Hanscom helps expand knowledge on OASIS

  • Published
  • By Patty Welsh
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – Employees from Hanscom and industry representatives from small businesses got a chance to learn about a unique contract vehicle during training and a small business industry day here May 8.

Sponsored by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center- Hanscom Small Business Office, with support from the Strategic Services Portfolio Management Office and Acquisition Center of Excellence -Hanscom, the General Services Administration presented information on their One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services, or OASIS, contracts. OASIS and OASIS Small Business are multiple award, indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contracts that provide complex professional services, including but not limited to program management, management consulting, logistics, engineering, scientific and financial.

“OASIS is a simple, easy-to-use way to acquire professional services,” said Clint McCoy, OASIS program manager at GSA, while speaking to the Hanscom attendees. “It began with the Air Force and has been highly successful.”

McCoy added that since the contracts began in 2014, just for the Air Force, more than 360 task orders have been filled under the OASIS contract vehicle and more than $3 billion have been obligated.

According to McCoy, a benefit that government contracting personnel have seen by using OASIS is that all types of contracts are allowable, including hybrid, so it provides flexibility. There is also no cap or ceiling. The current ordering period is through 2024; however task orders can extend for five year following, to 2029.

He said they are also doing on-ramping, “an innovative new approach,” to potentially bring new contractors into the pools of offerors.

And it was that on-ramping, or what it takes for a small business to get onto the contract vehicle, that the GSA contracting officers described in great detail to the industry attendees.

Because of the success of some of the small businesses participating, organizers explained, the companies “graduate” out of the OASIS Small Business contract so GSA then looks to bring other small businesses into the pools.

GSA makes the companies self-score on items such as past performance, relevant experience and business systems and certifications, and then that information is validated. The Defense Contract Audit Agency must also certify that the company’s accounting system is acceptable. Final decisions are made based on highest technically rated at a fair and reasonable price.

“It’s a new methodology,” said McCoy. “And it’s been through numerous protests, but it’s stood up to all of them.”

When the new solicitation is advertised it will be substantially the same terms and conditions of the existing OASIS contract, just with the authority to on-ramp.

Alexandra Rouse, the director of the OASIS Program Management Office, said that the on-ramping process will begin in February 2019 when OASIS SB contractors are required to recertify their business sizes. GSA is looking to on-ramp new small businesses by June 2019.

Regional Administrator for GSA’s Region 1 (New England) Stephen Stepanek, who kicked-off the industry session, explained the significance of small businesses.

”We know how important small business is to the backbone of the American economy,” he said. “OASIS makes it easy for small businesses to do business with the federal government so organizations such as the Air Force can focus on their main mission.”