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    Seasoning SEWP

    GWAC Buyer’s Guide

    By Jeff Erlichman

    SEWP – Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement – is always coming up with new ways to taste even better, focusing not just on IT products, but providing customers with suppliers who can provide a complete solution.

    Government buyers love their SEWP.

    So much so that it was named “Federal IT King of the Contracts” in a MeriTalk survey of federal IT buyers in May 2009.

    SEWP IV offers a wide variety of IT products and product solutions, including: desktop computers and laptops; high performance servers and database servers; mass storage and network devices; and security systems and tools. Many more solutions are available at www.sewp.nasa.gov.

    The SEWP product and price list are updated daily. Once your order reaches the SEWP BOWL, it is sent to your chosen supplier fast – in one day.

    Often Happy, Never Satisfied

    You don’t get to be “king” without satisfying a lot of customers. But SEWP PM Joanne Woytek told 1105 Government Information Group Custom Media she won’t let the SEWP team rest on their laurels. Because Woytek is “often happy, but never satisfied”, it should come as no surprise that she is continually adding to the team’s “to do” list. 

    So she has team members working hard to expand customer service by providing more staff and expanded hours to ensure buyers can reach someone on the phone.

    They are enhancing SEWP web tools (e.g. the ability to create credit card orders from RFQ responses) Woytek explained. “I’m happy with the website, but we have a long list of things we need to do. We will have a whole rewrite of RFQ tool. We have so many new ideas as to how we can make it better.”

    According to Woytek, the RFQ tool is being constantly improved adding new capabilities. For example, “we have the ability to indicate that an award has been determined, so people can say ‘I’ve done my RFQ and I’ve made my award’,” explained Woytek. “The tool also provides the ability to verify that items are on the contract so customers can do the award.”

    A Better Tasting SEWP


    When you ask SEWP PM Joanne Woytek to describe what makes SEWP different, you get a bullet point after bullet point including:

    *SEWP is 15 years old; there are 38 Contract Holders; it expires 2014

    *Low Fee – 0.006% ($0 - $1,666,666); $10,000 cap ($1,666,666 and up)

    *Non-profit – program budget self contained and NASA provides no direct SEWP funding

    *Fast turnaround (after order reaches the SEWP Bowl, sent to supplier in one day.)

    *Pricing – often lower than others, hard to beat

    *Technical expertise available

    *Ability to put out an RFI and add items if you choose

    *Ability to perform multi-vendor searches

    *Ability to verify items are on the contract and their price.

    And by-the-way, the current SEWP surcharge is capped at $10,000 per transaction. SEWP is the only product GWAC with a fee cap.

    The SEWP team is also working on adding CompuSearch capabilities to enhance the user experience. They are stepping up their training to SEWP contract holders, having recently held their 2009 Annual Conference and Industry Day.

    And they are working hard to grow the SEWP relationship with DOD according to Woytek and travelling the globe to ensure our military gets what they need as they need it.


    Go to the SEWP BOWL

    The SEWP BOWL is mission control. Here, the customer-service center keeps orders moving by processing requests for product additions within 24 hours. Service starts with pre-order support with the online Product Search and RFQ tools and they track your quote requests and vendor replies.

    Finally, they make quality assurance checks on product delivery, product functionality and overall customer satisfaction. And if there is a problem, they will help resolve it.

    “We are continually building up the quality assurance area in terms of order processing,” noted Woytek. “We’ve added more oversight in terms of compliance issues, because we are now allowing more services on SEWP related to the planning, installation and implementation of products.”

    Woytek knows that in order to stay competitive, you have to provide the solutions and service customers are looking for. With six more years on a contract, a fee of just 0.006% and a ceiling of $5.6 billion, SEWP has proven itself to be a premier customer focused vehicle serving up fresh technology for a long time to come.

    “We want to emphasize you can use SEWP for more than just a single purchase. Use SEWP to help solve enterprise-wide problems,” said Woytek. In addition to NASA, two agencies who are doing just that are VA and Justice. They are using SEWP as an enterprise-wide solution.

    For information on SEWP call (301) 286-1478 or email help@sewp.nasa.gov.