UPDATE: On February 5, 2018, GSA announced 21 awardees and 10 “apparent successful offerors,” for a potential total of 31 new contractors in OASIS SB’s Pool 2. The 10 “apparent successful offerors” will be cleared as full awardees after a financial responsibility or accounting review. The full list can be found here.
Update as of January 6, 2017: GSA has extended the deadline for the OASIS SB on-ramp in an effort to attract more small businesses to the program. The deadline was originally January 10, and has now been extended to January 26. The expansion also extended the number of NAICS codes and Product and Service codes that businesses can use to earn points for evaluation, according to the new amendment. This should make it easier for businesses to qualify for the vehicle.
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Some small contractors will soon be offered a rare opportunity to win a contract with GSA’s small business version of OASIS, or One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services. In a presolicitation, GSA announced that they will be on-ramping businesses for OASIS SB Pool 2, starting at the beginning of November.
OASIS SB is a multiple award IDIQ with no program ceiling. It’s great for federal agencies, because it offers flexible contracts across multiple industries. It’s also great for your business: an OASIS contract can offer access to top contracts for small businesses, and allows for agencies to request competition only between set-aside categories. This is a can’t-miss opportunity if your small business specializes in the following Pool 2 NAICS codes:
- 541720 – Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities
- 541211 – Offices of Certified Public Accountants
- 541213 – Tax Preparation Services
- 541214 – Payroll Services
- 541219 – Other Accounting Services
GSA only offers OASIS on-ramps in irregular, special circumstances. This time, it’s due to a lack of competition – though GSA originally intended to add 40 businesses to Oasis SB Pool 2, it only ended up with nine. That means there are 31 multiple-award contractor slots up for grabs.
Jumping on the OASIS SB Pool 2 on-ramp: How to prepare
The final on-ramp documents will come out around November 3rd (as an amendment to solicitation GS00Q-13-DR-0002) and businesses will have until January to apply. As the deadline approaches, here’s how to make sure your business is as competitive as it can be:
- Get to know the original solicitation. GSA says that the on-ramp will be nearly identical to the original. Make sure your business meets the size standard of $19M. Also make sure you have examples of at least two projects in your repertoire that fall under Pool 2’s NAICS codes.
- Research the current awardees. Find out who they are and why those nine companies won. This is an on-ramp for adding, not replacing contractors, so you are not required to have a proposal score higher than the lowest-scoring contractor already in Pool 2… but it couldn’t hurt. Gather information about the contract holders to identify your strengths and weaknesses.
- Understand the tasks. In its lifetime, OASIS SB Pool 2 has had around $8 million in obligated sales for eight task orders. Now contrast that with Pool 1, to date the source of a whopping $353 in million obligated sales for almost 250 task orders. Those numbers look depressing, but it means opportunity. GSA is on-ramping in order to increase competition, creating value for agencies looking to purchase from Pool 2. Expect more task orders in the future, and make sure you are ready. Study all of the past task orders in Pool 2 using a market intelligence service like EZGovOpps. Become familiar with what agencies have purchased from Pool 2, what they might be looking for, and what your company can offer.
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