Tag Archive for BPA

OASIS: Small Businesses Can Still Make an Offer

October 16, 2013 Federal Contracting, Proposal Writing No comments

OASIS FBO Notice of October 7:  The OASIS Program Office fully intends to establish the proposal due dates 10-14 calendar days from the date that the Government shutdown is resolved. While we foresee no changes to this plan, if there are any changes, the OASIS Program Office will update Offerors here on FedBizOpps.

Most people are predicting that the shutdown will end mid next week which would make the OASIS due date around November 1.

Companies that are primarily information technology (IT) service companies may qualify for OASIS if they have:

  1. Two (2) professional service that carry NAICS Codes that are not IT codes.
  2. Minimum of three (3) and up to five (5) primary projects (contracts), each as a prime contractor, and the combined annual value of all primary projects must be equal to or greater than $750,000. And no individual project can be less than $150,000 per year.

By qualifying for OASIS, IT companies have the opportunity to expand their capabilities into other professional service disciplines like management consulting, engineering, and finance. Everyone needs broader capabilities in the current federal market

Our OASIS Model Proposal Template saves companies 4 – 6 billable days of proposal writing time and gives you a head start if the proposal writing deadline is tight.

Read more about Fedmarket’s OASIS Model Proposal and call us to view the template.

Fedmarket also offers full-service proposal writing services for OASIS, call 888 661 4094, Ext. 2 for more information.

OASIS Due Date Extended Indefinitely

October 6, 2013 Proposal Writing No comments

On 10/3 GSA issued an Amendment to both the Small and Large Business OASIS Solicitations at FBO.gov. Fedmarket published the OASIS solicitation links on our home page. As indicated in the Amendment the new offer due date is unknown and will be published as an amendment at FBO.gov.

In consideration of the Government shutdown and the associated potential impact on the OASIS proposal preparation process, the proposal due date of this solicitation is hereby suspended indefinitely. A definitive proposal due date will be established once the Government shutdown situation is resolved. Offerors are instructed to NOT submit proposals until further instruction. No other changes.

The updated OASIS Quick Reference Guide at Fedmarket.com shows the core qualifications required by GSA for an award. The primary stumbling blocks that most companies are encountering are:

Contract documents for 3 to 5 primary projects meeting the qualifications requirements in the Quick Reference Guide must be submitted to prove the required attributes of the projects. A contact documents means a document from the government, not a document created by you. Subcontracts with federal prime contracts do not qualify (a clarification in Amendment 4).

You must prove through government documents that you have two Pool Qualification Projects performed under at least one of the listed NAICS Codes to qualify for a pool. Each pool you qualify for is awarded as a separate OASIS contract. If you are having trouble finding NAICS Codes in your contract documents, ask the government for a document that shows that you performed the project under specific NAIS Codes(s).

Evaluation points are heavily weighted toward the evaluation of 3 or more primary projects with high performance evaluation scores. 4 projects are better than 3 and 5 projects are better than 4.

Projects not scored in the federal past performance data base must provide a performance rating questionnaire obtained from the government. You must use the government’s standard point scoring table to score yourself based on the subjective rating in the past performance questionnaire. (The table is not part of the questionnaire). The conversion of subjective ratings to point scores in required in order to complete the self-scoring document required in your offer.

Fedmarket’s OASIS Model Proposal can save days of proposal writing time. Not to mention the proposal writer migraines’ caused by an overly complex solicitation.

Read more about Fedmarket’s OASIS Model Proposal and call us to review the template

Fedmarket also offers full-service proposal writing services for OASIS, call 888 661 4094, Ext. 2 for more information.

OASIS Amended and Extended

September 12, 2013 Federal Contracting No comments

It’s back to the drawing board for both large and small businesses. GSA has amended the OASIS RFP for the third time.

The newest update to the OASIS solicitation includes 11 updated forms and changes to the instructions for 5 out of 6 volumes, including file naming convention changes. The government has reduced the number of required relevant experience projects and the minimum values. This may enable some small businesses to participate in the OASIS opportunity who thought they were excluded due to a lack of projects.

OASIS is a complicated solicitation, and after 3 amendments, each with numerous updates, many proposal writers are lost in the quagmire. Save yourself the trouble of trying to decipher – not only the solicitation itself, but the modifications to the RFP you begin working with. Fedmarket offers updates to customers who purchase our OASIS Model Proposal product. We are currently up-to-date with the most recent amendment issued on September 11, 2013.

OASIS: More Amendments and an Extension, Yes or No?

September 8, 2013 Federal Contracting No comments

OASIS Model Saves Days of Proposal Writing Time

August 29, 2013 Federal Contracting No comments

Fedmarket’s OASIS Model Proposal can save days of proposal writing time. Not to mention the proposal writer migraines’ caused by an overly complex solicitation.

