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03/10/08
MDA posted notice on the
FedBizOpps website of a change in the MDA
Contracting Officer for the MiDAESS acquisition
to Robbie Phifer, MDA/DACS. The announcement is
available at:
http://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/MDA/MDA-DACS/HQ0006-07-R-0012/Modification%2012.html
02/13/08
MDA has extended the date for questions on
the draft Request for Proposal (DRFP)
indefinitely. The original closing date was 12
February 2008. Provide comments and questions
using Attachment 18, "Question Form." The
schedule posted with the DRFP is suspended; an
updated schedule will be forthcoming. The
announcement is available at:
http://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/MDA/MDA-DACS/HQ0006-07-R-0012/Modification%2009.html
02/10/08
MDA has released the
presentation slides and attendance lists from
the 5 & 7 February 2008 Industry days.
They are available at:
http://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/MDA/MDA-DACS/HQ0006-07-R-0012/Attachments.html
01/31/08
MDA issued the draft RFP
for the MiDAESS procurement on 30 January 2008.
It is available at:
http://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/MDA/MDA-DACS/HQ0006-07-R-0012/Attachments.html
In addition, MDA posted
new information on the FedBizOpps web site
announcing that Carolyn Goldberg is the
permanent Program Manager and reconfirming the
2/5 and 2/7 industry days. It is available at:
http://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/MDA/MDA%2DDACS/HQ0006%2D07%2DR%2D0012/listing.html.
01/14/08
MDA issued the following
notice on FedBizOpps on 12 January 2008. It is
available at:
http://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/MDA/MDA-DACS/HQ0006-07-R-0012/Modification%2006.html.
MDA will hold Industry
Days to discuss the Missile Defense Agency
Engineering and Support Services (MiDAESS)
acquisition on Tuesday, 5 February 2008 in
Huntsville AL and Thursday, 7 February 2008 in Arlington VA. The primary purpose of these briefings is
to provide industry with an update on the MiDAESS acquisition and review the information
provided in the draft request for proposal
(RFP). Release of the draft RFP is anticipated
prior to the end of January 2008. The same
information will be presented at both
sites. Companies will be allowed to attend only
one of the briefings. The Huntsville AL Industry
Day will be held at the Von Braun Civic Center
located at
700 Monroe Street; Huntsville AL
35801 (phone number
256-533-1953). Registration begins at 7:30
AM. The briefings are scheduled to run from
8:30 AM to 4:00 PM CST (Note: there will be a 90
minute break for lunch). The Arlington VA
Industry Day will be held at the Doubletree Hotel Crystal
City located at
300 Army Navy Drive
Arlington VA
22202 (phone number
703-416-4100). Registration begins at 7:30
AM. The briefings are scheduled to run from 8:30
AM to 4:00 PM EST. (Note: there will be a 90
minute break for lunch).
Attendance is limited to
two (2) representatives per company and
pre-conference registration is required. Use
the registration form that has been uploaded
to the FedBizOpps web site (http://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/MDA/MDA-DACS/HQ0006-07-R-0012/Attachments.html)
and submit in accordance with the directions
listed on the form. Registration will be
available through close of business 5:00 PM CST,
1 February 2008. If available seating is filled
at one site, the company will be contacted and
shifted to the other site until all available
space has been exhausted. Late registrations
will be accepted only on a space availability
basis. The Government is not liable for any
expenses incurred by an attendee or eventual
offeror in order to attend this
conference. Participation is limited to cleared
U.S. companies or
U.S. foreign owned companies with
Foreign Ownership Control or Influence (FOCI)
mitigated through approved mechanisms, therefore
this meeting is not open to foreign firm
participation at either the prime or subcontract
level.
Interested offerors may register at
http://www.fedbizopps.gov
to receive email notification when information,
solicitation and any amendments and future
documents regarding this acquisition are issued
and available for downloading. MDA will not
directly send offerors the solicitation or any
amendments. It is the interested offerors
responsibility to periodically check this
website for updates.
This announcement is for information and
planning purposes only. It does not constitute
an RFP and is not to be construed as a
commitment by the Government.
12/20/07
Please see below the latest update from
MiDAESS Program Manager Terry Little.
Readers are encouraged to submit any additional
comments or questions to us through the website
at
MDAInfo@pscouncil.org.
