accordance with these. All, of our classification teams have completed task one around classifying, classifying sends into groupings of offerings, at this juncture.
[Greg Rollins] 14:26:34
And different groups are moving and also talk more about how TDR expansion fits into our timelines.
[Greg Rollins] 14:26:35
So, next, let me talk to you a little bit about, maturation. So to continue maturing, TDR data quality and matching capabilities, we’re working towards 4 major goals for the rest of the fiscal year.
[Greg Rollins] 14:26:51
First, we’re rolling out 4 new TDR fields to address data gaps via solicitation refreshing quarter 3.
[Greg Rollins] 14:26:58
So these fields will initially be rolled out on an optional basis and depending on what we learn after a collection of the new data starts in June, they may later be made mandatory for products, but we’re rolling these out as optional to allow us both to learn and evaluate these as optional to allow us both to learn and evaluate these fields before making any changes around that optional nature.
[Greg Rollins] 14:27:26
So commitment to optional to allow us both to learn and evaluate these fields before making any changes around that optional nature.
[Greg Rollins] 14:27:31
So commitment to optional and we’re going to commit to making sure once any decision is made to move forward that industry has adequate time around any changes in the nature of those fields.
[Greg Rollins] 14:27:42
But we really want to collect that data learn from it and see how we can increase the utilization based on it.
[Greg Rollins] 14:27:46
So the 4 fields are shipped to zip, which will be used to monitor pricing compliance, analyze practicing data by locality.
[Greg Rollins] 14:27:48
We have order date and ship date, which we use to look at cycle times and contract compliance. Topics.
[Greg Rollins] 14:27:54
We have federal customer, which will be used to analyze data by treasury agency code for both products and services.
[Greg Rollins] 14:28:02
So when the federal customer field is implemented and we’ve seen a couple of questions about this, fast will release an updated sales recording portal upload template that includes a table of treasury agency codes with their associated agency names.
[Greg Rollins] 14:28:17
So you as industry only need to know the buying agency’s name to find the associated to digit code.
[Greg Rollins] 14:28:23
We’re working on our business cases to support the addition of these new data fields and we’re working on our solicitation refresh, which is tentatively scheduled for May of, 2024.
[Greg Rollins] 14:28:35
So, secondly, we’re rolling out new data controls and validations to identify, when vendor reported SRP submissions contain mismatches compared to the the back end of the fast catalog platform known as the authoritative catalog repository.
[Greg Rollins] 14:28:50
So this is significant because that more dynamic ACR will contain more timely accurate and comprehensive data day to day compared to the more static advantage catalog.
[Greg Rollins] 14:29:00
You know, initially after rollout SRP will simply flag mismatches in those 4 fields, manufacture name, part number, unit of measure.
[Greg Rollins] 14:29:09
I paid per unit and automated emails will go to vendors alerting them with potential problems. Ultimately, after a suitable acclamation period, our goal is to reject SRP submissions with manufacturer part number entries that don’t match ACR.
[Greg Rollins] 14:29:25
The point of this is to prevent invalid data from ever entering our system, but we recognize that there’s a learning curve here for industry on getting manufacturer part numbers right.
[Greg Rollins] 14:29:35
Our goal is to build enough controls and get, both industry. That only the right manufacturer part numbers or entered in the first time that they’re submitted.
[Greg Rollins] 14:29:45
So, invalid part numbers reported, you know, necessitate post submission communication and cleanup.
[Greg Rollins] 14:29:51
They expose our systems and analytics to unnecessary risks. So we want to try and avoid that.
[Greg Rollins] 14:29:57
And you know, that’s our goal to lay out that we’re trying to move to mitigate that risk in the long run.
[Greg Rollins] 14:30:03
So if, I can move to the next slide, I’ll talk to you a little bit about what our change path looks like.
[Greg Rollins] 14:30:10
So, on the communications front, you know, we’ve continued to work through, the, the items that you see in front of you.
[Greg Rollins] 14:30:18
But we sent out an acquisition workforce EBLAST to communicate the data collection validation and feedback changes across a fast.
[Greg Rollins] 14:30:28
And on January, 20 fifth we issued an interact post to alert, you know, you our industry partners in the general public.
[Greg Rollins] 14:30:34
You know, about our intent to make these changes. So these efforts really mark the official launch of our TDI communications and outreach campaign, which will continue beyond this fiscal year.
[Greg Rollins] 14:30:45
So you can expect to start seeing more public-facing information coming out about TDR over the next 3 quarters.
