RFP | The Contracting Education Academy

July 13, 2020 By cs

GSA opens bids for largest governmentwide small business contract to date

The final request for proposals is out for GSA’s IT services-focused 8(a) STARS III contract, which will have a ceiling of $50 billion.

Shortly after canceling one IT contract vehicle for small businesses and raising the ceiling on another, the General Services Administration released the final request for proposals for its largest small business governmentwide contract to date: the third iteration of the 8(a) Streamlined Technology Acquisition Resource for Services, or STARS III.

The $50 billion governmentwide acquisition contract, or GWAC, is reserved for Small Business Administration 8(a)-certified businesses providing IT services. The contract will be open to all federal buyers and includes two sub-areas for emerging technology and IT services performed outside of the continental United States, or OCONUS.

“We are excited to expand the scope of the STARS III GWAC to cover OCONUS performance and address emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and virtual reality,” Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Julie Dunne said Monday in a statement. “STARS III will increase opportunities for hundreds of 8(a) companies at a time when we’re heavily relying on their expertise to modernize the federal government’s IT infrastructure and improve virtual service delivery for citizens and employees in the U.S. and abroad.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2020/07/gsa-opens-bids-largest-governmentwide-small-business-contract-date/166663/

June 13, 2019 By AMK

Federal online shopping platform coming soon – GSA to issue prototype RFP within the year

In the latest step towards delivering on the long-promised “Procurement Through Commercial e-Commerce Portals” program, the General Services Administration has announced plans to build a proof-of-concept for federal online shopping, aiming to issue an RFP by the end of the year for web-based acquisition platforms.

According to GSA’s notice, the platforms will be based on an “e-marketplace” model — one that connects federal customers to a range of competing vendors, similar to online shopping websites in the private sector. These “e-commerce portals” will carry “routine commercial items found on today’s commercial e-commerce platforms (with office supplies and industrial products being amongst the most common)[.]” Purchases will be limited to the micro-purchase level, which is currently set at $10,000.

The agency expects to award multiple prototype contracts, and it indicated that further proof-of-concept contracts may be needed to test other online purchasing models. These other purchasing models include an “e-commerce model,” under which each portal provider would serve as the seller of goods, and an “e-procurement model,” under which the acquiring agency would manage the platform using software supplied by a contractor to facilitate sales through multiple vendors. On this point, GSA explained that “the one model that best fits GSA’s priorities for an initial proof of concept is the e-marketplace model.”

Keep reading article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2019/05/federal-online-shopping-platform-coming-soon-gsa-to-issue-prototype-rfp-within-the-year/

March 2, 2018 By AMK

George Carlin and the effects on solicitations, contracts

I read an article by Matthew Berry, ESPN senior writer on ESPN.com on Love, Hate and seven dirty words.

I did not know he worked in Hollywood, where his first job was working as George Carlin’s [the famous comedian] assistant. I remember hearing the, “Seven words you can never say on television,” skit. Most of those words I had heard on the playground, but couldn’t admit to my parents.

Berry stated in the article that Carlin told him: “Words are just words, he would argue, it’s the context of those words that’s the key. The motivation and intent behind what someone was saying was the key. The idea that one word was bad while another was safe was insane to him.”

So how does this apply to solicitations and contracts?

How the government states requirements, proposal preparation instructions, and evaluation criteria matter. What most solicitations and contracts lack is context.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/commentary/2018/02/george-carlin-and-the-effects-on-solicitations-contracts/

February 21, 2018 By AMK

A baby-step solution for improving the defense acquisition system

It’s not the hard solutions to problems that tie bureaucracies in knots. It’s the simple solutions that bureaucracies make hard.

For example, there is a very simple step that could boost the efficiency of Defense Department purchasing of weapons, equipment and services. Its most important characteristics are that 1) it is doable, and 2) it relies on normal order. In other words, the acquisition community can embrace it without legislation or policy adjustments. Furthermore, it can be applied to small acquisition programs as well as large.

The solution is to establish a source selection schedule and keep to it. Simple. Right? Program leaders must merely think through carefully what it will take to publish a Broad Area Announcement or Request for Information or Market Survey, a Draft Request for Proposal and a Final Request for Proposal. Refine a draft schedule until you are confident it can be met. Then publish the schedule and stick with it. I know what you are thinking: “Isn’t that what the program manager or Program Executive Office is supposed to do?” Yes, of course, that is what the program manager or PEO is supposed to do. But, nine times out of ten the schedule is never executed as published, if the schedule is published at all.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2018/02/baby-step-solution-improving-defense-acquisition-system/145945

February 16, 2018 By AMK

Are RFIs a waste of time and money?

All too often I hear stories of how federal agencies issue requests for information simply as fishing expeditions with no real intent on following up with a formal solicitation.

I believe RFIs are a critical tool in helping agencies conduct market research, identify interested companies and eventually narrow the pool of potential bidders, but if the RFI doesn’t turn into a contract opportunity, is government living up to its end of the bargain? The same might be said for BPAs, IDIQs and other contract vehicles that are “awarded” but not used to their full potential post-award.

I’d be the first one to tell you government should interact more with business to better understand innovative service offerings or emerging technologies. RFIs are one tool to do that, but when an RFI is released and companies scramble to respond, they expect a contract opportunity at the end of the process.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2018/01/25/comment-value-rfis.aspx

The final request for proposals is out for GSA’s IT services-focused 8(a) STARS III contract, which will have a ceiling of $50 billion.

I read an article by Matthew Berry, ESPN senior writer on ESPN.com on Love, Hate and seven dirty words.

It’s not the hard solutions to problems that tie bureaucracies in knots. It’s the simple solutions that bureaucracies make hard.

All too often I hear stories of how federal agencies issue requests for information simply as fishing expeditions with no real intent on following up with a formal solicitation.

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