Army MAPS

On Aug. 12, 2024, the U.S. Army Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems’ (PEO EIS) Enterprise Services Project Management Office, in partnership with Army Contracting Command Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG), announced the consolidation of the follow-on contracts for Information Technology Enterprise Solutions 3 – Services (ITES-3S) and Responsive Strategic Sourcing for Services (RS3) into a potential 10-year, $50 billion multiple-award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (MA-IDIQ) acquisition vehicle. 

This new consolidated contract will be known as the Marketplace for the Acquisition of Professional Services (MAPS) and will combine the strengths of ITES-3S and RS3 by offering a more efficient and effective way for the Army, Department of Defense (DOD) and federal agencies to procure knowledge-based professional services. These services include a variety of information technology (IT) and engineering services ranging from cybersecurity, program management and business process reengineering, to research, development, testing and more. MAPS will be the Army’s single source for professional services, while providing multiple North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes to ensure acquisition categories best align to requirements. The new contract also aligns with the Army’s ongoing digital transformation and efforts to implement Agile throughout the acquisition process. 

While the final solicitation is still under development, the PEO EIS’ Enterprise Services held an industry day on Nov. 8, 2024, following the Nov. 5 release of the first draft solicitation materials on SAM.gov. Baker Tilly has performed a detailed review of the available draft solicitation materials and summarized the latest details below.

Ordering period 

This MA-IDIQ has an anticipated maximum ordering period of 10 years from the contract’s effective date, consisting of a five-year Base Ordering Period and one five-year Optional Ordering Period. MAPS will officially replace the ITES-3S and RS3 contracts when they are set to expire in 2027. Many anticipate MAPS to be a $50 billion acquisition vehicle. For additional context, RS3 was awarded in multiple phases between 2017 and 2019, with 260 companies currently participating in the $37.4 billion vehicle. The ITES-3S contract was awarded in 2018 and includes 135 companies, with a $12 billion ceiling.  

Who can bid

Both ITES-3S and RS3 were full and open competition opportunities with small business for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) and HUBZone socioeconomic categories. While unofficial, MAPS is currently proposed as a full and open competition with small business reserves. The government intends to make 100 awards in total, 20 awards per domain with an unknown number of small business reserves for each of the five domains.

Unique proposal focus areas

The MAPS contract is set up to cover five domains (i.e., technical areas), each associated with a unique NAICS code:

While it is still under development, the current (11/5/24) draft Section L “Instructions” for MAPS state that an offeror’s proposal shall include the following:  

• Cover letter 
• Gate criteria – Attachment 0001 
• Volume I – Systems, rates and certifications 
• Volume II – Past performance  
• Volume III – Technical  

The current draft evaluation process begins with the assessment of the offeror’s gate criteria responses and all supporting documentation. If the offeror passes through the gate criteria evaluation, the government will then continue the evaluation process against the scorecard rubric for each domain and determine the total credits earned. The proposals are then ranked from highest total credits to lowest total credits, per domain. The current draft scorecard is divided into the same three volumes noted above with a maximum of 39 credits available. Below is a breakout of available credits by volume and underlying scoring section.  

Volume I – Systems and rates (four credits available) 

• Government approved systems and rates = two credits 
• Certifications = two credits  

Volume II – Past performance (26 credits available) 

• Relevance = 15 credits 
• NAICS alignment = three credits 
• Recency = three credits  
• Performance quality = five credits 

Volume III – Technical (nine credits available) 

• Recruitment = three credits 
• Retention = three credits 
• Risk management = three credits 

Other considerations

While MAPS may seem like a typical self-evaluation, scorecard proposal, there are several unique considerations that offerors should be aware of before preparing their proposals. First off, this solicitation has an initial “filtering” phase in the evaluation process called the “Gate Criteria”. The offeror is required to respond to all of the questions listed below. Potential offerors should strongly consider their responses when making a bid or no-bid decision. If an offeror finds itself responding “no” to most of the questions, it is more than likely the evaluation of their proposal will stop at this step.