[Greg Rollins] 14:30:51
Including positive stories from the use cases that you were all helping generate. You know, so that, you know, we’ve talked through, the collection of additional data elements we’ve talked through SRP system changes and we’ve talked through communication and that’s all went to the data collection change activities that you see in orange.
[Greg Rollins] 14:31:10
You know, let me talk to you, for a moment about the blue, which is Tvr data expansion changes.
[Greg Rollins] 14:31:16
So as you can see, we’re working towards expanding the TDR pilot to new non configurable product sentence.
[Greg Rollins] 14:31:23
You can see TDR expansion activities highlight in blue on the slide late in Q 3 and NDQ 4.
[Greg Rollins] 14:31:29
As we talked about a few slides ago, our expansion criteria were approved by the fast commissioner back in November.
[Greg Rollins] 14:31:35
We realize how critical capturing our momentum this year is to the fast TDR program overall. So as we work to improve our data quality and data use, we need to demonstrate value today in progress towards expansion or else our program risks increased exponentially.
[Greg Rollins] 14:31:52
That being said, we also recognize the need to do this the right way. We’ve said what we’re going to do and now we need to follow the process we laid out and walk through the evaluation process we’ve established.
[Greg Rollins] 14:32:03
Let me be clear, no decision on expansion has yet been made, but our category teams are collecting artifacts to support expansion which aligns with our TDR goals.
[Greg Rollins] 14:32:13
So you can expect to see more in quarter 4 as our teams progress down this path. So with that, I’m gonna conclude, you know, my fixed remarks.
[Greg Rollins] 14:32:22
And engaged several members of our fantastic leadership team here and fast to answer some key questions around TDR.
[Greg Rollins] 14:32:29
So, first I have a question for Charlotte. Phalan, our assistant commissioner and the fast office of strategy and innovation.
[Greg Rollins] 14:32:38
So, Charlotte, you know, why do we need additional TDR data fields and validations?
[Erv Koehler] 14:32:52
Really Charlotte, you might be on mute.
[Greg Rollins] 14:32:54
Thank you.
[Charlotte Phelan] 14:32:55
Thank you, Earth. I think I hit the space bar twice. Anyway, great question, Greg.
[Charlotte Phelan] 14:33:04
And, I think you mentioned in your comments that we published an interact post on January 20 fourth.
[Charlotte Phelan] 14:33:09
That is laid out our plans to add these 4 new. Optional fields later this year. And at that time, we also requested industry feedback.
[Charlotte Phelan] 14:33:21
So to highlight again what Greg said on this slide, what are the 4 fields? They are order date, ship date, the zip code ship to and then the federal customer, you know, what agency was making the purchase.
[Charlotte Phelan] 14:33:35
Each of these 4 new data fields we’re rolling out addresses a critical gap in our TDR dataset.
[Charlotte Phelan] 14:33:42
Like Greg highlighted before it is about completeness, consistency, and accuracy of our data.
[Charlotte Phelan] 14:33:49
We need the order date and the ship date fields to monitor contract compliance and conduct holistic analysis on order to ship cycle times.
[Charlotte Phelan] 14:33:59
We need the zip code shipped to field to monitor pricing compliance and to deepen our pricing analysis by locality.
[Charlotte Phelan] 14:34:08
We need the federal customer field to support customer agencies to better analyze the purchasing by each agency. It’s not just about our needs and customer needs, however.
[Charlotte Phelan] 14:34:21
We also really value industry, which is why we’re having this session to make sure we’re communicating our plans and providing ample opportunities for your feedback.
[Charlotte Phelan] 14:34:33
The new validations we intend to roll out in quarter 3 will enable real-time validation of manufacture name, manufacturer part number, unit of measure and unit price fields against each mass contractor’s product catalog.
[Charlotte Phelan] 14:34:49
Today, when our industry partners upload transactional data into SRP, simple controls reject submissions that are missing data in the required fields.
[Charlotte Phelan] 14:35:03
But there are no controls for present but inaccurate data. The validation notifications will make it easier for industry to make sure you’re submitting the right data.
[Charlotte Phelan] 14:35:11
And that it’s available for the right analysis. Thanks, Greg.
[Greg Rollins] 14:35:16
No, thank you, Charlotte. My second question, let me direct, our assistant commissioner and the general supplies and services categories.
[Greg Rollins] 14:35:28
What are you hearing from agency customers and services categories. Earth, what are you hearing from agency customers and industry partners about TDR.
[Greg Rollins] 14:35:32
What are you hearing from agency customers and industry partners about TDR data utility?
