Note: Kevin Carroll was previously in charge of the ITES, ADMC and CHS programs as the Army Program Executive Officer, Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS). He is probably the leading authority on Army programs outside of Government.
Biggest thing to remember is that ITES 2S had a lot of different customers — mostly Army – that will not be involved in the evaluation – none of those customers will be involved in the evaluation. So this means, when you look at a proposal, the theme you want to address the Headquarters organization PM CHESS and the Rock Island contracting people. These are the two main customers and the ones who will read the proposals.
Their primary interest is not the mission of solving IT problems. Instead they are trying to find a way to provide “Grade A” companies that can help solve mission problems later. That is why the draft RFP is focused on things like corporate management philosophy, your management operations, what is your management experience, and how are you going to manage multiple award IDIQ Task Orders. So a key thing for them is that there is corporate experience handling multiple award IDIQs, as well as a repeatable process to manage the contract and the team. For example many small businesses did not get selected in the multi step advisory due to lack of experience in multiple award IDIQ contracts. Many of the large businesses failed to get selected because of faulty managerial philosophies and processes, as well as deficiencies in team management approach and use of management tools. They really are looking for firms that can bid a lot of task orders and involve the entire team in the bidding process.
As you noted, the previous draft of the RFP had language in which they wanted small business team members to be able to run a Task Order as a prime. This language was removed in the current draft RFP, in response to comments. However, they are still looking for vendors to let small business take a leadership role in some Task Orders. Their intent boils down to the fact, they want you to bid a lot of Task Orders, and you can let your small business partners take control and bid projects you might not bid as a prime.
In the end I would say you are still going to have to be priced within the lower third of the vendors. You don’t have to be the lowest. But Price to Win (PTW) is a big deal. You must do a PTW on this particular bid
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