Fedmarket’s proposal writer spent about 15 hours preparing each OASIS Model (large and small business versions). The model consists of six volumes with over 50 files formatted according to the solicitation file formatting requirements and proposal submittal instructions. The files contain file completions instructions and model text whenever possible. Instructions are written by deciphering GSA’s overly complex and poorly written criteria for required corporate experience evidence, pool certification requirements, and required contractor certifications for administrative and financial systems.

To exasperate proposal writing requirements GSA has now issued amendments as a result of vendor protests that require Fedmarket to update the OASIS Models for model owners, both large and small. The time required to write the models and update the models based on amendments is longer than would appear on the surface because of the need to meet overdone volume and file format compliance requirements.

Fedmarket is anticipating further amendments and proposal due date extensions requiring more updates to the models.  Each time a amendment is issued, it takes considerable time to update the models for our customers. We are recommending to our customers to wait until the dust settles around protests and amendments before filling out templates completely. In the interim customers should gather the basic data required for corporate experience and pricing in order to eliminate last minute proposal writing crises.

The number of amendments and proposal due date extensions is anybody’s guess.

Welcome to the world of OASIS.

Fedmarket offers a variety of proposal templates, click here, to view.

OASIS Protest Sustained

August 23, 2013 Federal Contracting No comments

OASIS protest has been sustained temporarily with a decision by end of September.

Agency-level protest of GSA’s OASIS contract moves forward.

Although most protests lose, Fedmarket believes:

  • There is a good chance the small business qualification requirements will be relaxed because it is the “politically expedient thing to do”.
  • An extension of the proposal due date from 9/17 to somewhere between 10/15 – 11/15 is highly likely.

OASIS Final RFP, a Lesson in Forms Completion

August 2, 2013 Federal Contracting No comments

The final GSA OASIS large and small RFPs have arrived at FBO.gov. Responses to the RFP are essentially a forms completion effort once a company has determined that it qualifies for a large or small business award.
Is OASIS too complex?
Fedmarket offers an OASIS Model Proposal template for both the large and small business RFPs. Our models save time in completing an extensive forms completion exercised and are designed to ensure compliance to the RFPs.

OASIS Update

June 27, 2013 Federal Contracting No comments

OASIS final RFPs are due out in several weeks. On June 24 GSA posted another draft RFP for both the large and small business procurements. The draft solicitation at FBO.gov now says: “The Final Solicitation and complete attachments are anticipated to be released in the mid July time-frame.”

OASIS proposal writing is a complex file manipulation effort requiring great care to ensure full compliance. Our experience is that GSA will use any small non-compliance reason to reject your proposal to reduce the enormity of evaluating hundreds of proposal.

Fedmarket’s OASIS Model Proposals:

  • Reduce proposal writing costs
  • Ensure compliance
  • Simplify task of deciding to submit a bid (by reading the simplified template formats)

The model proposals costs are valuable and worth the savings in staff time in making a bid/no bid decision.

The final OASIS RFPs will not change significantly from the current draft RFPs.

Purchasers of the draft OASIS Model Proposals will receive an updated version of the models within 2 days of the issuance of the final RFP.

OASIS Model Proposal Text  – Get a head start on your OASIS bid with a model proposal.
Read more…

Call 888-661-4094, Ext. 2 for more information or to purchase by telephone.

OASIS Requirements

April 22, 2013 Federal Contracting No comments

GSA is accepting proposal submissions from prime contractors only. Subcontractor experience and teaming arrangements are not part of a proposal submission. The solicitation evaluation criteria are weighed in favor of:

  1. Large, multiple professional services contract experience
  2. Federal contract experience
  3. The education and experience of the two required contract management resumes
  4. The sophistication of the offerors account and purchasing systems and professional certifications

OASIS Minimum Experience Requirements

Requirement OASIS Unrestricted OASIS Small Business
Number of Projects Five (5) distinct projects, each as a prime contractor Five (5) distinct projects, each as a prime contractor
Project scope of work includes core disciplines (Core disciplines: Program Management Services, Management Consulting Services, Scientific Services, Engineering Services, Logistics Services, and Financial Management Services) One (1) of the six (6) core disciplines One (1) of the six (6) core disciplines
Project scope of work involves performance and/or integration of core disciplines At least four (4) out of the six (6) core disciplines At least three (3) out of the six (6) core disciplines
Project award value At least $ 5 Million Per Year At least $ 3 Million Per Year
Project closing date Have been completed within the past five (5) years prior to the solicitation closing date or be ongoing with at least one (1) year of performance completed prior to the OASIS solicitation closing date Have been completed within the past five (5) years prior to the solicitation closing date or be ongoing with at least one (1) year of performance completed prior to the OASIS solicitation closing date
Cost-reimbursements contract type At least one (1) project must be for work performed under a Cost-Reimbursement contract type At least one (1) project must be for work performed under a Cost-Reimbursement contract type
Federal projects At least three (3) out of the five (5) required) projects must be for work that was for the federal government under a contract or task order awarded by the federal government At least three (3) out of the five (5) required) projects must be for work that was for the federal government under a contract or task order awarded by the federal government