Tag Archives: GSA SmartPay

Guest Post- Jennifer Schaus of Jennifer Schaus and Associates

 Today Government Charge Card is pleased to publish a piece by Jennifer Schaus. Jennifer is the principal of Jennifer Schaus & Associates, a boutique government consulting firm in Washington, DC with offices in Rome, Italy.  The organization helps small, mid-size, Fortune 500, domestic and international firms with government contracting; GSA Schedules to 8a Certification as well as sales, marketing and lobbying.

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Yes, “Clear Winners and Losers” – GSA’s words, not… Read More »

It’s the beginning of a new year. Out with the old and in with the new as the mantra goes. It’s that time when we look for a new start, a different way of thinking, thoughts about how to improve our business, etc.

Recently, a blog written on January 10th by Dan Tangherlini , Acting Administrator, General Services Administration, titled GSA to Launch 10 Strategic Sourcing Initiatives, spells out the new, upcoming initiatives of strategic sourcing and the plans to… Read More »

Many banks, especially in the Washington, DC area, have developed special programs for lending to federal contractors.  These include Virginia Commerce Bank, John Marshall Bank, First Virginia Community Bank, Capital Bank, Virginia Heritage Bank, Sandy Spring Bank, Xenith Bank, United Bank, Access National Bank, Cardinal Bank, Bank of Georgetown, and Freedom Bank of Virginia.  These institutions understand that working with businesses that have the government as their main customer requires specialized knowledge and expertise.

Washington Technology had an article about one… Read More »

The pricing in your bids to the government just got a lot more competitive.The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a memo on December 5, 2012 that outlines the focus of more Strategic Sourcing Initiatives.

As OMB’s Deputy Director Jeffrey Zients notes in the memo, “One key way agencies have saved money is by pooling their spending, either by centralizing the agency’s contracting decisions or by using government-wide strategic sourcing vehicles, in order to lower prices and reduce duplication and… Read More »

A memo released by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on December 5, 2012 focused on continuing to new direction on federal procurement practices. As OMB’s Deputy Director Jeffrey Zients notes in his Dec. 5 memo, “One key way agencies have saved money is by pooling their spending, either by centralizing the agency’s contracting decisions or by using government-wide strategic sourcing vehicles, in order to lower prices and reduce duplication and reduce administrative costs.” Building on established… Read More »

Government Charge Card is pleased to publish the following guest post by Stephanie Levine, Director of Marketing at Princeton Payment Solutions (PPS). PPS is a division of Financial Transaction Services (FTS) who provides comprehensive responses to critical payment components for clients.

In the article below Stephanie discusses the importance of Oracle EBS, GSA SmartPay2 ™ and Level-3 data and especially PCI Compliance for companies doing business with the U.S. government.

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Kicking it Up by Shrinking it Down: Level 3 and Reducing the… Read More »

In previous posts, we have mentioned that a new law was in the works that would require federal agencies to put new safeguards and controls on government charge card use by federal employees.  As Jack Moore of Federal News Radio reports, the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 was signed into law on October 5th, and agencies will now face stricter rules for issuing and tracking government charge cards.  The legislation was introduced by Sen…. Read More »

In an earlier article, I wrote about how the cost of processing a credit card (the interchange) is dependent on multiple factors such as the type of card issued, how it is processed, and the type of business that it is used in. Taking the data that is required a step farther, below is a summary of the required data elements that make up all levels of processing:

LINE ITEM DATA

LEVEL 1

LEVEL 2

LEVEL 3

Merchant Name

X

X

Posted by Casey Coleman, Chief Information Officer on September 25th, 2012

It’s been just over a year since GSA transitioned to Google’s cloud-based email platform, and to date the agency has realized a cost saving of $2 million dollars. As the first large federal agency to adopt cloud-based email, GSA is leading the way and serving as a best practices model for other government agencies. In fact, early estimates show that GSA will save $15 million in costs over the… Read More »

In recent news, the GSA has decided to freeze Schedule 75 ending any chance that you may have to get on this schedule.  This news makes it even more important for potential vendors on any schedule.  With the news that the GSA saved over 10 million dollars,  you can be sure that other schedules will be added to the FSSI.  Will you be left out in the cold?

The FSSI only allows a limited number of vendors on a particular… Read More »