Last Wednesday, July 29, Clover’s founder and Executive Chairman, Jim Cerkleski, hosted an insightful webinar to help our partners sell Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).

This is the presentation, the recording, and the PPE product portfolio from our web site.

To help our community of Office Products / NOPA, BTA dealers, and buying group partners prioritize PPE opportunities, we invite your consideration of the B2G platform.  This includes Federal, State, Local Government, and Education (FED-SLED) Public Sector verticals – any entity that is tax supported.

The Clover team has the experience, and the dedicated resources, to help drive a successful PPE campaigns in this B2G vertical.

If you are interested in PPE please connect with me  or my colleague

If we don’t know the answer, we have the network of contacts to quickly investigate so we can respond with accurate information.

Certain dealers are including PPE on their GSA Schedules as a result of the May 28 waiver, SPE Memo SPE-2020-10 that allows TAA and AbilityOne exemptions through Sept. 30, 2020. 

When submitting your modification to your Schedule, remember to add Clover’s top selling imaging supplies for Q2-2020.

Our product descriptions are in the process of being written to fit into the 40 character compartment required by GSA on SIPS 8.5.

Because imaging supplies and PPE may not be bought by the same Purchasing Manager, a suggestion is to leverage your Agency relationships, and ask the CAO, SPE, COTR or any of the Purchasing Directors, or 1102’s that have purchasing responsibility and budget authority - “Who is buying PPE?” and/or “Are their bids that I can respond to, or registries that I can enroll on? “  This info chart offers a perspective on the volume of PPE that has been acquired by GSA as of 5-29-20, GSA Covid-19 Slides.

We can confirm that:

1. The estimated 441 Federal Agencies, Departments and Bureaus are gradually re-opening with a reach of approximately 2.5 million employees, and 2 million contractors and consultants.
2. With the Executive Branch, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office Personnel Management (OPM) released protocol suggestions to re-open the Agencies.
3. GSA released new guidance on the protocol for managing the cleanliness of the facilities.

We can confirm through corroborating data from our friends at www.thecgp.org, and from www.pricereporter.com, and our history, that leading Federal Agencies and Departments that are buying PPE include:

1. General Services Administration, (GSA)
2. Social Security Administration (SSA)
3. Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
4. Health and Human Services (HHS) www.PHE.gov/facecovering 
5. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda and Rockville, MD– including the Gaithersburg, MD Distribution Center
6. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
7. Department of Defense (DOD)
8. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
9. Division of Strategic National Stockpile (DSNS)
10. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)
11. FedMall
12. Schools – Congress may provide between $70B and $175B to help schools open, comply with cleaning regulations, and provide PPE
13. Prisons – require non-alcohol based hand sanitizer

Featuring PPE on your GSA Schedule has an added benefit because of the March 13, 2020 activation of the Stafford Act. This Executive Directive makes GSA Schedules available to States, Cities, Municipalities, Counties, K-12, Colleges and Universities.

After Sept. 30, a possibility exists that any products considered ETS, that have been added to the Dealer’s GSA Schedule, could be automatically robo-removed.  However, as Agencies gradually re-open, GSA forecasts continued high demand, and chronic back-orders, for PPE.

For future consideration, the AbilityOne Commission hosts an ETS waiver process, and also provides Purchase Exceptions to Government Agencies.

These are issued on a case-by-case basis.  Dealers don’t need that waiver now because the PPE exemption goes through Sept. 30.

For more information, please review the AbilityOne Commission ETS Policy 51-541 

Since March, the impact from COVID-19 on PPE has resulted in three TAA extensions, and two AB1 exemptions.

The list of applicable Federal Supply Classes (FSC) has remained consistent.  GSA will continue to monitor the need for FSC exemptions on a monthly basis.

Supplement 2 of SPE Memo SPE-2020-10 extends the Purchase Exceptions authority for certain AbilityOne products to September 30, 2020.

**A full list of purchase exceptions can be found here.

Trust Clover – to avoid the many pitfalls and dangers of misrepresentation, fraud, and price gouging.

To help consumers and dealers navigate PPE counterfeit challenges, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) launched the COVID-19 Response Resource Center.

This site includes, (among other things), resources to help the public identify and report instances of fraud and counterfeiting related to the COVID-19 outbreak.

For example, the USPTO suggests consumers become sensitive to the “four P’s”:

Read Director Iancu’s full remarks on Fighting Counterfeits in a Pandemic:  The Impact and Solutions for Manufacturers.

See also FTC Testifies Before Congress on Efforts to Combat COVID-19-related Scams

Explore These Resources 

GSA

The www.GSAadvantage.gov has updated detail in the Covid compartment, and on www.gsa.gov/Covid19

COVID-19 Related Product Shortages: 3/13/2020

Because of the constant changing levels of product availability, vendors are recommending that customers contact them directly before placing orders on GSA Advantage! to ensure their availability.

Vendors will attempt to answer any questions regarding the "in-stock" availability of products, so please make sure that your request is specific. The more detailed the request, the better the vendor will be able to respond.

The contractor's contact information including phone number, and email is located on the Contractor Information page of GSA Advantage!. The Contractor Information page can be accessed as follows:

1. Navigate to the Product Detail page for the specific product you are interested in.
2. Under the price at the top left of the Product Detail you will see "sold and shipped by" followed by a vendor name. Click on this vendor name to bring up the Contractor Information page.

Click here to see more details on finding the vendor contact information

You can access search categories that include COVID-19 related products under the Disaster Relief and Pandemic Products aisle.

GSA has released an updated version of the COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions for Global Supply Contractors. See the updated 5-20-20 V2 here.

• Visit the page for acquisition-related information and resources. 
• Log in to the Acquisition Gateway for additional helpful acquisition resources.
• Check out the related GSA FAQ.

GSA published these 67 slides from a training session for industry on COVID-19.   The slides include links to GSA’s COVID-19 policies – including purchasing and payment flexibility.

FEMA

FEMA now controls the strategic national stockpile (SNS) due to recent transfer from HHS to FEMA.

Potential contractors/partners are asked to reach out via email to: FEMA-Industry@fema.dhs.gov.

The agency is also posting certain contract solicitations and sole source awards on https://beta.sam.gov/  for a wide variety of products and services.

• To sell medical supplies or equipment to the federal government, please submit a price quote under the COVID-19 PPE and Medical Supplies Request for Quotation.   Full details can be found in the solicitation (Notice ID 70FA2020R00000011). 

Veterans Administration

Nathan Turnipseed
National Director, VHA Medical Supply Program (Acting)
VHA Procurement and Logistics Office (10NA2)
Department of Veterans Affairs | 811 Vermont Avenue NW | Washington, DC 20005
Cell: 203-999-2204 | Email:  nathan.turnipseed2@va.gov

Specific vendor portals to register PPE are being updated    

The standard remains active: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/nac/

VA FSS Program Director, Dan Shearer, asked that contractors share the guidance with state and local government customers interested in utilizing the VA FSS.
Leverage the Presidential “Memorandum on Authorizing the Exercise of Authority under Public Law 85-804” issued on April 10, 2020 to make product available on VA Schedules available to state and local governments.

Terms and Best Practices:

1. Because of the strong demand, and inconsistent supply chain of the manufacturers, we suggest dealers place their orders and get in queue so we can distribute as soon as the product is received.  For example, if you order today for the 3M/N95 Mask Flyer, the expected ship date could be 60-90 or maybe 120 days.
2. 16 oz. hand sanitizer is on special promotion for $3.90 ea. for a case of 24, or $3.60 ea. for a pallet
3. We can put a dealer or customer logo (i.e. College) on the bottle of hand sanitizer.   The minimum order is 5,000 bottles, any size.  10,000 minimum on the 2 oz. bottle.
4. 2 oz. bottles of hand sanitizer are available to sample for current partners.
5. The PPE marketing collateral and SDS is available on www.CloverImaging.com through your pass code protected access.   It is loaded under “sales resources.”   The flyers can be customized by dropping your logo and contact information into the flyer.
6. We are adding content, images, and COO to our FedGov file to enable dealers to load PPE onto their GSA Schedule.
7. Contact your Account Manager for availability. 
8. Sanitizer shipped in pallet quantities ship freight free in the Continental United States (CONUS).  The price, freight, and availability for certain of the remainder of PPE products can be determined at the time of quote.   If the orders are large, then we will pass on an economies of scale whenever possible.
9. Due to the transit variables of distance, weight, speed of delivery - CONUS vs. OCONUS (outside of the Continental United States), we are inviting FedGov dealers to confirm the cost of freight to build into the quote – at the time of the quote.
10. Air Freight can be a range of 15 days after XGS validates content from Malaysia or Vietnam.
11. Minimum orders are in case quantity increments.
12. The PPE price list is updated every week, and is available through your Account Manager.   For example, this is the 8/3/20 version.

Related News

Worldwide cleaning association, ISSA has confirmed their North American conference and show will run from November 16-19 at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Convention Center.  Additional information can be found on https://www.issashow.com/en/home.html