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December 31, 2020 By cs

Making best-in-class contracts better for innovation

In recent years, federal acquisition policy and practice has been a competition between two different priorities: Efficiency and innovation.

Instead of balancing these priorities, innovation has taken the backseat, denying agencies access to companies that can deliver transformational solutions.

The Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration have an opportunity to implement several straightforward changes that can address these competing priorities.

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office provided several recommendations for OMB and GSA to improve their category management initiative, which oversees efforts such as the best-in-class contracts (BIC). While most of the GAO recommendations focused on improving guidance around category management, better defining requirements, acquisition workforce training and cost savings, what was left unaddressed was how OMB and GSA can improve the most important outcomes — delivering the best and most innovative product and service solutions to agency customers and citizens.

Category management has pushed government agencies to buy more like a single enterprise. This focus has prioritized driving savings and efficiency by eliminating redundancy by developing more useful governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs), such as BICs. However, having a too narrow focus on streamlining and scale sacrifices the more important priority of attracting more innovative, non-traditional companies to the federal market. That focus — long championed by organizations like the Alliance for Digital Innovation — has pushed the government to leverage inventive acquisition authorities, prioritize commercial capabilities over onerous and restrictive requirements, and encourage speed in both the pilot and production phases of IT acquisition.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2020/12/making-best-in-class-contracts-better-for-innovation/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition reform, acquisition workforce, Alliance for Digital Innovation, best in class, category management, efficiency, GAO, GWAC, innovation, OMB, procurement reform

September 1, 2020 By cs

GSA imagines new small business GWAC

The General Services Administration gave the public a look at its next step in developing the agency’s new small business governmentwide contracting (GWAC) vehicle that will eventually replace the canceled Alliant 2 Small Business contract.

The new vehicle will emphasize Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) and woman-owned small business set-asides, streamlined pricing and contract submission processes, as well as a source for emerging artificial intelligence, machine learning, as-a-service offerings, cloud and edge computing technologies, as well as cybersecurity technology, according to GSA officials.

In an Aug. 27 webcast, GSA small business and IT category officials gave a loose outline of how they see the agency’s next-generation small business contract will develop in the coming months. They asked for industry input on how to maximize technologies, processes and ease-of-use for the new GWAC.

The agency anticipates issuing a draft solicitation “by the end of the year,” said Lee Tittle, program lead for small business GWACs in GSA’s Office of IT Category (OITC). To accommodate industry input and disseminate information on the effort, GSA opened a new category on its Interact online community.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2020/08/27/rockwell-gsa-new-gwac-smal-biz.aspx

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Alliant, GSA, GWAC, HUBZone, IT, small business, solicitation

July 10, 2020 By cs

GSA scraps $15 billion Alliant 2 small business contract

The General Service Administration (GSA) has canceled the solicitation of its $15 billion Alliant 2 Small Business governmentwide IT contract after it was plagued with protests.

That agency announced late Thursday it is “planning a new approach” for small business IT governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs) after “the federal government’s requirements have evolved and GSA recognizes the opportunity to strengthen, innovate, and better respond to changing technology needs and security threats,” it vaguely said in a release.

GSA had originally awarded the 10-year contract to 81 small businesses in 2018.  But just over a year later, the agency rescinded those awards after one company’s successful bid protest — there were dozens of protests of the contract in total — and went back to evaluating bids.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/gsa-scraps-15b-alliant-2-small-business-contract/

Also see Experts Break Down GSA’s Abrupt Cancellation of $15B Small Business IT GWAC at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2020/07/experts-break-down-gsas-abrupt-cancellation-15b-small-business-it-gwac/166701/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Alliant, bid protest, evaluation criteria, GSA, GWAC, IT, protest, small business, STARS, VETS

June 11, 2020 By cs

Could NITAAC’s $40 billion governmentwide IT contract be a boon for small businesses?

The National Institute of Health’s Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) has about two years to award its next great governmentwide acquisition contract called CIO-SP4.

While this may seem like a lot of time, NITAAC already is getting comments back on its draft solicitation.

Keith Johnson, the contracting lead for the CIO-SP3 and CIO-SP4 vehicles for NITAAC, said industry feedback was due back to his organization by May 15 and he expects the final solicitation for the $40 billion IT products and services GWAC to be more responsive to small businesses and agency customers alike.

“The draft has a direction in terms of some items that we would like to change, but all of that is preliminary,” Johnson said in an interview with Federal News Network. “For example, we would like to go to one GWAC. Currently we have a small business GWAC and an unrestricted GWAC, and the scope of both of those contracts mirror each other. There are a number of reasons why we would like to do that. Most notably, as a benefit to our small business owners.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/contractsawards/2020/06/could-nitaacs-40b-governmentwide-it-contract-be-a-boon-for-small-businesses/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: CIO-SP4, GWAC, Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center, IT, National Institutes of Health, NIH, NITAAC, set-aside, small business

June 3, 2020 By cs

The current approach to awarding big multiple-award contracts is broken — here’s how to fix it

It’s been awhile since I’ve jumped back on my soap box, but after the latest news of protests delaying yet another large multiple award, governmentwide contract, it’s time to bring back the call for competition at the task order level.

The General Services Administration’s Second Generation IT (2GIT) services is facing four new bid protests making 13 overall since the agency launched the effort more than a year ago.

At the same time, GSA is facing more pressure to make a decision about the Alliant 2 small business vehicle that has been on hold for more than a year and in the works for almost five years. GSA officials have said multiple times over the past few weeks that a new information about Alliant 2 small business would be forthcoming “soon,” which in government talk means anywhere from one day to six months.

These are just two of latest examples of why large multiple award contracts should just make getting on the vehicle as easy as possible and then let the real competition happen at the task order level.

Instead, agencies are dragged down by an acquisition model that is well past its prime and no longer meets the needs of today’s marketplace for many reasons.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2020/05/the-current-approach-to-awarding-big-multiple-award-contracts-is-broken-heres-how-to-fix-it/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition workforce, Alliant, GSA, GSA Schedules, GWAC, multiple award contract, small business, task order

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