MiDAESS Update (20
December 2007)
I want to begin
by thanking everyone who responded to my five
questions. We got 64 responses. The responses
reflected very different viewpoints depending
upon company experience, position and probably a
host of other factors. There was, however, one
question where there was virtual unanimity in
the answers. Everyone seemed to endorse the
idea of using ongoing performance as the primary
basis for awarding future tasks after we award
the basic contracts. We are planning to do
exactly that, but we have yet to work through
the details.
We had our
MiDAESS In-Process Review today with the
Agency’s senior management. There were several
actions from that review, but I can tell you
that we got a green light to proceed as we
currently are. Specifically, we plan the
following:
·
To establish a
MiDAESS program office in the National Capitol
Region that will manage all MDA’s contractor
support services.
·
To use ongoing
performance as the primary basis for selecting
task winners after we award the basic functional
area contracts.
·
To have an ongoing
performance assessment that will begin when we
award the initial contracts and continue monthly
for each awardee. The assessment will be a
color rating in areas like quality of personnel,
personnel attrition, flexibility, small business
utilization, etc.. Each functional area chief
will decide what performance factors are most
important. Those will be the factors we use for
the rating. The company will, of course, see
each rating and get an explanation.
·
To make our initial
selections we are going to have four evaluation
areas: technical, managerial, past performance
and cost/price. Depending on the functional
area the most important factor will be either
management or technical. Past performance will
be equal to the most important factor.
Cost/price will be the least important factor.
·
To evaluate past
performance we intend to look at only one most
recent and relevant effort for the prime and one
for any subcontractor having more than 25% of
the work. From those single efforts we will
derive a confidence rating (color) to use for
the source selection. Work need not have been
with MDA to be most relevant for an offeror.
Also we are reserving the right to examine up to
three recent relevant past performance
opportunities where we have difficulty
ascertaining a single most recent relevant
opportunity.
·
In some functions
there will be a sample problem in the technical
part of the evaluation. That problem will be
for evaluation purposes only and will not roll
into an actual task.
·
We are going to
consolidate all of the Agency’s grey-beard
efforts. Contracting for those will be through
the MiDAESS program office. Contracts to
administratively support the grey beards will
probably be small business set asides.
·
We intend to
release a draft RFP in late January. The draft
will be mostly complete for one functional area
(probably safety, quality and mission
assurance), but will have annexes describing the
requirements for every functional area. Within
each annex there will be an estimate of the
manyears and locations, the number of RFPs we
expect for each area, the NAICs codes, the
approximate timing for the RFPs and where we
expect to have set asides.
·
We have decided to
preclude exclusive teaming arrangements, but not
guaranteed work share for subs.
·
You can expect for
most functional areas a broad statement of
objectives and statement of work. The
specificity will be in the task descriptions.
·
Where we have
multiple awards for the same statement of work
we will split the initial work among the winners
equally
·
Our initial tasks
are likely to be short duration (e.g. six
months). After the first task the lengths will
get longer, but we want the option to eliminate
a poor performer early.
Everything above
is subject to change. I have previously said
that everything is on the table once we release
the draft RFP. I will stick with that.
I and the MiDAESS
team wish all of you happy holidays. You will
see an update to this about the second week in
January.
12/19/07
MDA posted the following notice on the
FedBizOpps website:
MiDAESS Update (4 December 2007)
We still intend to award the multiple
MiDAESS contracts in phases. The awards will
be by functional areas to align with our
matrix organization.
Examples of functional areas include the
following:
Engineering
Quality, Safety and Mission Assurance
Acquisition management
Financial management
Administrative
Etc
The winners in each of the functional areas
will be supporting the MDA Headquarters in
the National Capital Region as well as
program office locations in Dahlgren VA,
Huntsville AL, Los Angeles CA, Albuquerque
NM, Colorado Springs CO and potentially
others including overseas. We do not plan to
award any location specific contracts unless
we only need the support in one area.
Each Functional Manager will decide how much
of what kind of support needs to be where.
We expect to realize efficiencies from
MiDAESS that will allow us to reduce our
overall A&AS headcount. We also expect to
move specific support among offices within
MDA as the work ebbs and flows.
Work in each functional area will build up
over time as existing contracts expire or
reach option dates. We do not plan to
terminate any existing contracts.
We have yet to decide which functional areas
will be in Phase I. However, we do intend to
award the Phase I contracts before the
beginning of FY 2009. Awarding the remaining
contracts may require as much as two
additional years.
Where there will be a break in coverage, we
will be either extending the current
contracts or making sole source awards for a
bridging period.
We are planning to release a draft RFP in
late January 2008. That draft will contain
the objectives and work statements for all
the functional areas as well as the NAICs
codes and source selection criteria.