[Erv Koehler] 14:35:33
Hey, thanks, Greg. I’m gonna start with the industry side. It’s been a little sad for me to see I think, 74% of the people said they did not know this data was published and we’re gonna go ahead and get that link out to everyone.
[Erv Koehler] 14:35:46
I think Rachel already answered the question. But here’s the reason it’s a pretty big deal.
[Erv Koehler] 14:35:53
About 5,000 items. Hear that again, 5,000 items represent 50% of all sales.
[Erv Koehler] 14:36:02
We literally have millions of items on schedules. So what this is doing for us is helping us reprioritize or rethink the way that we’re going about, our work.
[Erv Koehler] 14:36:13
For example. Many of you, if you’ve experienced a modification in the product space from our area, we’re gonna say things like we have this many items that have market research.
[Erv Koehler] 14:36:22
We’ll approve any that are under our price threshold. And if you withdraw the others, we can improve those in a couple of days.
[Erv Koehler] 14:36:29
For those that don’t have market research, which means from TDR or a database literally consisting of millions of items from.
[Erv Koehler] 14:36:38
Commercial and government sources. We have nothing on those items. We’re setting those aside and we’ll come back to them.
[Erv Koehler] 14:36:45
We’re really just trying to prioritize so that those items that are in demand get addressed first and quickly, especially if they’re compliant.
[Erv Koehler] 14:36:52
The next round we can address in a second wave and then those ones with no market research is the third wave.
[Erv Koehler] 14:36:59
So it’s really helping us. Prioritize the work we’re doing with our industry. When we have feedback.
[Erv Koehler] 14:37:05
From some of our industry partners, hey, this is terrible. I have this big catalog and I’m proud of it.
[Erv Koehler] 14:37:10
We’ve been able to determine that. The larger catalog does not result in more work. In fact, there could be an inverse relationship between the size of the catalogue and the amount of work that you get through the schedules program.
[Erv Koehler] 14:37:21
Because nobody can possibly manage all of those things in a highly effective and efficient way. And if they’re not in demand anyway, it’s it’s it’s hurting your brand and ours.
[Erv Koehler] 14:37:32
So really focusing in on the in-demand items is key. We’ve heard a lot of people today talk about the idea of the manufacturing part number.
[Erv Koehler] 14:37:40
That is a big deal that OEM part number and description, is just so important.
[Erv Koehler] 14:37:47
And if you go to the website that is provided the VSC website to get to demand data, the last group was published last month, July, 2024.
[Erv Koehler] 14:37:57
You can see our best representation of the part number. We know we’re having some challenges with old, advantage data because we were not as.
[Erv Koehler] 14:38:04
Regulated about how we received it. And then we have the newer data. With FCP, the fast catalog platform that is starting to standardize that information in a better way.
[Erv Koehler] 14:38:15
So you can see some of the utility around it. We’re not trying to get to the lowest rock bottom price.
[Erv Koehler] 14:38:22
We’re trying to get to a fair and reasonable price. What does that mean? For the identical item, this exact tape measure.
[Erv Koehler] 14:38:29
The variation in price should not be 5 X. It should probably be about 60% to account for shipping or other variables.
[Erv Koehler] 14:38:38
But for the identical item, it probably shouldn’t be substantially more than that. And so we’re setting the prices for those known items in a better way.
[Erv Koehler] 14:38:46
We’re using TDR data to do that. It is one of the 3 factors. That we have incorporated to fix the pricing model that we had not adjusted for a while.
[Erv Koehler] 14:38:56
The TDR data is excellent. And making sure we’re capturing the inflationary pressures that might be coming along because it’s real-time purchase history information.
[Erv Koehler] 14:39:05
Those are a few of the examples on the other side. We’re also using it as a bit of a control.
[Erv Koehler] 14:39:11
So in the case of the national industries for the blind, they have the essentially the same items, which we should not be putting up on advantage, but they can sneak through in a variety of ways.
[Erv Koehler] 14:39:21
A lot of people resell other catalogs and they’re told, hey, there’s no ETS items in here.
[Erv Koehler] 14:39:30
But if you still get in and then we’re going back through with our partners in here, but if you still get in and then we’re going back through with our partners at Nib to say hey these things have been sold.
[Erv Koehler] 14:39:36
And we’re going back through with our partners at Nib to say, hey, these things have been sold.
[Erv Koehler] 14:39:41
And we can use TDR to pick that up. Then we can go back to those vendors who may be less compliant, than others and work with them to figure out how we can mitigate that.
