The draft Request for Proposal for SSES NextGen was released on 9 June with an anticipated RFP release in July 2017, which means very soon.  According to GovWin and other sources, the value of this base plus four option year contract with on-ramp opportunities for up to 10 awardees, a value in the neighborhood of $8 billion, with a minimum contract value of $500 to each contract winner.

Essentially, the opportunity is divided into three key elements, which must be addressed in Volume I (Corporate Experience) and Volume II (Past Performance).  Those elements are:

  • System and Software Acquisition Support.
  • Support to SEC Software Support Environments and Facilities and provide Production Software Support (PPSS)/Post Development Software Support (PDSS).
  • Cyber Security, Information Assurance (IA) and Software Assurance (SA) Support.
  • Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Support.

A significant point for Joint Ventures:  The JV must possess its own CAGE code.  If an offer is submitted using the CAGE code of one of the JV partners alone, then only that company shall be viewed by USG as the offeror and the experience/past performance of that company will be evaluated.  Past performance from other members of the JV, teammates, and subcontractors shall not be submitted or evaluated.  If there is a legally formed JV (with corresponding CAGE code), then experience examples from individual partners may be submitted.  An offer that provides past performance from teammates or subcontractors will not be eligible for an award.

The proposal is divided into three volumes:

Volume 1 – CORPORATE EXPERIENCE:

You must submit four examples of Government contracts or task orders to demonstrate corporate experience.  One example of experience must be submitted for each of the four areas mentioned above and MUST address each of the subparagraphs in the Statement of Work (SOW).

Here’s the kicker:  ARMY EXPERIENCE ONLY.  Let me repeat that:  ARMY EXPERIENCE ONLY.

Volume 2 –  PAST PERFORMANCE:

The requirements for past performance are very stringent:

You must use the same four examples submitted for Volume 1 of this solicitation.  One contract, one order, OR multiple orders under the same IDIQ contract or BPA for identical requirements, constitutes one example. Additionally, one contract, one order, OR multiple orders under the same IDIQ contract or BPA for identical requirements can be used multiple times for each example.

Volume 3 COST:

This volume is divided into two parts:

  • Part 1 Cost Proposal is the Excel spreadsheet provided by the Government much as you would expect from any RFP, with a couple of caveats.
    • Data submitted must be in accordance with your standard accounting practices. You may deviate from the base and option periods only to align with those standard accounting practices.
    • Direct labor rates must be provided for (a) Budget Analyst (Senior), (b) Information Security Analyst (Senior), (c) System Analyst (Senior), (d) Information Security Engineer (Senior), and (e) System Administrator (Senior) for evaluation purposes alone.
  • Part 2 Cost Narrative. Offerors shall submit a cost narrative with sufficient documentation necessary to adequately support and explain the costs proposed. There is no page limitation for the cost narrative.  This is a rather complicated area, and we highly encourage you to read thoroughly.

Evaluation:

Evaluation is rather straightforward with Corporate Experience as either acceptable or unacceptable.  Past performance is divided into two subjective areas:  first, relevant with all of its usual grades from highly relevant down to not relevant, and second, confidence ranging from highly confident to unknown confidence.

So what now?

  • Having the right experience and the right past performance is essential to winning this contract.
  • If you have not formed a joint venture (JV) yet, now is the time to do so. There isn’t a requirement for the age of the JV … just that it has its own CAGE code.

Our company has the experience of writing compelling, winning proposals for RFPs just like this one for clients just like you.  We have torn this RFP apart, and we are confident that we should be part of your winning solution.