Small Business Information from BKM Management Consulting

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When a procurement officer is conducting market research they also have to consider small business federal set-asides. These set-asides help small businesses win government contracts that would normally be given to larger businesses.  23% of the annual federal contracting budget is devoted to small business contract spending.  The ‘Rule of Two’ is used at the discretion of each procurement officer when spending their yearly contract funds.  Due to the Simplified Acquisition Threshold, small businesses are set to receive contracts that are between $3,000 and $150,000 automatically.

However, if a procurement officer currently has a contract that has a total over $150,000 they can use the ‘Rule of Two.”  The Rule of Two simply means if the procurement officer can find at least two small businesses that can compete for the available contract then it can be considered a small business contract.  Once the procurement officer officiates the Rule of Two, the contract can be considered a small business set-aside contract and be used toward the 23% annual small business effort. The available contract must be awarded through a  fair market price to the federal government and not inflated because the awardee is a small business.

 

NextGov Government Contract Information

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A subsequent bid protest filed by IBM remains up in the air for the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud contract.

The Government Accountability Office Wednesday denied a pre-award bid protest filed by the tech company Oracle in August over the Pentagon’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract, worth up to $10 billion over 10 years.

Oracle’s protest argued three main points: the Pentagon’s decision to award JEDI to a single company went against statute, the terms of the contract restricted competition and the agency failed to consider potential conflicts of interest related to the acquisition.

In its decision, GAO denied the protest on each of those three grounds. The decision was issued under a protective order that limits disclosure of possible proprietary or sensitive information until parties agree on a public version to release. GSA Schedule Contract holders have talked about this.  GSA Schedule Contracts are IDIQ contracts issued by the GSA to allow buyers a streamlined approach to purchasing.  BKM Management Consulting helps companies get the GSA Schedule Contract in place.  BKM Management Consulting navigates through all of the red tape.  https://bkmmgmtconsulting.com to learn more or gsaadvantage@gsa.gov.

“GAO’s decision concludes that the Defense Department’s decision to pursue a single-award approach to obtain these cloud services is consistent with applicable statutes (and regulations) because the agency reasonably determined that a single-award approach is in the government’s best interests for various reasons, including national security concerns, as the statute allows,” GAO said in a press statement.

“GAO’s decision also concludes that the Defense Department provided reasonable support for all of the solicitation provisions that Oracle contended exceeded the agency’s needs. Finally, GAO’s decision concludes that the allegations regarding conflicts of interest do not provide a basis for sustaining Oracle’s protest,” GAO added.

The decision is a blow for Oracle, which successfully protested another large Pentagon cloud contract in May. That contract was worth up to $1 billion, but paled in size compared to JEDI.

Oracle submitted a bid in October for JEDI, as did competitors including IBM, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. IBM also submitted a pre-award bid protest against JEDI—the protest came two days before the deadline to submit bids and two months after Oracle’s protest. GAO’s ruling noted that “Oracle’s and IBM’s protests could not be resolved concurrently.” A ruling on IBM’s protest is due Jan. 18.

The Pentagon’s JEDI contract will put a commercial company in charge of hosting and distributing mission-critical workloads and classified data to warfighters around the globe in a single cloud computing environment. The contract has generated significant competition between industry titans that has taken place in public and private.

The Defense Department previously aimed to have some JEDI operating capabilities by mid-2019, but it is not clear how the acquisition will be impacted by protests. Bidding companies could file another GAO protest after the Pentagon makes its decision, or could dispute the decision in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

GSA Schedule Paving the way for more efficiency

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In the modern technology ecosystem, buying a mobile device does not mean you have a mobility solution. In recognition of this, the General Services Administration is beefing up its Wireless Mobility Solutions special item number to include 11 new categories, including mobile device management, app development and more.

Under the current structure, the wireless services category—which processes about $730 million a year in purchases—offers cellular service plans and mobile devices. The updated SIN will “offer an integrated acquisition approach” to supply agencies with a single place to purchase end-to-end mobility solutions, according to a fact sheet released by the acquisition team.

The new suite of offerings will include security services, application development and vetting, mobile device management and integration services.

GSA Schedule officials note that prior to legislation like the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act, or FITARA, and the Modernizing Government Technology Act, or MGT Act, most agencies would purchase mobility services in a “piecemeal approach”—buying devices from one vendor and device management from another.

As the inter-agency Mobile Services Category Team looked for solutions to rectify this issue, they began by defining mobility solutions under a modern framework.

“This led to a definition that accounts for mobile that includes not only wireless carrier services and devices, but also the security, management and infrastructure components needed to advance this technology in a way that agencies can leverage it to more efficiently meet their mission needs,” officials wrote in a post on GSA’s Interact site. From there, it was about building an acquisition strategy enabling agencies to buy mobility products and services under this definition.

“The SIN is being expanded to reflect how federal agencies are now buying mobility with a more enterprise approach,” the fact sheet states.

The proposed categories include:

  • wireless carrier services,
  • mobility infrastructure,
  • mobility as a service,
  • enterprise mobility management,
  • mobile back end as a service,
  • telecom expense management,
  • mobile application vetting,
  • mobile threat protection,
  • mobile identity management,
  • internet of things, and
  • other/mobile services.

GSA Schedules also plan to wrap in existing wireless blanket purchasing agreements with the four major carriers—AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon—into the updated SIN as those BPAs expire in November

Besides putting all the offerings in one place, GSA is trying to make the order process easier, as well. The agency is launching the wireless request for quotes tool, which will let purchasing agencies plug in their requirements into a standard task order template.

Reach out to BKM Management Consulting today to discuss your eligibility to get on a GSA Schedule Contract and if you qualify.  1-800-506-7539