Our intention is to prohibit exclusive
teaming arrangements.
The MiDAESS program office will be in the
National Capital Region for the foreseeable
future. That program office will administer
all of the MiDAESS contracts, but the
Contracting Officer Representative will work
for the functional manager. Our draft
RFP anticipates four source selection areas:
managerial, technical, past performance and
cost/price.
Our current plan is to have a substantial,
formal performance monitoring effort on each
of the MiDAESS contracts. Where we will be
making multiple awards from the same
Statement of Work, we will use past
performance (with a consideration of
cost/price) as the basis for awarding
additional tasks within the work scope.
I am not talking with any offerors now.
Because of the number of offerors and my
desire to keep everything balanced for
everyone, our primary communications will be
via the Fed Biz Ops and the PSC website.
Everything will be on-the-table when we
issue the draft RFP. We will consider every
input.
The PM intends to update PSC approximately
bi-weekly. The next update will be after our
in-process review with senior management
(December 20). The one after will come in
mid January.
This announcement is for information and
planning purposes only. It does not
constitute an RFP and is not to be construed
as a commitment by the Government.
Interested offerors may register at
http://www.fedbizopps.gov to
receive email notification when information,
solicitation and any amendments and future
documents regarding this acquisition are
issued and available for downloading. MDA
will not directly send offerors the
solicitation or any amendments.It is the
interested offerors responsibility to
periodically check this website for updates.
The notice may be viewed at:
http://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/MDA/MDA-DACS/HQ0006-07-R-0012/Modification
05.html
12/04/07
Please see below the latest update from
MiDAESS Program Manager Terry Little.
Further decisions on related topics such as OCI
and evaluating primes and responses to task
orders will be taking place in the weeks ahead.
Readers are encouraged to submit any additional
comments or questions to us through the website
at
MDAInfo@pscouncil.org.
MiDAESS Update (4
December 2007)
- We still intend to award the multiple
MiDAESS contracts in phases. The awards will
be by functional areas to align with our
matrix organization. Examples of functional
areas include the following:
- Engineering
- Quality, Safety and Mission
Assurance
- Acquisition management
- Financial management
- Administrative
- Etc
- The winners in each of the functional
areas will be supporting the MDA
Headquarters in the National Capital Region
as well as program office locations in
Dahlgren VA, Huntsville AL, Los Angeles CA,
Albuquerque NM, Colorado Springs CO and
potentially others including overseas. We do
not plan to award any location specific
contracts unless we only need the support in
one area.
- Each Functional Manager will decide how
much of what kind of support needs to be
where. We expect to realize efficiencies
from MiDAESS that will allow us to reduce
our overall A&AS headcount. We also expect
to move specific support among offices
within MDA as the work ebbs and flows.
- Work in each functional area will build
up over time as existing contracts expire or
reach option dates. We do not plan to
terminate any existing contracts.
- We have yet to decide which functional
areas will be in Phase I. However, we do
intend to award the Phase I contracts before
the beginning of FY 2009. Awarding the
remaining contracts may require as much as
two additional years.
- Where there will be a break in coverage,
we will be either extending the current
contracts or making sole source awards for a
bridging period.
- We are planning to release a draft RFP
in late January 2008. That draft will
contain the objectives and work statements
for all the functional areas as well as the
NAICs codes and source selection criteria.
- Our intention is to prohibit exclusive
teaming arrangements.
- The MiDAESS program office will be in
the National Capital Region for the
foreseeable future. That program office will
administer all of the MiDAESS contracts, but
the Contracting Officer Representative will
work for the functional manager.
- Our draft RFP anticipates four source
selection areas: managerial, technical, past
performance and cost/price.
- Our current plan is to have a
substantial, formal performance monitoring
effort on each of the MiDAESS contracts.
Where we will be making multiple awards from
the same Statement of Work, we will use past
performance (with a consideration of
cost/price) as the basis for awarding
additional tasks within the work scope.
- I am not talking with any offerors now.
Because of the number of offerors and my
desire to keep everything balanced for
everyone, our primary communications will be
via the Fed Biz Ops and the PSC website.
- Everything will be on-the-table when we
issue the draft RFP. We will consider every
input.
- I intend to update PSC approximately
bi-weekly. The next update will be after our
in-process review with senior management
(December 19). The one after will come in
mid January.
