The General Services Administration (GSA) is seeking industry comment to be taken into consideration as the agency puts together an acquisition plan for the procurement of a range of human resources (HR) services.
Listed below are questions that GSA would like industry to answer in order to capture best practices and lessons learned from previous contract vehicles and solicitations, merging industry standards and solutions with the Government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to achieve best value in the fields of human resource training and development and human capital management services.
The information provided will be utilized for preliminary planning purposes by the Government to facilitate the decision-making process and will not be disclosed outside of Government. All data received that is marked or designated as corporate or proprietary information will be fully protected from release outside the Government. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing any information or any follow-up information requests. GSA’s call for industry comment does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Quote (RFQ) and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government for any purpose other than market research.
Furthermore, the Government is not seeking proposals or quotes and will not accept unsolicited proposals or quotes at this time.
The Government anticipates making preliminary decisions on the acquisition strategy by mid-July; therefore, the Government is seeking industry feedback as soon as possible.
Responses can be sent to hrfssi@gsa.gov.
The Government is seeking the following information:
1. What suggestions does industry have to incorporate the OPM’s Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework (HCAAF) in the solicitation and resultant contracts? The website for the framework is: http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/human-capital-management/#url=Framework
2. What suggestions does industry have in incorporating GSA’s Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI) in the solicitation and resultant contracts? The website for FSSI is: https://strategicsourcing.gov/
3. Would industry prefer a Statement of Objectives (SOO) or a Statement of Work (SOW) be included in the solicitation and why? Please provide a rationale for your preference?
4. Would industry prefer two separate contract vehicles—one for small businesses and another for large businesses—or combine both sizes into one contract vehicle?
5. The recently cancelled CHRS solicitation included ten (10) mandatory labor categories and an additional fifteen (15) labor categories industry could propose. GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) 738 X (Human Resources & Equal Employment Opportunity Services) does not have the same restrictions. Would industry prefer the Government provide the labor categories and descriptions in the solicitation or allow industry to propose them? Please provide a rationale for your preference?
6. What changes does industry recommend to the current TMA contract vehicle and recently cancelled CHRS solicitation?
7. How does industry want to be evaluated when the successor CHRS solicitation is released? What factors and significant subfactors are relevant? What suggestions does industry have so that the Government obtains best value?
8. The TMA contract vehicle has featured two key service areas (Customized Training and Learning Solutions & Customized Human Capital Solutions) for the past thirteen years. Would industry recommend any reconfiguration of these key service areas? Should they be combined into one key service area, remain the same or broken out into additional key service areas? Please provide a rationale for your preference?
9. The prior CHRS solicitation included two key service areas: Customized Training and Learning Solutions & Customized Human Capital Solutions. The government is contemplating including staff augmentation. Should staff augmentation fall under the human capital key service area or stand alone?
10. What subject matter, topics and/or fields should be included in the scope of the successor TMA contract vehicle under the two key service areas: Customized Training and Learning Solutions & Customized Human Capital Solutions?
11. What subject matter(s), topic(s) and/or field(s) are not in the current TMA contract vehicle or were left out of the recently cancelled solicitation that should be included in the successor TMA contract vehicle?
12. For large businesses, how would you want the subcontracting plan evaluated? What are realistic goals per socioeconomic status?
13. Please describe the federal government’s requirements in the training/human capital domain that you believe will either begin to or continue to need customized solutions from your industry.
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QUESTIONS ADDED ON JUNE 18th, 2014
19. If the Government utilizes the same evaluation methodology employed in the One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) solicitation, what concerns, comments and/or feedback does industry have? The OASIS solicitation can be found at https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=9894b0308c….
20. If the Government determines to award an IDIQ and allow Time and Materials (T&M) orders to be issued against it, what would be the impact to both large and small businesses if the IDIQ required contractors to have an approved accounting system, purchasing system and estimating system?
QUESTION ADDED ON JUNE 20th, 2014
21. What suggestions and/or ideas does industry have to incorporate sustainable metrics into the acquisition? (This question replaces Questions 14-18)
See GSA’s blog posting on this topic at: https://interact.gsa.gov/discussion/seeking-industry-feedback
