Skip to content Skip to left sidebar Skip to right sidebar Skip to footer

Tag: GSA

LGBTQI small businesses getting a fair shake

One of GSA’s and the Biden administrations’ goals is to increase the diversity of businesses that work with the federal government. To make that goal a reality, the General Services Administration (GSA) is collaborating with the LGBT Chamber of Commerce to enhance access to GSA contracting for LGBTQI-owned small businesses. (Federal Soup July 7, 2022)

GSA announced that they are working with the LGBT Chamber of Commerce to collaborate on an awareness-building campaign to increase information about GSA programs and services with LGBTQI-owned small businesses per a memorandum of understanding with the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. (ibid)

GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan said, “we need everyone’s ideas and products to make America stronger, including the vibrant communities of LGBTQI-owned businesses throughout the country. We’re4 thrilled to be working more closely with NGLCC and its network to get the work out about how they can help us meet our mission and bring value to the government.” (ibid)

The LGBT Chamber of Commerce has memoranda of understanding with many other federal agencies. In addition, the organization has a national presence and a network of local affiliate chapters. Both will receive communications via the new effort. (ibid)

According to Justin Nelson, co-founder, and president of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, “diversity is good for the business of government. The American Dream must be open to every American, including the 1.4 million LGBTQ business owners that help power the national economy.” (ibid)

This is another effort to use the government’s purchasing power to accomplish the Biden administration’s equity, diversity and inclusion goals. (ibid)

Would you like to know more about this program or other efforts such as set-asides for Black-owned, Latino-owned or other minority-owned businesses? Give us a call.

OASIS+ is the next big thing small businesses should know about

GSA has been hard at work creating the next-generation contract program for non-IT services. A significant amount of time and industry engagement, including large-scale requests for information (RFIs), went into the creation of the next-generation services contract. (GSABlog June 15, 2022)

GSA had three goals in mind during the design process:

  • Fulfill agency service requirements with highly experienced contractors while simplifying the purchasing experience
  • Broaden access to best-in-class non-IT service contracts for highly qualified contractors while simultaneously increasing small business opportunities
  • Shrink the burden on industry and government (ibid)

GSA is well on its way to achieving its goals.

Maximizing small business engagement is paramount to the new program. GSA is adopting a small business strategy that creates separate and distinct contract families for categories of small businesses to allow maximum opportunities to participate. GSA plans to solicit and award indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts in the following categories:

  • 8(a) Small Business
  • HUBZone Small Business
  • Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Business
  • Total Small Business
  • Woman-Owned Small Business
  • Unrestricted (ibid)

GSA’s new program will be capable of fulfilling requirements currently met by GSA’s One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS); Human Capital and Training Solutions (HCaTS); and Building, Maintenance, and Operations (BMO) contracts. Additional scope areas are to include environmental, intelligence services, and large enterprise solutions. Flexibility will be built in to expand the scope as customers identify ongoing needs. (ibid)

The contracts will be grouped by Domains – functional groupings of services spanning multiple NAICS codes. Domains align to order requirements to qualified industry partners. Over time, GSA will add new Domains to meet agencies’ needs. (ibid)

GSA is ensuring companies that receive awards in the new contract program are highly qualified. Additionally, GSA will create an avenue for new industry partners to continually onboard. GSA will provide for continuous on-ramping and eliminate caps on the number of awards. This will allow the program to evolve as the government agency needs change, expand the industrial base and eliminate barriers to entry for qualified businesses.

GSA’s Enhanced Task Order Competition (876) authority establishes a host of contracts that leverage competition and establish price at the order level. The contracts allow for commercial and non-commercial services and orders of all types including fixed price, time and material cost reimbursement, and hybrid. (ibid)

The name of the program is OASIS Plus (aka OASIS+). Until the program is finalized, updates can be found on SAM.gov and the OASIS+ Interact Community. A draft solicitation is expected early FY 2023 with the final RFP in the second quarter of the fiscal year. (ibid)

This is exciting and daunting at the same time. If you have questions about any part of OASIS+ or the upcoming draft RFP, give us a call.

