OASIS looks to move beyond Air Force orders

With a half-year of operations under its belt, GSA's One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services contracting vehicle's main user remains the Air Force, but the program's manager sees that changing dramatically next year.

One-third of task orders to OASIS, said Jim Ghiloni, executive program officer for OASIS, have been to the Air Force, which committed early to the contracting vehicle. All but one of those have been to OASIS Small Business.

"I suspect the use of the unrestricted contract will increase over time, as those procurements tend to be more complex and take more time to get going," Ghiloni said in remarks at an April 29 AFCEA Bethesda-sponsored panel.

The two contracts had to work through protests before they could begin operations, with OASIS SB coming online two months before the unrestricted vehicle. In December 2013, the Air Force signed a memorandum of understanding to use OASIS extensively for its professional services needs even before the contracting vehicle became operational. In March, the Army signed a similar MOU.

Overall, Ghiloni said OASIS has had three awards to date on the unrestricted OASIS vehicle, and between 30 and 40 on OASIS Small Business. "That represents approximately $200 million in obligations and an estimated ceiling value of around $900 million," he said.

"That's a good start," he said, adding that the first year of big contracting vehicles is "relatively slow." Moving ahead, Ghiloni said things "really ramp up in years two and three" and then plateau after that.

"I expect next year will really be the take-off year," he said.

Ghiloni said he hopes to capture 10 percent of the $62 billion federal professional services market. "It's shaping up in that direction," he added.

Some of that new business could be coming from the Federal System Integration and Management Center, the GSA component that provides acquisition support for information technology and professional services to federal agencies, as the demand for a mix of people and technology contracts increases, said FedSIM director Chris Hamm.

"I'm not sure if it will happen in '15 or '16, but I'm pretty confident that FedSIM will be the largest ordering activity under OASIS and will probably rival what we do on our IT side within two years," he said at the AFCEA panel.

"Professional services," Hamm explained, "has always been about people and 'stuff.' That's why we care as much about OASIS, as much as we care about Alliant [GSA's IT government wide acquisition contract]."

Federal procurement, he said, tends to be separated into two tracks -- the contracting group and the program mission group, which can complicate already-complex procurements that have an IT component. OASIS, he said, can smooth out that process, allowing better integration of contracting and program mission efforts that lead to better implementation of IT and personnel on projects.