Terry R. Little
MiDAESS Program Manager
11/28/07
As previously announced, Terry Little has been
named the Program Manager for the MiDAESS
procurement. Since taking on the role, he and
his team have been engaged in a full review of
the progress and the acquisition planning to
date. As Terry has said publicly, his goal is
to have a procurement process that not only
meets MDA's needs, but also is clear,
competitive, and based on a realistic timeline.
In PSC's meeting with Terry today, we jointly
discussed a range of issues/challenges and we
will continue to do so through regular
sessions.
MDA is also considering aligning the individual
MiDAESS contracts more directly with the
Agency's new organization. Those details are not
yet fully fleshed out but are in process. In
addition to the contract elements, active
discussions are underway with regard to the use
of past performance data in source selection,
techniques for driving meaningful competition
throughout the life of the contract, and MDA's
policy on teaming, with much more to come in the
weeks ahead.
In terms of timing, an internal, "in process
review" (IPR) with the MDA leadership is
tentatively scheduled for December 19. The
draft RFP for the first MiDAESS contract could
be issued during the third or fourth week of
January, with related MDA-hosted Industry Days
tentatively scheduled for Huntsville on February 5 and the DC area on
February 7. One or both of us will be in
attendance at the IPR and at each of the
Industry Days.
In addition, although
companies may submit comments directly to MDA,
Terry has reaffirmed his interest that PSC
continue to serve as an industry resource for
the agency and interested industry participants.
As such, depending on circumstances, PSC may
host a separate industry-only discussion session
following release of the draft RFP and will, of
course, keep this web portal open and available
to all and
keep you apprised as things develop.
11/16/07
MDA posted the following notice on the
FedBizOpps website:
As part of the continuing
market research for the MiDAESS acquisition,
industry is requested to respond to the
following questions:
1. For those companies who believe that we
should use a NAICS of 541712 for our
technical/engineering support instead of 541330:
Please tell us why you think that (other than
"because that is what we have done before").
2. For those companies who told us to avoid
the mistakes of some recent support service
procurements: Please tell us what those mistakes
were.
3. For those companies who said that we
should put "teeth" into our small business
contracting goals: Tell us what sorts of things
would constitute "teeth".
4. For those companies who intend to be part
of a multi-company competing team: Please tell
us the impact if we prohibited guaranteed work
share for any team member.
5. For all companies who intend to
participate: All companies winning a MIDAESS
contract will get some minimum amount of work
starting with contract award. After award,
where there are multiple awards, we want to
adjust future work (up or down) based in large
part on past performance. The adjustment process
could, over time, result in one of the "winners"
having little or no work. Tell us your opinion
of this and provide a rationale.
Please send responses in MS Word 2003 format to
MiDAESS@mda.mil.
This announcement is for information and
planning purposes only. It does not constitute
an RFP and is not to be construed as a
commitment by the Government. Interested
offerors may register at http://www.fedbizopps.gov
to receive email notification when information,
solicitation and any amendments and future
documents regarding this acquisition are issued
and available for downloading. MDA will not
directly send offerors the solicitation or any
amendments. It is the interested offerors
responsibility to periodically check this
website for updates.
The notice may be viewed at:
http://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/MDA/MDA-DACS/HQ0006-07-R-0012/Modification%2003.html
11/02/07
MDA posted the following notice on the
FedBizOpps website:
To All
Potential Offerors on MDA's MIDAESS,
Lt General Trey Obering, MDA's Director has
selected Terry Little as the interim MiDAESS
Program Manager (PM). He is leading the
effort to establish the MiDAESS requirements
and will continue until there is a permanent
manager. Terry intends to communicate the
progress of the MiDAESS acquisition to
industry on approximately a bi-weekly basis.
Previous FBO announcements and
communications have alluded to a draft RFP
release in 2007. That is not going to
happen. Our current schedule anticipates a
release in January 2008. The draft RFP will
describe our anticipated total requirements
for all functional areas, but will not be
fully detailed. There will be enough
definition for potential offerors to have a
picture of the total scope of the MiDAESS
effort, however.
The draft RFP will include the proposed
NAICS codes for the various areas as well as
potential set asides for small and/or
disadvantaged business. Whatever rumors you
may have already heard about these
set-asides are not true; we have made no
decisions about this - not even tentative
ones.
We will provide, in the draft, proposed
verbiage for Sections L and M as well as the
Section H clauses. Past performance will be
an important source selection factor. We
will also address Organizational Conflict of
Interest (OCI). It is our intention to
provide area RFPs with similar structures,
CLINs and clauses.
