What is FEDSIM?
For those unfamiliar with the FEDSIM organization, it is a client support center within GSA that is slated to serve as the stand-in acquisition, financial, and project management team for ASTRO’s entire contract life cycle. FEDSIM has authority to operate via interagency agreements and currently manages over $33 billion in contract awards for DoD, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The organization boasts a 99% protest win rate, an attractive feature for entities looking for assisted acquisition services, and it has received high marks from customer agencies for exceptional client service.
In July 2017, GSA moved the entire OASIS program team to FEDSIM to support the design and development of the ASTRO vehicle – no doubt, bringing experience and lessons learned to the program. It has been made clear in ASTRO’s first published RFI Questions and Answers publication that “the acquisition team is intending to utilize a highest technically rated source selection methodology similar to the one the acquisition team invented for OASIS.” For this reason, vendors tracking this opportunity should expect a scorecard RFP to be the method of procurement used for ASTRO.
What contractors should expect:
During the ASTRO industry day held on June 27, 2019, FEDSIM publicly disclosed their planned timeline for solicitation release, citing January 2020 as the expected release date and February 2020 for the proposal submission deadline. Considering it is already November 2019 and a full draft solicitation has not been released, we believe it likely that the release schedule will move to the right at least to some degree. Included below is a timeline with key dates provided by the FEDSIM program team:
In terms of the structure of work to be performed, contractors can expect the vehicle to allow for “total solutions” provided at the task order level. ASTRO also intends to provide contractors with flexibility to provide ancillary products and services, commercial and non-commercial items, as well as non-professional labor (in compliance with the Service Contract Act or Davis Bacon Act, as applicable).
Unfortunately, for small businesses hoping to gain a spot on the vehicle FEDSIM has made clear that there will be no small business set aside at this time. As stated in the third RFI, ASTRO “will only support task orders placed by FEDSIM or other GSA Assisted Acquisition Services individuals specifically authorized to use the contracts for requirements exceeding $100 million,” – meaning that no task orders under $100 million are anticipated. When asked for the number of anticipated orders on the vehicle annually, FEDSIM stated in their second Question & Answer publication (dated October 15, 2019) that it projects 20 or more orders per year.
How to prepare:
The ASTRO team has made it clear that they will utilize a self-scoring system similar to OASIS and Alliant II to evaluate contractors’ technical capability. On OASIS, this meant that proposal points could be obtained by submitting complex relevant experience projects with strong past performance ratings, as well as proof of approved contractor systems, certifications, and clearances.
Although the exact evaluation criteria is not known at this time, it is not too early to begin preparing your ASTRO proposal. Contractors are advised to first download and review the OASIS solicitation, as it is expected to be the best benchmark for what the ASTRO team is contemplating. Those familiar with the OASIS structure will have a “leg up” in terms of what to expect so we’d like to highlight a few challenges encountered and lessons learned from the OASIS proposal submission and award process:
- Identify potential relevant experience projects: We suggest contractors begin holding meetings with their contracts, finance and program managers to find at least five projects that:
- Were awarded in the past five years
- Have an assigned NAICS code that matches one of the 24 NAICS codes identified for ASTRO (and the Pool assigned NAICS codes as well)
- Have a large annual value (at least $5M in funding per year)
- Have a strong CPARS rating (at least an average of “Very Good” (4.0) or above)
- Have a SOW that matches the domains identified in the ASTRO SOW
Contractors should note that the ASTRO team has provided examples of service areas for each domain. This should make identifying relevant experience projects a little easier in the short term. Additionally, the ASTRO team has made it clear that contractors will be allowed to use commercial projects, so while federal prime contracts may present the best opportunity to score higher, a review of commercial work based on the criteria outlined above could help to identify other strong candidates for inclusion in an ASTRO proposal.
- Begin accumulating documentation: The administrative burden of these proposals is significant. We recommend accumulating the following documents ahead of time:
- For the relevant experience projects, identify and organize all contract award documents, statements of work, contract modifications, and most recent CPARS. Make sure the contract documents are signed by the cognizant contracting officer.
- Identify and organize documentation to demonstrate DCAA, DCMA, or CFA approval for your company’s accounting system, billing rates, purchasing system, earned value management system, and/or estimating system
- Assign roles and determine responsibilities: To avoid confusion when the solicitation is released, it is best to get the personnel question answered first:
- Who is responsible for checking FedBizOpps (beta.sam.gov starting November 8, 2019) and GSA Interact daily to review any recent correspondence from FEDSIM?
- Who is the lead program sponsor, contracts manager, finance manager, and proposal manager in charge?
- Who will communicate the status of ASTRO to leadership?
- Does your team need to outsource support to ensure a compliant proposal?
Finally, below is a summary of the OASIS scorecard that may provide greater insight into the types of attributes FEDSIM may be looking for in an ASTRO proposal.
