The Normal Companies Administration bought out from beneath one protest of a serious acquisition initiative, solely to be sucked proper again into one other protest.
Thus is the at all times entertaining world of federal procurement — on step ahead, one step again.
Welcome to a different installment of “As GSA’s Acquisition World Turns.”
This episode begins with the departure of a number one man, Sonny Hashmi, the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service on Dec. 29, and addition of a brand new (but to be identified main or minor) character, Eric Mill, as govt director for cloud technique in GSA’s Expertise Transformation Service, and the continuing story arc of the standing of a number of new governmentwide contracts.
New gamers seem, on this case ePS- Nationwide Range Veteran Small Enterprise with its protest of the follow-on contract for the Industrial Platforms Initiative.
Foes are vanquished, on this case Boston Consulting Group, shedding its OASIS+ bid protest on the Authorities Accountability Workplace.
And a brand new department of the story line emerges with the discharge of the draft efficiency assertion of labor for the ASCEND cloud service blanket buy settlement after “being in a coma” for nearly 18 months.
The brand new participant
GSA had hoped to award the subsequent era Industrial Platform Initiative (CPI) contract earlier than Dec. 23 when the present contracts with Amazon, Fischer Scientific and Overstock expired.
In an anticipated plot twist, GSA is dealing with a brand new protest of the brand new contract. ePS-Nationwide Range Veteran Small Enterprise filed a grievance on Dec. 21 over their disqualification from subsequent era competitors.
On high of that, awarding contracts tends to take longer than anticipated and GSA, needed to lengthen the present three contracts by March.
GSA is anticipated to make anyplace between 6 and eight awards. Together with ePS-NDVSB, different bidders could have included Amazon and Granger.
As for the brand new protest, ePS-NDVSB filed the protest on Dec. 21 and the Authorities Accountability Workplace has till April 1 to determine.
David Saroli, the CEO of ePS-NDVSB, stated GSA’s choice to disqualify his firm is perplexing. He stated GSA disqualified his firm round three deficiencies, even after submitting a bid, going by a dwell demonstration and going backwards and forwards with e mail questions and solutions in the course of the fall.
The three deficiencies have been: GSA stated ePS-NDVSB didn’t present the power to have a minimal order amount; didn’t show a knowledge dashboard; and didn’t have a market distinctive for presidency use.
Saroli stated that ePS-NDVSB already supplies its e-procurement platform to the Military, Air Drive and two Navy instructions they usually meet and exceed the solicitation necessities.
“It’s clear that they misevaluated our bid. They’d our capabilities in writing and visually, they usually nonetheless missed it,” he stated. “If you say deficiency, it means we didn’t have the aptitude. However we did and meaning they made a giant mistake on their assessment.”
Saroli stated being left off the subsequent era CPI effort wouldn’t solely be disheartening however it will impression small companies.
“We’re a small enterprise,” he stated. “On the platform now, we have now principally small companies and the place Amazon prices companies 12%-15% per transaction, we cost 5% per transaction, which is necessary for the federal government and the small companies on our platform.”
That is the second protest GSA has to deal with across the CPI solicitation. GSA took corrective motion after the Nationwide Industries for the Blind, the Affiliation for Imaginative and prescient Rehabilitation and Employment and the Nationwide Affiliation for the Employment of People who find themselves Blind filed a pre-solicitation protest in February over the obligatory sourcing necessities for merchandise supplied beneath the AbilityOne program.
Written out of the script, for now
Simply when the plot twist across the CPI acquisition threw you for a shock, the cleaning soap opera storyline takes a flip towards the OASIS+ acquisition.
On this a part of the narrative, GSA comes out like the nice wanting main character successful a climatic fist battle.
On this case, GAO denied Boston Consulting Group’s protest, which it filed in August.
GAO determined shortly after Thanksgiving that BCG’s pre-award protest didn’t have advantage. BCG protested a number of analysis elements within the solicitation, together with the requirement for offerors disclose breakdowns of their proposed labor charges. GSA stated this requirement was to make sure worth reasonableness of the providers anyone firm is providing.
BCG complained the requirement violated the Federal Acquisition Laws and the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) for business gadgets.
In denying the protest, GAO wrote the company moderately decided that assessing the person price drivers related to every offeror’s distinctive labor charges was the one acceptable methodology for making dependable and correct price/worth reasonableness determinations.
GAO additionally discovered the solicitation is in line with FASA’s acknowledged desire for the acquisition of business gadgets as GSA took motion to accommodate business merchandise contractors and to encourage their participation. GAO additionally stated no different vendor filed a protest and BCG did bid on OASIS+ ultimately.
Again to the frontburner
After nearly 18 months of being a backburner character, the cloud contract referred to as ASCEND remerges to launch a brand new storyline for 2024.
GSA issued its second draft efficiency work assertion for pool 1, which is for infrastructure-and platform-as-a-service, and detailed preliminary pondering for pool 2, software-as-a-service, and pool 3, for cloud IT providers, in late December.
Feedback on the draft PWS and particulars about swimming pools 2 and three are due by Feb. 21.
The ASCEND program first burst onto the scene again in April 2022 and GSA launched the primary model of draft PWS in Might 2022.
“The ASCEND BPA will set up baseline necessities for acquisition, enterprise, information, environmental, sustainability, operational and technical necessities,” GSA wrote within the draft PWS. “The BPA establishes baseline governance necessities guaranteeing procured cloud providers and cloud associated IT skilled providers are procured by streamlined acquisitions procedures, maximize price avoidance and price financial savings, are successfully/effectively operated and managed and leverage the total capabilities and investments of the federal authorities.”
GSA is planning for a three-year base contract with one three-year choice and two one-year choices for a complete of eight years.
The will to make use of cloud providers is obvious throughout authorities. Deltek forecasts that company demand for vendor-furnished cloud computing items and providers will develop from $15.9 billion in fiscal 2023 to $23.5 billion in 2027.
That is the place the cleaning soap opera story arc might take a flip: Will business and companies see the necessity for one more cloud BPA?
One business supply, who requested anonymity to speak about an ongoing procurement, stated BPAs have to be based mostly on a bona fide want that’s particularly spelled out within the solicitation. GSA says there may be such a bona fide want however hasn’t but detailed which companies are anticipated to make use of the car.
The supply stated companies usually ignore the bona fide want rule.
“It’s arduous for corporations to bid when there isn’t any there. What incentive is there for folks to bid on it? Why spend the cash to bid if there isn’t any assure anybody will use the BPA?” the supply stated. “GSA has a observe document of BPAs that have been flops. There’s a variety of considerations round whether or not this BPA is pointless duplication of contracts as a result of what the BPA is probably providing could be purchased beneath the schedules or different contracts in the present day.”
GSA might nonetheless reply the bona fide want query extra particularly within the ultimate solicitation, including some drama to the cleaning soap opera.
There are, in fact, many extra gamers on this cleaning soap opera. The brand new 12 months brings extra pleasure over Alliant 3 and COMET model 2, and whether or not Polaris will get out from beneath the protest albatross.
So tune in subsequent time for one more version of “As GSA’s Procurement World Turns.”
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