How to Prepare for GSA Services MAC
We pride ourselves on providing you with valuable and timely opportunity updates. Today, we’ll shed some light on the upcoming GSA Services MAC (multiple-award contract). While the occasional rumor will fly, and companies are eager to get ahead of this procurement, it’s important to note that there have been no official updates from GSA since mid-December. We’re advising companies to hold off on doing any pre-RFP preparation since we do not have information yet on how this RFP will be structured. Are you surprised to hear from a government growth consultancy that you should stand down on proposal work? Yeah, us too! But we would prefer that companies focus their time, effort, and resources on opportunities that have more defined proposal requirements.
What does that mean for you?
That means taking a pause on teaming, compiling past performance, and writing any risk, cybersecurity, or compensation plans. Companies will likely have several months for pre-RFP preparation, teaming, and proposal development. How do we know? GSA stated this in their Q&A last year:
“GSA anticipates releasing several rounds of draft RFP language throughout FY22 to introduce and refine evaluation criteria. GSA does not intend for the evaluation criteria contained in the Final RFP to be a surprise to industry, as the evaluation criteria will have been thoroughly solidified through stakeholder engagement by the time of the Final RFP release.”
What we can assume, based on recent similar GSA solicitations, is that Services MAC will likely include requirements or point scoring criteria related to certifications such as CMMI and ISO, and systems such as cost accounting and estimating. Companies pursuing “Best-In-Class” contracts already know to have these in place to be competitive, so if your company lacks those certifications or approved systems you should work on those items now.
While we’re assuming that past performance will be key for this procurement, we don’t yet know what the proposal requirements might be. It’s also important to note that GSA has indicated that they want the Services MAC to be continually open, rather than having open seasons or “on ramps.” Does that mean more straightforward proposal response requirements? We hope so!
We’ll be sure to provide you more information as soon as GSA releases an update.
