Industry leaders gathered in Reston, Va. for Washington Technology’s “Doing Business Through Leading GWACs” - Power Breakfast, Dec. 6. This event brought together influential voices in Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC), including Joanne Woytek, Program Director, NASA SEWP; Katherine Thompson, Deputy Executive Director, U.S. Army Contracting Command - Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG); and Larry Hale, Deputy Assistant Commissioner, General Services Administration (GSA).  

NASA SEWP VI 

Woytek, the resident NASA SEWP expert (and the only NASA SEWP PM since NASA SEWP’s inception), reviewed critical information on NASA SEWP VI. We’ve highlighted the Top 3 NASA SEWP Takeaways from the event: 

Takeaway 1 – NASA SEWP VI timeline: SAM.gov has Jan. 30 listed as the “Updated Date Offers Due Date,” but according to Woytek, that is the "earliest available date" due to the time it is taking to answer the last 555 batch of questions from the latest Q&A period. (Note: NASA Released Amendment 10 on Dec. 16, extending the deadline to Feb. 17, 2025). 

Takeaway 2 – NASA SEWP VI significant increase in Primes: NASA SEWP V currently has 147 Primes with approximately 10,000 subcontractors and teammates; on average, three new subcontractor companies are added daily. NASA SEWP VI is expected to have 1,000 primes–which, if I’m doing my algebra correctly–could result in upwards of 68,000 subcontractors. That’s a significant increase in contractors, and the NASA SEWP Program Office has increased its staff to prepare for the increased workload. 

Takeaway 3 – NASA SEWP VI Q&A: Woytek recommended reviewing all of the questions before submitting any new questions to reduce duplicative questions and reduce. Of note, NASA released Q&A batches 5 (Dec. 11), 6 (Dec. 16), and 7 (Dec. 17), culminating in 1,264 responses. Offerors can submit new questions Dec. 18-20, after which the Q&A period will close.  

Hot Topic Questions 

Question 1: Does the expanded awardee pool mean that there will be more contracts and more work? Not necessarily. It’s impossible to speculate on the number of potential contracts and task orders (TOs), but we think it’s a safe assumption that many current TOs under NASA SEWP V could be recompeted. Trident has been tracking a major difference in the services-oriented work that will be added under SEWP VI. In theory, the number of TOs could remain relatively close to the SEWP V Contract; however, the scope of the some of TOs will likely expand to include the services-orientated work. There may also be a shift to using other types of TOs beyond the NASA SEWP V Firm Fixed Price (FFP)-centric TOs. Another recent development is the addition of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as one of NASA SEWP’s newer customers. This major agency addition signals the ever-expanding influence and relevance of the NASA SEWP vehicle–in 2024 alone, the vehicle touted $11B in funded awards, ranking only second to Alliant II in the Top Funded GWACS for the past year (see table below from Deltek brief provided during the event).  

Source: GovTribe 

Question 2: The question everyone in the audience was waiting to have addressed was, of course, when will the NASA SEWP VI RFP be finalized? As the GovCon world is accustomed to, Woytek could not give any definitive timeline updates and stated, “we are very close to finishing with the questions. Another amendment will likely follow and one final round of Q&A will be released" (Amendment 10 was released Dec. 16). SAM.gov listed Jan. 30 as the “Updated Date Offers Due Date”, but according to Woytek, that is the "earliest available date" due to the last 555 batch of questions from the latest Q&A period (Note: Since this was written, NASA released Amendment 10 which included a deadline extension to Feb. 17, 2025, as well as 428 more Q&As). Woytek implored companies to look at the other questions already posted before submitting a question, as there are at least 1,000 duplicate or very similar types of questions, which is slowing the entire process (they DO look at every single question). She also recommended that if you aren’t already on NASA V and are interested in NASA VI, see if you can find a Prime that you can join now to get acquainted with the vehicle.  

Army Marketplace for the Acquisition of Professional Services (MAPS) 

The following panelists, Katherine Thompson (ACC-APG) and Larry Hale (GSA) discussed their contracting office’s priorities for the year ahead. The Top 2 Takeaways from their panel are below: 

Takeaway 1 – MAPS NAICS Code: When asked a question from the audience regarding what the Contract’s Primary NAICS code would be, Thompson stated they had not yet decided on the Primary NAICS code - but they were very open to feedback from the industry. She said it was unlikely that the contract would have RDT&E NAICS (541715) as the Primary NAICS code. Note: On Dec. 13, ACC released the second draft of Sections L and M. They are soliciting industry feedback on the latest draft. Feedback is due no later than 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 13, 2025, at this link.  

Takeaway 2 – MAPS Awardee Pool: ACC-APG intends to limit the number of contractors for MAPS to 100 or fewer (similar to the OASIS structure). Read our comprehensive blog on MAPS here. 

MAPS Priorities 

According to Thompson, the Army’s priorities are speed and flexibility. They will continue to find ways to streamline the acquisition process and are willing to experiment to find best practices. She also reiterated that they are VERY open to industry feedback and encouraged scheduling one-on-ones via their Industry Engagement Office or emailing her directly ([email protected]).  

There are three major differences for the Marketplace for the MAPS contract (Reminder: our recent MAPS blog is a deep dive into this contract), according to Thompson. They are: (1) adding the combined ITES-3S and RS3 contracts under MAPS; (2) limiting the number of contractors to 100 or fewer (similar to OASIS structure); and (3) the new domains (our blog explains these in greater detail).  

GSA 

Hale, meanwhile, focused on the importance of meeting Small Business (SB) goals. He recounted a situation when a Prime had issues meeting their SB goals. He simply responded, “Do you like being on Alliant?” If so, meeting your goals is necessary! He also discussed GSA's tools to make contracting "easier," which included FAStlane and the Startup Springboard. 

Moving Forward 

The GWAC experts all stressed their desire to make the acquisition process as smooth and easy as possible. Each expressed their willingness and encouraged working with industry to help define the “best in class” acquisition strategies. 

If you’re interested in hearing more about some of the Contract Vehicles we support (Alliant, OASIS+, MAPS, NASA SEWP VI, etc.) or want to keep up with the latest content from Trident Proposal Management, subscribe to our newsletter and Trident Blog, and follow us on LinkedIn. 

Written by Kristi Bickel

Kristi is a capture and proposal manager and our Client Advocate. Her skills go beyond technical editing and compliance checks; she’s also well-versed in post-proposal reviews. As a U.S. Navy veteran and military spouse based on the East Coast, she supports clients around the world as part of our globally dispersed team.