Requirements for GSA’s Services MAC Start to Come into Focus

By: Jennifer Aubel

In the last quarter, GSA released new information about its upcoming Services MAC (now called OASIS+) contract, including our first look at a draft evaluation scorecard. Positioned as the follow-on to GSA’s wildly successful OASIS contract, Services MAC is a Best-in-Class (BIC) vehicle for non-IT professional services. Services MAC will not be an OASIS carbon copy, so here’s the latest:

Contract Scope

GSA is proposing a domain-based structure with services grouped by scope rather than size standard. Domains will be released in two phases. The first includes areas with the highest spend and most urgent need for continuity with OASIS. The proposed Phase One domains are:

• Management and Advisory
• Technical and Engineering
• Research and Development
• Intelligence Services
• Enterprise Solutions (Unrestricted contract only)
• Environmental Services
• Facilities
• Logistics

Phase Two domains will be incorporated at a later date. They include business administration, financial services, marketing and public relations, social services, and human capital.

Evaluation Criteria

GSA plans to evaluate offers and make awards at the domain level. While general requirements will be similar across domains, some will have specialized requirements. Like OASIS, Services MAC is expected to use a project-centric evaluation criteria requiring strategic analysis to select the highest-scoring group. There will be a qualification threshold setting the minimum amount of points for award in a given domain.

GSA published a sample small business evaluation criteria in March 2022 for the Technical and Engineering Domain. While specifics may change, it gives a feel for where GSA is headed. The bulk of available points are for the three to five past performance Qualifying Projects (QP) submitted for scoring. New factors include the number of labor categories, surge capability, retention and turnover, and emerging technology.

Small Business Strategy

Unlike the OASIS pool structure, Services MAC domains will be defined by scope rather than grouping NAICS codes with the same size standard. Most domains have multiple size standards. This means a contractor could be large AND small within a single domain. Size would be determined by the NAICS code assigned at the order level.

Services MAC will have separate IDIQ contracts for the following set-aside programs – total small, 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, and WOSB – in addition to the Unrestricted contract. GSA will allow small businesses to mirror its contract across different socioeconomic classifications (e.g. a WOSB could have both small business and WOSB contracts).

Open Issues

Even as Services MAC comes into focus, there are open issues. The most important is the use of subcontractors and teaming. Based on protests on this issue for CIO-SP4, you can be certain GSA is looking closely (Update January 2023: The draft RFP confirms that teaming, subcontracting, and joint venturing will be allowed). Another question is whether the contract will be continuously open. GSA initially seemed to favor this approach, but hinted recently that periodic on-ramps may be gaining steam. The final area is pricing. GSA was granted authority to exclude pricing as an evaluation factor on some IDIQ contracts under Section 876 of the FY19 NDAA. While this concept is popular with industry, ordering agencies do not like it. Based on GSA’s decision NOT to have unpriced items on the Schedules, it would be surprising if Services MAC is unpriced (Update January 2023: I got this one wrong. OASIS+ will be unpriced).

Keep checking Aprio Insights for updates on Services MAC/OASIS+. For questions, contact our experts Tom Marcinko (tom.marcinko@aprio.com) or Jennifer Aubel (jennifer.aubel@aprio.com).