Air Force signs on with OASIS
Among the core elements of the contract are program management, management consulting, logistics and engineering services.
The Air Force and General Services Administration signed a memorandum of understanding Dec. 19 solidifying what had been an unofficial embrace by the Air Force of GSA’s One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services and its companion OASIS Small Business contracts.
OASIS and OASIS Small Business contain significant IT components, but aren't IT-specific. Through the multiple-award contracting vehicles, participants will be able to get both commercial and non-commercial services. The core services of the contract will include program management, management consulting, logistics, engineering, scientific and financial, GSA said.
The Dec. 19 signing ceremony at GSA's headquarters was the culmination of the Air Force's shift to the contracts that began over the summer.
In August, the Air Force Space and Missile Command said it wanted to use the dedicated OASIS Small Business contract instead of its own SMC Technical Support program. GSA estimated the value of the commitment, which encompasses virtually all systems engineering and technical assistance activities at Los Angeles Air Force Base, at $472 million over five years. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and the Air Force Test and Evaluation Center at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida also said they will use OASIS SB.
Those commitments and the latest announcement combine to represent an estimated value of $1.3 billion per year for the OASIS small business community.
The memorandum of understanding will save the Air Force "a tremendous amount of time and effort," said Randall Culpepper, program executive officer for combat and mission support, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition. "It will allow us to aggressively go after our small business goal with access to highly capable and vetted companies, and it significantly reduces our manpower requirements to conduct complex acquisitions."
Culpepper said OASIS would make his operations more economical while putting an acquisition tool in place that was "exceptionally responsive" to the needs of warfighters. "We think this will be a great long-term relationship that will get us a lot of bang for the acquisition bucks that we have."
GSA said the response period for OASIS and OASIS Small Business requests for proposal came to a close last month; the OASIS team expects to award contracts in early 2014.