Will Ascend make it easier to buy cloud services?

GSA recently released a draft statement of work as part of their latest effort to give agencies an easier way to buy cloud services. They are calling it Ascend.

At a recent ACT-IAC sponsored conference, Sonny Hashmi, the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service within GSA, said “I don’t want to make the presumption that we’ve figured it out. The process to get to an endpoint on Ascend is going to require a lot of dialogue, and I don’t want us to move forward without it. It goes back to how we were talking about user-centric design. There’s got to be a user need, and in this case, it’s got to be an agency need that Ascend will address. That will dictate what the vehicle looks like, how it’s going to be designed because, without it, it is not going to be successful.”

“At this point, we’re being very deliberate about making sure that there is an actual need on the other side of this. Adoption is going to happen not just because it’s going to be a forcing function, but because there’s actually a need that we’re solving. If we’re not, if it turns out that we’re behind and agencies don’t have a need, then I would rather actually not do this. While we’re excited about this program, ultimately, its job is to solve a problem and help agencies to deliver on their mission. If there’s a better way or different way to solve the problems that we are facing, we’re happy to change tactics on it.”

The draft statement of work for Ascend creates three separate buckets of vendors to deliver infrastructure – platform-as-a-service, software-as-a-service, and cloud professional services.

The draft solicitation states, “the Ascend BPA is part of GSA’s cloud marketplace vision of empowering agencies to develop and implement enterprise-level cloud acquisition strategies through a modernized and simplified approach to meet their IT and cybersecurity requirements. The BPA will emphasize cloud smart/security smart objectives and establish minimum baseline requirements for the acquisition, business operations reporting, and technology capabilities provided by commercial cloud service providers (CSPs) and cloud-focused labor service providers that are not currently accessible under other GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) or governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs). The Ascend BPA will focus on enabling support for both vertical (e.g., IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and horizontal capabilities across the ecosystem and will provide more effective system integration and managed support services for the delivery of flexible, diverse, and secure cloud solutions.”

Hashmi said, “we’re hoping this will be one mechanism or the primary and most usable mechanism for agencies to think about when they’re thinking about modernizing their digital stacks.” Hashmi feels Ascend will allow agencies to buy “by the drink”. This gives GSA the ability to on-ramp new cloud service providers as they become available. It also gives contract holders the opportunity to bring innovation to the federal sector as required and needed.

Hashimi feels this gives agencies greater flexibility. Hashmi said, “the other thing for me is creating a marketplace that is competitive. It can’t just be a small number of highly capable cloud companies. If you don’t create continuous opportunities for new companies to join the marketplace, then we have failed because this market is changing very rapidly.” From past experience, GSA found agencies didn’t want to just contract for cloud services, but a full range of support from the cloud itself along with integration services and ongoing support.

The first versions of Ascend came under scrutiny by industry associations. However, Hashmi said these concerns and other questions concerning the BPA are exactly why GSA put out a draft statement of work. The draft statement of work allows for feedback from agencies, associations, and anyone critical to Ascend’s success.

Are you interested in Ascend and what your company can offer on this procurement vehicle? Give us a call.

Home » GSA » Page 4

The SBA should focus on small businesses, not fraudulent businesses

Last week the small business community urged lawmakers to shrink administrative burdens complicating entry into the Small. Business Administration’s (SBA’s) 8(a) program.

This is timely as the Biden Administration has set a goal to bolster the share of federal contracts awarded to small disadvantaged businesses from 5% to 15% by 2025. A former SBA official suggests the SBA focus on expanding entry to the program for disadvantaged businesses and not spend time penalizing those who fraudulently attempt to gain entry. This will go a long way to help achieve the goals as set by the administration.

Jackie Robinson-Burnette, CEO of Senior Executive Strategic Solutions and a former SBA senior program executive said SBA should, “shift their focus to include every firm that is eligible'” for the 8(a) program. She mentioned that she served at the SBA, the SBA received over 2,000 applications a year and accepted only 300 participants. The Government Accountability Office believes steps were taken to address fraudulent applications to the 8(a) program. Unfortunately, there remains no official verification procedure. The Government Accountability Office did not take steps to improve oversight of the program, according to report filings.

Robinson-Burnette said, “right now, the focus is making sure they mitigate the risk of firms getting into the program that shouldn’t be in the program – focusing on the fraud – when really that’s 1% or 2% of firms that apply. The other 90-plus percent of firms are struggling to get in … because the SBA is focused on the wrong thing.”

In addition to misplaced focus, Rep. Kweisi Mfune (D-MD) said business owners have reported concerns with the length of the program and that it takes most firms multiple years to receive their first awards. Mfune said, “this hinders the development of program participants and raises the question of whether enterprises are ready for graduation when they exit the program.”

Darryl Hairston, the SBA’s former associate administrator of business development, said he submitted a proposal to redesign the 8(a) program a few years ago. Hairston took into account the complexities small businesses encounter in navigating the federal marketplace during their initial years in operation.

Hairston said, “one of the things that we talked about was that most firms coming into the program, who are truly eligible for the program, had little experience in the federal marketplace. The timeframe is highly dependent upon how successful you are coming into the program and how well you take off with the benefits that are available to you.”

Robinson-Burnette feels adding priority access for SDB mentors will increase successful outcomes. This will occur by shifting some of the SBA’s dependence from their assigned business opportunity and creating additional inroads to work opportunities. Mfume is considering meeting with the SBA administrator to figure out “what can be done in the time we have.”

Are you a small disadvantaged business or a business looking to work with one on an upcoming contract? Give us a call.

Acquisition of Professional Services is about to get a whole lot better

Sheri Meadema, acting assistant commissioner of GSA’s Office of Professional Services and Human Capital Categories recently explained the current focus of the Services Marketplace. The Information Technology Category and Professional Services and Human Capital Categories are teaming to align how they introduce contracts and tools to aid buyers as well as suppliers of services.(FAS office of Information Technology February 17, 2022)

Their three main goals:

  • Expand GSA’s contract offerings.
  • Refine FAS’s market research and buying tools.
  • Better the data and reporting systems used in support of the current acquisition programs. (ibid)

Meadema envisions a future with standardized engagement and solicitation processes regardless of the type of services provided. The priority is on using a consistent set of best practices and tools for IT and professional services for solicitations, evaluation, negotiations, awards, and contract management. (ibid)

Meadema wants an easier final outcome compared to open market procurements. Under the Services Marketplace, the next generation of contracts is being built. These contracts include the Services MAC, Polaris, and the follow-on to Alliant 2. Currently in progress are:

  • 8(a) STARS III Government wide Acquisition Contract – a small business set-aside, Beset-in-Class GWAC. The the 8(a) STARS III, federal agencies can access award-winning 8(a) firms for emerging technologies via an established contract vehicle. This saves not only time but also taxpayer monvery over open markets methods.
  • IT GWAC Polaris is in development. The RFP for the new Polaris small business IT contract is expected in February 2022. Once awarded, Polaris will enable federal agencies to set-aside IT task orders to small business, women-owned small business, service disable veteran-owned small businesses, and businesses located in HUBZones.
  • PSHC is working on a new Services Multi-Agency Contract to support procurement requirements for services. This comes as OASIS winds down in 2024.
  • Improvement of Multiple Award Schedule service offerings. Contractors with multiple contracts will consolidate down to one. This means fewer overall contracts for the acquisition workfovce and industry parnters to manage. Ultimately this will make is easier for agencies to find the vendors to meet their requirements.(ibid)

Meadeama says they have also started standardizing the scope review process. A digital tool/portal allows customers to submit their scope review requests. This streamlines tracking, management, and coordination across portfolios as well as creating a single customer experience. The discovery phase has started for an order management tool for all services task orders. This allows for better solicitation development, tracking, and task order management on GSA contracts. (ibid)

Questions about how this might affect a current GSA schedule contract or upcoming bid? Give us a call.