GSA PREPARES ON-RAMPS FOR MULTIPLE POOLS FOR ONE ACQUISITION SOLUTION FOR INTEGRATED SERVICES

OASIS is a $60 Billion multi-agency contract (MAC) vehicle with a 10-year ordering period. It provides complex, integrated professional services and ancillary services/products that allows for commercial and noncommercial requirements and all contract types at the task-order level.

While yearly allocations for the Unrestricted vehicle range $169M-$595M, the Small Business vehicle has seen greater usage with allocations exceeding $1.66B in FY2017. This number will continue to grow with the increased usage encouraged by agencies committing to using OASIS via Memorandums of Understanding:

• Air Force
• Army
• Navy’s Navy Air Systems Command
• Department of Homeland Security
• Defense Department’s “4th estate” (Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Defense Information Systems Agency, the Defense Logistics Agency and other Defense agencies)
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

This program is GSA’s innovative solution to allowing different size standards on a contract vehicle, said GSA Program Analyst Brad deMers on May 16, 2018 at the OASIS Small Business (SB) Open Season On-Ramping Information Session webinar.

The government created seven pools with different small business size standards. Each pool is a separate multiple-award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (MA IDIQ) contract with one or more NAICS Codes. For example, Pool 1 has 21 NAICS codes and a $15M size standard while Pool 2 has 5 NAICS codes and a $20.5M size standard.

Key points from SB webinar

Vendor Self-scores: As conducted during the original OASIS procurement, offerors will provide self-scores to create the initial ranking of offers from high to low, resulting in a list of apparent successful offerors. The government will then evaluate the scores for potential adjustments. Scoring elements include past performance, relevant experience, business systems, and certifications. As reiterated multiple times during the Q&A session, offerors scores will only be compared with offers for the upcoming on-ramp, and will not be measured against previous scores submitted by current OASIS vendors.

Anticipated pools: GSA will begin exercising options for the OASIS SB contracts in February 2019. This will involve a re-certification of the small business sizes, and many of the OASIS SB contractors will have the opportunity to qualify for the OASIS Unrestricted contract or qualify for a larger pool on OASIS SB. In order to maintain competition among the small business pools, industry will be invited to on-ramp to pools that no longer hit the competitive sweet spot (3-5 proposals submitted at the task order level). Thus, the number of new contracts needed to replenish OASIS SB pools, and the specific pools, will be determined no earlier than 120 days before June 19, 2019.

Since the majority of task orders have been awarded via Pools 1 and 3, these are anticipated to have the most businesses graduating to a larger pool or OASIS Unrestricted. Current NAICS Codes for these pools are:

• Pool 1: 541330, 541360, 541370, 541380, 541611, 541612, 541613, 541614, 541618, 541620, 541690, 541810, 541820, 541830, 541840, 541850, 541860, 541870, 541890, 541910, 541990
• Pool 3: 541330 Exception A, 541330 Exception B, 541330 Exception C

To allow adequate set-aside competition at the task order level, the government prefers three vendors in each of the following socioeconomic categories per pool:

• HUBZone Small Businesses
• Small Disadvantaged Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB)
• Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB)
• Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Businesses (EDWOSB)
• 8(a) Small Businesses

Current pools that are unable to restrict competition to specific socioeconomic categories:

• Pool 2: HUBZone (only one contractor)
• Pool 3: HUBZone (only one contractor)
• Pool 4: HUBZone (zero contractors)
• Pool 5A, 5B and 6: HUBZone (zero contractors in each pool )
• Pool 5A, 5B and 6: 8(a) (only two contractors in each pool and while task order set-asides are eligible if two or more, GSA’s target is at least three to be awarded in each pool)

Looking ahead

Milestone goals for OASIS SB (Pools TBD):

• Additional OASIS SB Open Season Information session: 2:00 PM ET on October 31, 2018
• Identify number of new SB contracts needed to reconstitute pool: Approximately 120 days prior to option expiration (early CY2019)
• Issuance of Final Solicitation: CY2019
• Proposals deadline: 30 or 60 days after Solicitation released (CY2019)
• Award announcement: CY2019

Milestones for OASIS Unrestricted (Pool 2):

• Issuance of Final Solicitation: June 19, 2018
• Questions deadline: July 10, 2018
• Proposals deadline: August 7, 2018
• Award announcement: November 2018 (per conversation with Contracting Office in May 2018)

Looking back at how HUBZone companies are drastically underrepresented in most of the OASIS SB pools, HUBZones should jump on the chance to take a slice out of the $60B pie, especially those who qualify for Pools 1 and 3.

Deltek is tracking OASIS Small Business on-ramp via Opportunity ID: 129160 and OASIS Unrestricted Pool 2 on-ramp via Opportunity ID: 146837.