This announcement is for information and
planning purposes only. It does not
constitute an RFP and is not to be construed
as a commitment by the
Government. Interested offerors may register
at http://www.fedbizopps.gov to receive
email notification when information,
solicitation and any amendments and future
documents regarding this acquisition are
issued and available for downloading. MDA
will not directly send offerors the
solicitation or any amendments. It is the
interested offerors responsibility to
periodically check this website for updates.
The notice may be viewed at:
http://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/MDA/MDA%2DDACS/HQ0006%2D07%2DR%2D0012/Modification%2002.html.
09/27/07
The
schedule for the MiDAESS procurement has again
slipped. A new timeline has not yet been
determined but the current hope is to have the
ASP and a draft RFP released sometime in early
December. As soon as the new schedule has been
set, we will let you know.
In addition, Terry Little has been appointed by
General Obering as the Interim MiDAESS Program
Manager. He and the MiDAESS teams, including the
IPT, will be meeting over the next week or so.
09/25/07
The MDA presentation from
its September 19 Small Business Conference in
Huntsville is available on the web at:
http://fs1.fbo.gov/EPSData/ODA/Synopses/30900/HQ0006-07-R-0012/SBConferenceHSVPresentation19Sep07.pdf
08/24/07
On August 24, MDA
re-posted on FedBizOpps all of the documents
from their earlier listings and consolidated
them into a single new file with two exceptions
– requests for one-on-one interviews and the
original industry day registration forms – which
are no longer relevant to the procurement or
current and thus there was no need to archive
them within the new posting. All prior entries
of MiDAESS on FedBizOpps have also been deleted
from FedBizOpps. Thus, all interested parties
should re-register on the FedBizOpps site to
ensure continued access to the information
directly from MDA. That posting is available at:
http://www1.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/MDA/MDA-DACS/HQ0006-07-R-0012/listing.html
There is no other change to the procurement and
to the best of our knowledge the July 20 pre-ASP
decision framework remains effective. As of
August 24, MDA has not set a new date for the
next industry meeting or a new date for the
release of the draft solicitation.
In response to the overwhelming consensus of
attendees at the August 2 PSC Industry-Only
meeting, the list of attendees' names and
company affiliations is
available here.
Those who responded "NO" to the PSC request have
been excluded.
On August 2, PSC
held an Industry-only meeting in Huntsville to
provide an overview of the preliminary decisions
and concepts discussed at the July 20 MDA
introductory Acquisition Strategy Panel
(ASP) that we attended. While many details
remain to be worked out, the MDA leadership, led
by General Obering, has given directional
approval to the staff's overall strategy. To
the maximum extent permitted by MDA, PSC shared
the strategic elements and provided information
on issues requiring additional thought and
decisions and sought input from attendees on
specific areas of interest with regard to the
basic strategy and its implementation. Presentation
slides from the meeting are
available here.
Presentation
slides from the April 12 Washington, DC Industry Forum are
available here.
The PSC
comment form
remains available as the MiDAESS process goes
forward.
At this point, the projected
schedule for MiDAESS is as follows:
Requirements Definition Due
24 Aug 07
Draft RFP Release
7 Sep 07
2nd MDA Industry Day, HSV POSTPONED
MDA SB Conference
19 Sep 07
Follow-up DPAP Brief
Oct 07
2nd ASP
TBD
Delta ASPS
TBD
The release date for the final RFP has not yet
been set.
The MDA Small Business Day will be held as
scheduled on September 19. For information and
to register, please visit
http://www.mdasmallbusiness.com/conference/.
As the Missile Defense Agency announced in its
FedBizOpps notice re: the MiDAESS Procurement,
and at the March 28 MiDAESS Industry Day in
Huntsville, PSC President Stan Soloway and Sr.
VP/Counsel Alan
Chvotkin have been asked to
serve as industry "advisors" to the MiDAESS
Acquisition Strategy Panel. Further, PSC, as the
prinicipal national trade association of government
services contractors, has been asked to serve as
a conduit for industry comments and input on the MiDAESS acquisition. PSC's role on both counts
is to help ensure that MDA is made aware of the
key issues and concerns on which there is
industry consensus as they relate to this
procurement and, to the extent possible,
addresses them in the acquisition strategy.
PSC's involvement will only extend through the
acquisition strategy period and we will not have
access to any company proprietary or agency
competitive information or be involved in source
selection.
Please watch this page for updates and submit
any additional comments or questions to
MDAInfo@pscouncil.org.
Updated 03/10/08
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