In the next few weeks, in mid-to-late March, the National Institutes of Health IT Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) will announce the $40 billion CIO-SP4 contract and award spots to as many as 450 large and small contractors by early 2022. Brian Goodger, CIO-SP4 program manager and NITAAC acting director, said he expects to receive more than 1,000 bids, due on 30 April.

Knowing the success of the GWAC and protests could easily postpone its adoption, Goodger said NITAAC plans to overcome any potential concerns as early as possible in the assessment process.

NITAAC will also look at the past performance of bidders during phase 3 and the pricing of labor categories and any other significant documents.

“Because of that phased approach, again, we expect to be able to narrow down the competition so much that there won’t be too many protests at the end. So many companies would have already been eliminated and would have been notified six, nine months prior. We were really optimistic about the phased approach, and specifically about that self-scoring sheet because we’ve had a couple of meetings with industry where a couple of companies have recognized that knowing that their score at an early stage might not be good enough to really compete would be good.” (Miller).

Goodger said NITAAC agreed in several industry days and other meetings on the page limits for the technical proposal and business proposal after hearing from the industry over the last year that the criteria for longer proposals were too burdensome.

Goodger said he expects the bulk of protest delays to occur in phases one or two, with a much smaller chance of phase three protests.

“Another reason we’ve moved to the phased approach is that although the offerors will submit everything in total upfront. The phased approach allows NITAAC the opportunity to notify them immediately after the conclusion of each phase of whether or not they’ve advanced to the next phase. And in doing so, we will be able to start any protest clock immediately with those that did not make it from phase one to phase two. Likely some of them will protest, but we will work with those protests commensurate with our evaluation in phase two. The evaluation will continue as any protests come in.” (Miller).

Author: Emely Rivas

Source: Miller, Jason. “NITAAC details timing, evaluation plans for $40B IT services contract.” Federal News Network, 22 February 2021, https://federalnewsnetwork.com/contractsawards/2021/02/nitaac-details-timing-evaluation-plans-for-40b-it-services-contract/. Accessed 24 February 2021.

Consolidation of the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) is all about breaking down hurdles, removing stovepipes, and streamlining procurement processes. For this reason, for this major contracting initiative to add quality to government contracting, the General Services Administration (GSA) is to be commended.

MAS consolidation is the cornerstone of GSA’s Federal Marketplace Strategy as the largest commercial commodity deal, responsible for over $30 billion in annual transactions by the federal government.

To date, the focus of the MAS consolidation has been on resolving procurement procedures, demands for MAS, and subsequent contracts. The Federal Procurement Service analyzed and rationalized hundreds of MAS in Phase 1.

Consolidating the MAS solicitation and contracts would expand access to best value goods, facilities, and solutions for consumer agencies. GSA has acknowledged that FAS’s IT systems need to be modernized in order to efficiently interact and fully exploit the benefits of MAS consolidation.

Another wonderful potential for enhancing FAS management and operations is given by MAS consolidation. It sets the stage for a top-down FAS analysis to reduce duplication and remove unnecessary stovepipes for organizations. The Federal Marketplace Policy of GSA has the golden chance of updating, reinventing and reforming FAS.

Writer: Mariatu Alale

Source: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2021/02/mas-consolidation-opportunities-in-the-fas-engine-room/