[Erv Koehler] 14:39:50
The good news about this. There was always a little bit of a dispute between us and the national industries for the blind about how much ETS there was.
[Erv Koehler] 14:39:55
We can now say with pretty high level of certainty, it’s less than 2% of all sales for those items.
[Erv Koehler] 14:40:00
That’s a just another great piece of information. So we’re sort of beyond the rhetorical debates and we’re beginning to use the data to fix some of the problems.
[Erv Koehler] 14:40:11
From a customer perspective, we’re renewing faith in the pricing on advantage. You’ll remember the Dick Chen and memo, which is my personal goal to make sure we eradicate that.
[Erv Koehler] 14:40:22
It said that our prices were not fair and reasonable and you could debate the merits of the argument, but The fact of the matter is going forward using the TDR data we’re collecting here.
[Erv Koehler] 14:40:33
And the data we have from other sources, we are going to bring back the Fair and reasonable pricing associated with advantage so that people can trust it.
[Erv Koehler] 14:40:42
We’re using the TDR data to do that and it’s helpful to our customers because it saves them market research time.
[Erv Koehler] 14:40:49
They know they’re going to a trusted place with price. They know they’re gonna get the delivery because we’ve been so focused on that.
[Erv Koehler] 14:40:55
And then lastly, we’re gonna make sure they’re getting a good price because as that as budgets continue forward, I think, Greg talked about the.
[Erv Koehler] 14:41:05
The deficit a little bit as we move forward. I don’t expect the budgets to be quite as robust as they are.
[Erv Koehler] 14:41:11
So we’ll want to make sure that we’re getting a fair and reasonable price going forward. So it’s just pretty cool to see all the different vectors.
[Erv Koehler] 14:41:19
And the last one I’ll leave you with. Before I throw it back to Greg was the addition of the zip code for products.
[Erv Koehler] 14:41:27
As we go forward or as I’ve heard at some of the events that I’ve attended some of the industry partners said hey if we need those zip codes we might know that hey if there’s a lot of demand in one area and we had a depot nearby we want to preposition some inventory there to improve our speed to to delivery or it would help us figure out what supply chain adjustments we we
[Erv Koehler] 14:41:49
might need to make. So that was one of the the feedbacks we received to have that additional, data element. And I’ll close. I’m sorry.
[Erv Koehler] 14:41:57
I’ll close with when it comes to DVR expansion. I am the number one, advocate, or at least I’m self appointed number one advocate.
[Erv Koehler] 14:42:03
We really have taken this information, from TDR and other sources. To do a better job.
[Erv Koehler] 14:42:09
On price on delivery. Having a better command of the market. So we will be moving forward with the best in class package for non configurable products because we believe we have met all of those standards and we’re gonna come right behind that.
[Erv Koehler] 14:42:23
Probably later in the year with a potential expansion package for the non configurable TDR Sins on masks.
[Erv Koehler] 14:42:32
So we’re in the stage of Greg talked about the roadmap and some of the other things I happen to be one of the roadmap and some of the other things, I happen to be one of the lucky ones.
[Erv Koehler] 14:42:39
I happen to be one of the lucky ones that is, out front because I have the non configurable products.
[Erv Koehler] 14:42:42
I happen to be one of the lucky ones that is, out front because I have the non configurable products and I have the non-configurable products and I have the non configurable products and I want you to know that we’re moving forward with this aggressively because we think we’re ready. We think it makes a lot of sense. We think it’s good for all parties.
[Erv Koehler] 14:42:50
So hey, Greg, back to
[Greg Rollins] 14:42:51
Thank you, appreciate the remarks and appreciate everything GSS has been doing to help drive this forward. So, let me pivot and ask my third question to Tiffany Hixon, our assistant commissioner from the fast office of professional services and human capital categories.
[Greg Rollins] 14:43:11
Tiffany, you know, we’ve talked a lot about some of these, the, the various, you know, category types, but what will the engagement strategy for services focused improvements look like?
[tiffany hixson] 14:43:22
Oh, thank you for the opportunity. Can you hear me okay, Greg? Okay, perfect.
[tiffany hixson] 14:43:29
Thank you for the opportunity to talk about services. Unlike Earth, I’m not in first place.
[tiffany hixson] 14:43:35
I’m in last place. And I’m super excited. But this year we are really starting to get our arms around.
[tiffany hixson] 14:43:43
How do we really one collect PDR data effectively for services. What data do we need to be collecting?
