According to GovWin and various other websites, the long awaited Air Force Small Business Enterprise Application Solutions – SBEAS (replacement for NETCENTS 2) bid is to be published in July 2017. This bid is a $13.4 billion with a contract PoP of 15 years covering various information technology and cyber security areas. However, if you think you can wait until July, you are VERY wrong. Winning this bid is all about past performance, either yours or your team’s. By team, I mean the Joint Venture you have formed, NOT your subcontractors. Let’s discuss this lucrative bid’s particulars a little bit more:

Proposal Requirements:

1. The CMMI Volume contains your proof of CMMI certification at Level II or above.

2. The Technical Volume is structured like the Alliant II based on a self-scoring worksheet. You must provide proof of experience in the following 10 areas:

  • Life Cycle Software Services

  • Cybersecurity

  • IT Business Analysis

  • Programming Languages

  • Tools and Development Methodology

  • Platform Environments

  • Database Components

  • Mobile/IOT

  • Server Operating Systems

  • COTS Product Support

3. The Past Performance Volume, however, requires you to provide past performance narratives and proof-documentation only on the following 3 areas:

  • Life Cycle Software Services

  • Cybersecurity

  • IT Business Analysis

Proposal Evaluation:

  1. The evaluation of the technical volume is a Pass/Fail system. The maximum score you can get for the self-scoring worksheet will be 6000, but you only need 3600 to get a pass. So whether you get 3601 or 6000, there is no difference.

  2. On the other hand, past performance is evaluated on the classical evaluation process based on relevancy and similarity.

  3. What this boils down is that you need to have excellent past performance to be able to win this bid.

Completing Notes:

1. Essentially, this bid is going to go to those with the best past performance in the relevant fields.

2. Don’t mistake me, if you have the best past performance but don’t portray it right, you will lose. Get the help of a professional writer to do that.

3. If you don’t have excellent past performance in one of the three required areas, then you need to create a JV with one or more companies for that. You can’t use the past performance of your subcontractors, so you need to form a JV.

Points on Forming a JV:

1. JVs can be newly formed (this was changed from an earlier requirement that the JV must be at least one year old).

2. You need to get the JV approved by the bid Contracting Officer, and you need to send in your information before June 9th for it to be approved. Note, this is not SBA, this is this contracting officer of this particular bid.

3. 50% of your JV must have CMMI certification. So if your JV has 2 members, one must have CMMI, and if 3 members in the JV, then 2 must have CMMI certification.

As my company has contracts in place to develop the proposal for a number of interested bidders and we have done a lot of research on this, my next post will cover methods to increase your p-win for the SBEAS bid.