1. Is the offeror a small business?
2. Has the offeror met all submission requirements?
3. Does the offeror have an active facility clearance of SECRET?
4. Is the offeror ISO 9001:2015 certified?
5. Is the offeror actively CMMC Level 1 certified?
6. Is the offeror actively ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified?
7. Is the offeror actively NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 and NIST SP 800-53B certified?
8. Is the offeror actively NIST SP 800-37 Rev 2 certified?
9. Is the offeror actively CNSS Instruction 1253:2022 certified?
10. Is the offeror actively NIST SP 800-171 assessment certified?
11. Does the offeror have an approved accounting system? (applicable to Other Than Small Business (OTSB) offerors only)
12. Does the CAGE code the offeror is proposing under have a current assessment report within CPARS with any of the performance elements rated MARGINAL or below?

Outside of the gate criteria, the MAPS scorecard offers some familiar scoring criteria like systems, rates and certifications. All claimed systems and rates must be government approved to qualify for credit scoring. For certifications, we are seeing one of the first, if not the very first, inclusion of CMMC Level 2 or higher certification as a credit scoring factor. The rest of the scorecard is predicated on the past performance volume and the technical volume.

For past performance, offerors will need to submit three qualifying projects per proposed domain, with a focus on relevance, NAICS alignment, recency and performance quality (i.e., CPARS rating). The most difficult aspect for offerors will be mapping the qualifying projects’ statements of work to the domain technical capabilities. Domains have anywhere between six and eleven distinct technical capabilities each. This could mean a minimum of 18 and 33 citations per domain, potentially double or triple that number if an offeror prefers to provide backup citations. Qualifying projects are then awarded credits based on the number of technical capabilities met.

Last but not least, the technical volume requires the offeror to provide a response limited to six pages to three areas (two pages per area): recruitment, retention and risk management. The scoring for the technical volume is the most subjective with the government awarding three credits per area based on a high confidence rating, two credits for some confidence and one credit for low confidence.

Status (open/closed)

MAPS is currently in the planning and development stage. However, a proposed timeline was presented during the MAPS industry day. Per the proposed timeline released on Nov. 8, 2024, the government plans on releasing the final solicitation in February 2025 with a proposal due date set for March 2025. The government anticipates the evaluation of the proposals to be completed by July 2025 and awards made by August 2025. While the proposed timeline is subject to change, the initial timeline is aggressive. Potential offerors would be wise to start reviewing the draft section L and M solicitation materials, assess their maximum scoring ability, collect verification document and begin preparing their proposals.

How can Baker Tilly help?

With the upcoming release of the final solicitation, many companies are working diligently to understand the RFP requirements and how to prepare qualified, high-scoring proposals within the allotted timeframe. Timely, accurate and responsive proposals will be critical to moving through the phased evaluation process set forth by the Army in the RFP. 

Baker Tilly stands ready to assist in the following areas: 

• Scorecard/RFP readiness 
• Proposal support and preparation 
• Proposal compliance assessment 
• Cybersecurity supply chain risk management (C-SCRM) plan development 

Baker Tilly is familiar with the self-scoring methodology employed for complex governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC) vehicles like Alliant 2, Alliant 3, HCaTS, ASTRO, CIO-SP4, OASIS, OASIS+ and NASA SEWP VI. These types of acquisitions place maximum burden on the offeror to prove that they have the requisite experience and capabilities to meet government requirements.

Baker Tilly has assisted leading government contractors through the relevant experience review process, facilitating the successful selection of the right combination of projects to achieve an organization’s maximum score. Baker Tilly has also advised during the pre-proposal stage on teaming and partnering arrangements should it appear an offeror’s ability to achieve a successful award is in doubt. Whether an offeror is seeking support in making a bid/no-bid decision or would like assistance with ‘soup-to-nuts’ proposal preparation, we offer tailor-made assistance to address your unique needs.