MPASS (The Marketplace for Acquisition of Strategic Supply) is a HUBZone certified marketplace for Governmental Procurement Cardholders (GPC’s) and Purchase Cardholders (P-Cards).

MPASS is a medium of exposure for small American manufacturers and American owned businesses that make their products within CONUS or fall inline with TAA (Trade Agreements Act) compliance (worst case scenario).

We work with small manufacturers on making products, as close as possible to order, used by federal buying activities on a regular basis. When products like shirts, office supplies, coffee, food that falls are purchased under the SAP/SAT level it can become a headache when the company/supplier you’re dealing with isn’t showing you “reportable” products. 

MPASS is designed to eliminate the headaches, cut down the reporting time and at the end of the day make it easier for buying activities to procure quality items from manufacturers within CONUS.

MPASS is designed with the functionality GSAdvantage! was initially supposed to have. While the GSA Schedule and GSAdvantage! have their pro’s and con’s (more pro’s than con’s) it is not, the way it stands today, a uniformed marketplace meeting all of their federal customers needs.

We are not designed to replace GSAdvantage, rather we are focused on taking the good they do and making it even better for one specific group of customers: buying activities within the military services and DoD.

With LPO’s/LVO’s available for the services and the DoD department-wide level activities GSAdvantage! doesn’t meet ALL of their needs. That’s ok because the GSA is great at what they do for the civilian departments and agencies. It’s a little different for our men and women in uniform since civilian contractor support for the logistics of each mission can be critical. When you are dealing with the logistics of the missions they set out for and the requirements of them the GSAdvantage platform works up to a point.

We want to be able to be the shoulder each service can lean on for support when the GSA is not able to provide it.

There are a few points that make MPASS special:

1. It is a HUBZone certified, Small Disadvantaged Business certified marketplace making every product purchased on there a HUBZone and SDB purchase.
2. We are currently working on having multiple MSS’s on MPASS (making it easy to go through the source selection process).
3. The manufacturers we work with on MPASS, just like UC, tend to have socio-economic certifications multiplying the socio-economic utilization of each purchase.
4. We prepare the reporting data for each product sold that way it becomes easier to purchase AND report products you’re purchasing.

Commercial Platforms (CP’s) are marketplaces run by small businesses that were approved by the GSA. Currently there are a handful of CP’s currently operating in this space. There is one big gorilla in the room that is eating up the GPC market (federally): Amazon.

While all of the CP’s are run by successful and trusted businesses they all have taken what was made for the general public and carbon copied it, none have actually met the government’s needs in this endeavor. Amazon, being the behemoth of a company it is, has gotten traction but it doesn’t meet the needs of our men and women in uniform. While Amazon and the other CP’s are good (REALLY GOOD) at what they do for consumers and small businesses they are not the same as dealing with the federal government let alone the United States Military.

When you talk to CO’s, COR’s, unit/command designated GPC’s and OSBP’s you always hear a few consistent points of frustration when it comes to GPC transactions:

1. Length of time compiling reporting data to justify purchase is ridiculous (especially because most GPC’s have main functions and/or job roles that are completely separate from their GPC responsibility).
2. DNAD’s and/or circumstances that require waivers to be used in purchases (taking away necessary funds for products/services that can go against you if they are not compliant with FAR and/or DFARS.
3. It has become increasingly difficult to find manufacturers and suppliers who can meet GPC needs when they are needed.

With that in mind, MPASS is designed to be an almost one-stop shop for GPC’s that takes a process currently taking GPC’s anywhere from a few days to report down to about 30 minutes. Eventually, GPC’s won’t even have to worry about compiling any reporting data - they’ll just need to trust and verify what has already been compiled for them.