[tiffany hixson] 14:43:52
So it’s a benefit to the acquisition community. As well as industry. And really doing that work in collaboration with industry.
[tiffany hixson] 14:44:01
We’ve talked a lot about products. And TDR for a number of years and we’re finally at the place that we can start to talk about services.
[tiffany hixson] 14:44:10
Even though we haven’t had deep conversations with industry about TDR for services, little known fact for some.
[tiffany hixson] 14:44:17
Is that we have been collecting. TDR data since the inception of the program for services through what was the legacy engineering’s been on our predecessor.
[tiffany hixson] 14:44:30
Additional services contract and now the engineering has been on the consolidated services contracts or sorry mass contracts we’ve been collecting that data and what we’ve learned is we’ve got a lot of work to do.
[tiffany hixson] 14:44:43
In terms of the kind of data that we’re collecting. It’s meaningful use cases.
[tiffany hixson] 14:44:49
And this year we are going to be rolling up our sleeves to really start that work in earnest and in collaboration with industry.
[tiffany hixson] 14:44:57
There’ll be a number of tools that we’re going to be using to help collect that data more effectively.
[tiffany hixson] 14:45:03
But really, we’re gonna start. Really taking a look at what we’ve done to date and how to do that better in partnership with industry.
[tiffany hixson] 14:45:13
And so how are we gonna do that? In April, we’re gonna start a series of conversations.
[tiffany hixson] 14:45:22
First, with our existing, our contractors that are participating. In TDR, we’ve got about 600, industry partners that are currently participating in the engineering spin and in some other sense that they have more than once and that’s awarded but they opted into TDR so we’re gonna start with focus groups with them to talk about how’s that going?
[tiffany hixson] 14:45:47
What’s their experience? What do they think the utility of the data is? And then we’re gonna pivot over to non TDR industry partners on math to learn what their concerns are about joining TDR.
[tiffany hixson] 14:46:01
And we have heard that there are concerns. So we really want to have deep conversations in terms of understanding what those barriers and concerns are.
[tiffany hixson] 14:46:11
And then after we collect all that information, we’re gonna start, to look at, different ways to improve the data that we’re collecting, test those concepts.
[tiffany hixson] 14:46:22
With a series of industry focus groups. And then we’ll also be using industry to test, systems changes both in terms of how we’re collecting data and as we’re getting teed up like products we are looking to pilot use of fast.
[tiffany hixson] 14:46:41
Catalog solutions or this fast catalog platform with a fast catalog platform. And so all of this at work that we are doing on the TDR front will feed into how we are taking a look at really leveraging technology to streamline the collection of transactional data for services.
[tiffany hixson] 14:47:02
And, while we are really beginning, I think the structured work in earnest will be doing that, between April and the end of the fiscal year.
[tiffany hixson] 14:47:12
We’ve gotten feedback from industry around, hey, what about TDR for services and concerns around, hey, what about TDR for services and concerns around, how we’re gonna use the data, how that’s gonna be presented, that kind of thing.
[tiffany hixson] 14:47:26
And so I’ll just highlight a couple of the items of feedback that we’ve received thus far and that we will be factoring into or also including in these focus groups discussions which is one how can we identify ways to really reduce the burden in terms of collecting the data for services is the catalog tool a way to do that.
[tiffany hixson] 14:47:51
Templates, we on masks this last year actually had to update the services pricing template to help us collect that data better.
[tiffany hixson] 14:48:03
What other changes can we be making and to include in the sales reporting portal? On math.
[tiffany hixson] 14:48:08
We’ve heard concerns around, okay. Services, TR. Seems like GSA may be leaning towards standardizing labor categories.
[tiffany hixson] 14:48:20
And I can say that we are not. Leaning towards standardizing labor categories. We want to leverage commercial practices and how we start to collect data.
[tiffany hixson] 14:48:32
So it is usable. Yeah, we’ve got use cases. Industry as well as government can use the information we’re collecting on services is going to be an art for sure.
[tiffany hixson] 14:48:43
And we wanna make sure that we are thinking, through the commercial lens in terms of labor categories, but being thoughtful around how we can really try to tee up a more apples to apples comparison on the labor category pricing and standards that we have awarded on our contracts.
[tiffany hixson] 14:49:04
And then lots of discussions around a firm fixed price. So firm fixed price, right, without a statement of work or the terms that conditions seems like it’s really not that usable.
[tiffany hixson] 14:49:17
So we’re gonna start some conversations around, you know, how can we tackle that?
