OASIS small business solicitation coming
With agencies looking to OASIS as a trusted source, small businesses are clamoring to get onto it, according to GSA officials.
The OASIS professional services vehicle is gaining traction among small businesses as federal agencies point to OASIS as a go-to source, as the federal government pushes for fewer contracts.
Officials at the General Services Administration, which manages OASIS, are planning to issue a solicitation in the next two weeks to add to the pool of small business providers. Michelle Warren, director of OASIS contracting operations, told the audience at an ACT-IAC acquisition event that GSA expects over 1,000 responses to the small business solicitation.
During audience questions, would-be contractors asked GSA officials about the intricacies of getting onto OASIS and said that agency contacting officers are sending the message that OASIS is increasingly a go-to vehicle for some services.
GSA's OASIS managers agencies are not being pressured to use the contract, but rather have decided to use it as part of their policy.
"We want to be a vehicle of attraction and persuasion," with attractive pricing and innovation, said Alexandra Rouse, the professional services program executive at GSA. OASIS, she said, "is a contracting tool in an agency's tool kit."
Since its 2014 launch, OASIS has logged billions in obligations from federal agencies, primarily the Air Force, Army, Navy, Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security and the, according to Clint McCoy, business development program manager at GSA.
"We just passed the $10 billion mark in obligations yesterday," he said.
The contract is seeing last-minute spending for fiscal 2018 currently, so that number will probably see another substantial increase, he said.