Key Tasks to Win the Contract

With the release of the final OASIS+ RFP on June 15th, there are now challenging tasks ahead to prepare a winning response. OASIS+ offers a unique opportunity to win a contract in a non-competitive environment. All you need to do is identify the number of points for which you qualify and provide validating data. You reach the magic number of points, and you win a contract. You now have approximately 80 days to prepare your response for submission.

So, what are the key tasks that need to be completed to put you in the best position to win? Here are a few items on which to spend your time:

Understanding the OASIS+ RFP Requirements

  • Read the OASIS+ RFP at least four or five times before doing anything to ensure you understand exactly what the Government is requiring.
    Challenge: This RFP is information dense and will require significant attention to detail to uncover all of its nuances to maximize your score. Having someone with experience working with similar, information-dense RFPs will be a must.

Identifying High-Scoring Contracts

  • Once you understand the requirements for OASIS+ RFP, identify the contracts you think will give you the most points for both relevant projects and for emerging technologies. This will most likely entail some degree of operational analysis to determine which mix of projects maximize your potential points.
    Challenge: This is an optimization exercise to find the right mix of contracts that will cover the subplots of the requirements to maximize your potential points. The Government has turned to this “evidence-based” acquisition paradigm in the last couple of years. Having someone who has done exercises like this on multiple occasions will make you a more likely winner.

Conducting Self-Scoring Exercises

  • Run a couple of self-scoring exercises with your selected programs to see what maximizes your score. You may want to run these exercises against all of the RFPs that you may qualify under to see which might give you the best opportunity to win.
    Challenge: This may be mechanically the easiest aspect of the OASIS+ RFP but may be the most important. Again, make sure you have a team that has in-depth experience running self-scoring exercises.

Documentation Gathering and Team Focus

  • Start to gather your documentation and be sure your assigned PM is not distracted by any other opportunities and can focus with the attention to detail necessary for this effort.
    Challenge: Focus on the part of your proposal team will be paramount to success. Don’t expect your team to have split concentration on other opportunities. The role of your Proposal Manager and Proposal Coordinator should not be shared with any other opportunity(ies).

Detailed Tracking and Partner Coordination

  • Begin a detailed tracking effort to ensure that all required pieces of documentation are in-place and ready for upload for submission.
    Challenge: There will be a massive amount of data required to provide the points validation necessary to win. Your team will need to be highly detail-oriented and capable of tracking not only the static data but coordinating the bird-dogging of documentation required from Contracting Officers and partners.
  • Get your partners, if any, lined up and begin the process of collecting the required documentation from them.
    Challenge: Make sure your proposal team and capture manager build good working relationships with your partners. Having a team that has worked with many partners in diverse situation can only make this piece of the puzzle go easier.

Validating Projects and Documentation

  • Make sure you have the appropriate documentation from FPDS-NG to validate your projects and that you’ve gathered any required contracting officer signatures.
    Challenge: Again, the “devil” is in the details. Your team will need experience in working through the data to make sure that all the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed to ensure your project claims are validated.

OASIS+ RFP Conclusion

I can’t stress enough the importance of having a dedicated team for the OASIS+ effort. The documentation gathering and tracking will be significant and a misfire in the collection effort could prove costly.

Help to Win OASIS+ RFP

How can OCI help? We have qualified consultants who can help you squeeze out every possible point.  Manage, write, coordinate.  Or all the above.  OR if you need us to take over other opportunities in your pipeline while you dedicate resources to OASIS+, we can do that as well.

 

Past OASIS+ Articles: