Exclusive Insights on GSA FSA Services MAC, Formerly know as BIC MAC

What is it? 

The General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Acquisition Services (FAS) Office of Professional Services and Human Capital Categories (PSHC) requires support for their GSA Next Generation Services Multi-Agency IDIQ Contract (Services MAC) vehicle, formerly known as BIC MAC. This vehicle is a newer, broader, and more flexible vehicle than the current One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) vehicle and is designed to better meet the federal acquisition community’s procurement needs for complex services, particularly in the areas of expanding vendor NAICS code diversity and easing ordering procedures. It is important to note that this vehicle is not a direct follow-on to OASIS but will fulfill the same functions as OASIS and more.  

Recent GSA Services MAC Developments: 

The customer is targeting 10/01/2022 as the RFP Release date, with Draft RFPs anticipated in early to mid-Q2FY2022 and mid-Q3FY2022. Vendors should anticipate awards to occur before the end of FY2023. While SAM.gov will be the vehicle for Services MAC, GSA stakeholders have additionally informed us to monitor “GSA Interact” for additional updates regarding the schedule of possible staggered awards.

Current Vehicle Performance

Upon research its determined that Services MAC will have a similar scope to that of OASIS. Interested vendors should note that the GSA views the performance of the OASIS vehicles as a resounding success. OASIS Branch Chief Alan Rumney stated, “Every indication that I have is that they [customers] are happy with the way things have gone. GSA is obviously happy that there is a vehicle put in place that has been widely used. They are successful vehicles. When you start talking about $9B in spend [per year], it is hard not to say ‘Wow that is amazing’.” 

Vendors should also note that the success of OASIS proves the IDIQs do not necessarily need a determined ceiling. ConOps Chief Paul Szymanski confirmed this theory explaining, “Our plan right now is to have no ceiling, and then have an enhanced competition at the order level, which will be pricing. All pricing will be handled at the order level.” Thus, while the GWAC itself will not have a ceiling value, individual orders will and those will be determined on a case-by-case basis.  

OASIS SB Program Manager Rob Coen shared, “We anticipate that it could be even more successful [than OASIS] because it would have a broader scope for our customer clients [who would be] able to get more of what they have been asking to get that sometimes they are not able to get on OASIS today.” GSA anticipates satisfactory performance on Services MAC as it will alleviate current customer concerns. 

Current Customer Pain Points

Limited Vehicle Capabilities - In a discussion with GSA OASIS Industry Relations Manager Debra Drake, she informed us of GSA’s goal of widening OASIS’s scope and capabilities, “The goal is to cast a wider net both for customer support as well as industry. And it will be on-ramping intermittently. It will never close. It will be an IDIQ with the same concept as OASIS, but instead of pools being driven by side-standards it will be more of ‘domain’.”  

Desire for More Innovative and Streamlined Acquisition Process – In our conversation with OASIS SB Program Manager Rob Coen, he revealed, “What we are trying to do is to be a little bit more innovative and try to make it easier for both industry and customers. As you know, each company, like even on OASIS today, if you were on all seven pools you have seven different contracts, so we are trying to streamline that process so there is less burden on industry but also streamline the process so that customers can get to the companies who meet the qualifications that they need at the task order level for fair opportunity. It is something that we are investigating and working within GSA as well as outside GSA with different stakeholders,” revealing the GSA is interested in innovating their approach to OASIS’s pool distinctions to better enable customers access to qualified companies and actively looking for vendors to do so.  

Evolving Small Business Status of OASIS Contract Holders - In a discussion with OASIS Branch Chief Alan Rumney, it is noted, “The challenge is with having small businesses that have become so successful that they end up outgrowing their small business status. This is initially one of the reasons they [GSA] were doing the on-ramp [for OASIS]. They had, I believe, 57 small businesses in [OASIS SB] Pool One – which is the most widely used pools and it has the widest diversity of NAICS codes, and when they did the small re-representation last year, that was something like 40 out of 57 small business vendors were going to become other than small. We were going to be down to 17 vendors, which led to the decision to add a larger number of [small business] vendors.” This variation in the small business stature of OASIS SB vendors created a need to significantly increase the number of small business vendors to allow for ample competition across the vehicle.

Multiple Contracts Held by Single Vendor – Mr. Romney further highlighted an additional problem faced by GSA stakeholders throughout the management of the OASIS contracts, noting, “The current marketplace right now, there seems to be an inordinate amount of novation’s - companies being acquired by other companies. There is a restriction in the contract that a company cannot own more than one contract in the same pool. So, if one company that happens to be an OASIS contract holder happens to buy another vendor, then we have to dormant one of those vendors [contracts],” To avoid having a single vendor having multiple contracts within a pool. Mr. Rumeny continued, “Novation’s are never really fun to do and making a judgement call – there sometimes are judgement calls – it is difficult at times. There really just seems to be a large number of novation’s that seem to be occurring.” As such, vendors that currently hold a contract under OASIS SB or OASIS UR and are intending to acquire another vehicle within the same pool should be aware that either their current contract or the one they will inherit will become dormant.  

 Reliance Upon SBA for Small Business Reviews – AlphaBrook contacted Senior Contracting Officer Brad DeMers, who noted a challenge regarding the administration of OASIS, stating, “All size standards are determined by SBA. SBA is the one who does the verification of the size of that particular contractor, because they’re the only one that says either they’re small or not small.” This reliance on SBA to review vendors' small business status can lead to long periods of downtime in the post-award phase of an on-ramp or even a follow-on vehicle. Small business vendors that are interested in the OASIS follow-on contract will need to have an updated SBA small business certification which would allow them to compete throughout the lifecycle of a vehicle.  

 Read the Full Report 

If you would like to learn more about this opportunity and how AlphaBrook can help your team gain a competitive advantage for this upcoming procurement you can access the FULL REPORT.