Blog

The government recently updated the SIP program to 7.8 and now instead of it working some of the time, you have to update it in order to get it to work correctly at all. Many times, these updates won’t happen on their own and it forces you to backup your SIP file and then uninstall it from your computer and re-install hoping you won’t lose any of the information that you previously built in your file. Also, many times when you upload your file, you will not get the response file back and will have to call the Vendor Support Center so they can email it to you. With all these problems with SIP, you may be wondering what some tips and hints are for making the process easier?

1. When you initially build your file in SIP make sure you have all the correct information. This is usually found on the Final Proposal Revision, Terms and Conditions, Commercial Sales Practices and Price Proposal.

2. Services do not need to upload any pricing information in the SIP program, it’s all located in the textfile.

3. If you are doing a product upload and you have more than 25 products to upload, there is a much easier way to do this. You need to enter the first product information into the SIP program and then export all of your files. Once this is done you can go to the C://SIPV7/Export Folder and find all the necessary files here. Make sure you cut and paste all relevant information from the pricing proposal to all 3 necessary spreadsheets (IPROD, IPRICE and IPHOTO). Once this is done you can drop all of the excel files in the import folder, upload them and then they will be there.

4. Errors are the biggest pain in importing. In order to avoid these make sure that you have the correct information, in the correct order in all 3 of the above mentioned spreadsheets.

5. Photos are the biggest attraction to contracting officers on GSA Advantage, make sure that every item on your contract has a good quality photo, the CO’s want to see what they are purchasing.

6. Product Description is next, it’s a rotating algorithm that puts products at the top of the list with no way to beat it unless you actually work for GSA Advantage, so just make sure that your product descriptions are accurate and list the most pertinent specs for each item.

Want to know more tips on SIP and how to un-confuse the SIP program. Email me at steve@schemtoshconsulting.com and I have a nice spreadsheet I can send you that details all the columns out in each spreadsheet.