[tiffany hixson] 14:49:23
Our initial focus really is around labor category. Labor categories and labor category pricing, but we will start to have some conversations around the utility of collecting firm fixed price information, even if it’s just to have it to start with, and how much of a burden is that going to be on industry?
[tiffany hixson] 14:49:41
What are we gonna do about commoditized services? Again, I think that is going to be probably a second or third order area of focus.
[tiffany hixson] 14:49:51
We are gonna stay focused on the labor category of questions first because I think that’s gonna be a focus on the labor category of questions first because I think that’s gonna be the big lift that we need to get through.
[tiffany hixson] 14:50:01
And then of course, what does this look like for, services in terms of expansion of PDR.
[tiffany hixson] 14:50:07
Greg, as you mentioned earlier, really expansion of TDR is really about fast meeting the criteria right to expand the program for us doing that from an enterprise perspective.
[tiffany hixson] 14:50:19
So services is right along with that. And the maturity of us being able to collect information and present that information in a way that’s usable is going to be a key driver and consideration.
[tiffany hixson] 14:50:30
As we’re looking to expand, PDR for services. And then of course, we’ve got a lot of feedback about, okay, so why should we participate in TDR?
[tiffany hixson] 14:50:44
What are the benefits to industry? No, really. If we’re gonna have to submit all of this data.
[tiffany hixson] 14:50:51
And so we’re going to be spending time talking about really the burden reduction that there is in and eliminating the requirement for tracking most favored customer pricing.
[tiffany hixson] 14:51:01
And also just like in the product space that I think we have some really good models around how to use that data coming out of products is understanding the demand data.
[tiffany hixson] 14:51:12
What is government buying? And then how is competition driving pricing at the task order level, for labour categories.
[tiffany hixson] 14:51:27
And I think all of us having more insight into that is just a good thing for industry as well as for government.
[tiffany hixson] 14:51:29
So those are some of the highlights. In terms of how we’re getting teed up to engage industry on the on the services front and I really am looking forward to the dialogue that we’re going to be having through the industry associations as well as standalone invitations that will be making to industry partners who are on our mask contracts.
[tiffany hixson] 14:51:50
Right.
[Greg Rollins] 14:51:52
No, thank you Tiffany and certainly, yeah, interested to continue the dialogue, as well.
[tiffany hixson] 14:51:55
Okay.
[Greg Rollins] 14:52:00
I mean, I think you’re hearing through all of our remarks here that you know we are you know very much interested in continuing to test to ask the right questions to listen to the feedback that we’re getting very much interested in continuing to test, to ask the right questions, to listen to the feedback that we’re getting.
[Greg Rollins] 14:52:16
We’re being thoughtful in our approach and to listen to the feedback that we’re getting. We’re being thoughtful in our approach.
[Greg Rollins] 14:52:27
And that’s certainly something that that we’re getting. We’re being thoughtful in our approach.
[Greg Rollins] 14:52:33
And that’s certainly something that, I want, we’re being thoughtful in our approach.
[Greg Rollins] 14:52:36
And that’s certainly something that I want everyone to walk away with, but of our TDR data.
[Greg Rollins] 14:52:37
You know that certainly is central to everything that we’ve been doing and central to our pathway moving forward.
[Greg Rollins] 14:52:40
We’re phasing in new data reporting requirements to improve our overarching utility. You know, you can expect to see more.
[Greg Rollins] 14:52:47
You know, throughout 23 and and and into early 25. You know fast is implementing new data validations to to increase our data accuracy we’re implementing automated feedback mechanisms.
[Greg Rollins] 14:53:01
And, and that last point that we are establishing rigorous expansion criteria, that have to be met prior to being eligible to be added to the TDR pilot.
[Greg Rollins] 14:53:12
So not everything is TDR now and you know we’re not putting everything into TDR until we’ve walked through the path that we said we’re going to walk through.
[Greg Rollins] 14:53:19
So, you know, more to come as, we drive down that path, but we look forward to this being the beginning of this dialogue and you’re going to hear a lot from a lot more from us over the coming months.
[Greg Rollins] 14:53:30
So, you know, with that, I’ll just say thank you all. For your attendance today as well as the questions we’ve been logging the questions that came in during the session day is Devinie said at the start we’ll be looking to address those in writing in the near future.
[Greg Rollins] 14:53:42
You can look for those answers as well as the video of the section to be posted to interact as well as the mass YouTube channel in the near future.
[Greg Rollins] 14:53:49
So with that, let me pass it back to Deviny to close us out and
