GSA Ascend Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA): Proposal Support

We offer comprehensive proposal support for the General Services Administration’s (GSA) $5 billion Ascend multiple award indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) blanket purchase agreement (BPA), designed to procure commercial cloud services for federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments. Our services help large and small businesses navigate the complexities of the Ascend BPA, ensuring high-quality, compliant, and competitive proposals.

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Contract Overview

Ascend is a multiple award schedule (MAS) BPA, meaning that only GSA Schedule contractors with Cloud Special Item Number (SIN) 518210C on their contracts are eligible to bid. Ascend is the culmination of several years of work by GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) to establish a consolidated governmentwide cloud services contract for all federal agencies and other eligible entities to leverage.

 

GSA held an Industry Day in February 2024 introducing Ascend’s pools and acquisition strategy. GSA intends to use an agile approach, allowing the Agency to add new requirements, pools, and sub-pools, as well as adding new vendors, during the contract period. Task orders (TOs) will include firm-fixed price, labor hour, and time and materials (T&M). Like many recent GSA acquisitions, there is no limit to the number of awards in any pool.

 

The Ascend BPA includes acquisition, business, data, cybersecurity, environmental and sustainability, operational, and technical requirements at the baseline contract level with additional pool and sub-pool-specific requirements in any or all of these areas.

 

The three pools will be released as separate procurements and awarded in phases. The first, Pool 1: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS), is aimed primarily at large cloud service providers. GSA is working to navigate the complexities of merging government-unique requirements with the necessarily flexible commercial cloud solutions industry. In doing so, the Agency released a draft performance work statement (PWS) in December 2023 and substantially revised it in 2024 in response to industry feedback.

 

GSA requested responses to its Market Research as a Service (MRAS) questionnaires for Pool 2: Software as a Service (SaaS) and Pool 3: Cloud Related IT Professional Services to be submitted by September 20, 2024.

 

The Agency released another draft RFP for Pool 1 and held a virtual Industry Day in October 2024. GSA is actively seeking input on the latest draft, with comments using the provided Excel file due by October 18, 2024 to [email protected]. GSA  anticipates incorporating feedback and releasing the final solicitation in Q2 FY2025. 

It is currently unclear as to what, if any, opportunities for TOs that cross over pools may be allowed.

GSA made several changes to the RFP between the first and second drafts:

  • The new PWS is significantly streamlined, with a number of requirements moved from the sub-pools to the main BPA level
  • Order catalogs are now required at the BPA level vs. the order level
  • Cybersecurity logs are now not required but must be enabled for customers to request
  • Contractors are no longer required to restrict usage of cloud services but must provide the capability for eligible users to restrict usage
  • Cybersecurity incident reporting and response requirements are less complex and no longer must be reported to GSA
  • Carbon pollution-free electricity sources are no longer required, but services must comply with current environmental and sustainability laws, regulations, and policies
  • Contractors no longer must monitor consumption and suspend services but must enable metering and allow eligible users to set metering thresholds and automate suspension of services when thresholds are met
  • Contractors will self-attest to FedRAMP/DCAS authorization vs GSA conducting verifications
  • Many requirements have moved from the BPA level to the order level, including clearance levels, credentials, price estimation, financial optimization, energy efficiency, and data center service level agreements
  • New requirements include monthly transactional data reporting and a greenhouse gas reduction progress report due two years after BPA award

There is still plenty of time to prepare! Ascend is a FASt Lane-eligible initiative, meaning faster processing times for updating existing MAS contracts to include SIN 518210C or getting a new MAS contract in place. Contact Summit today for help with your GSA Schedule or linking up with potential teammates.

Contract Details

  • Agency: General Services Administration (GSA)
  • Status: Ongoing
  • Solicitation Dates:
    • RFI:
      • Pool 1: February 2024
      • Pools 2 & 3: September 3, 2024
    • Draft RFP:
      • Pool 1: 1st dRFP May 2024, 2nd October 1, 2024
      • Pools 2 & 3: TBD
    • Industry Day:
      • General: February 8, 2024
      • Pool 1: October 3, 2024
      • Pools 2 & 3: TBD
    • Final RFP: TBD
      • Pool 1: Estimated Q2 FY2025
      • Pools 2 & 3: TBD
  • Period of Performance: 3-year base period plus one 3-year option period and two 1-year option periods (total 8 years) 
  • Award Date: TBD
  • Competition Type: Small business set-aside, unrestricted/full and open
  • NAICS: 518210, $40M size standard
  • Subcontracting Goals: TBD; large businesses must demonstrate a proactive effort to achieve subcontracting goals
  • Number of Awards: Unlimited awards
  • Contract Value: $5B
  • Proposal Due Date: TBD

Functional Areas

The Pools, as defined to date, are:

  •  Pool 1: IaaS and PaaS
    • Sub-Pool 1.1 FedRAMP: Moderate and DoD IL: 2
    • Sub-Pool 1.2 FedRAMP: High and DoD IL: 4, 5
    • Sub-Pool 1.3 DoD IL: 6
  • Pool 2: Software as a Service (SaaS)
    • Sub-Pools TBD
  • Pool 3: Cloud Related IT Professional Services
    • Sub-Pools TBD

Proposal Requirements

Submitting a successful proposal for the Ascend BPA will require meticulous attention to detail and thorough preparation. More details are forthcoming in future releases from GSA; we will continue to keep this page updated as the Agency shares more information.

Note: if a bidder receives a failing rating on any element in Volume I, GSA will cease evaluating the proposal.

  • Volume I: Compliance Review
    • Evaluation Factor 1: Authorization Level
    • Evaluation Factor 2: GSA Schedule Contract Number
    • Evaluation Factor 3: Remaining GSA Schedule Period of Performance (PoP) - Bidders with less than 5 years remaining on their current MAS contract (with no options left) will not be eligible for a BPA award.
    • Evaluation Factor 4: GSA Schedule Catalog
  • Volume II: Factor 5: Technical
    • TBD
  • Volume III: Factor 6: Past Performance
    • May be federal, state, local government, and/or commercial contracts/TOs
    • At least two of the three examples must be of similar complexity
    • Performance must be within 5 years
    • Minimum of at least 1 year of performance
    • Two of the three examples must be at least $5M
    • At least one example must be $10M or more
    • Bidders must provide a Past Performance Questionnaire (PPQ) to three points of contact (POC)
  • Volume IV: Factor 7: Pricing Submission

 

View Ascend solicitation documents on SAM.gov. Note that final RPFs will only be available on eBuy, GSA's procurement portal for GSA MAS contracts:

Evaluation Criteria

Award will be made to all responsible quoters with a technically acceptable quote (i.e., meeting all PWS requirements). The evaluation factors are listed in descending order of importance:

  • Volume I: Compliance Review – Pass/Fail
    • Factor 1: DCAS/FedRAMP Authorization Level
    • Factor 2: MAS & SIN 518210C Holder
    • Factor 3: MAS Schedule Remaining PoP
    • Factor 4: Catalog
      • BPA Catalog
      • MAS Catalog Match
      • Restricted to FedRAMP/DCAS authorization (i.e., cloud services within the authorization boundary)
  • Volume II: Factor 5: Technical – TBD
    • TBD
  • Volume III: Factor 6: Past Performance – Confidence and Relevance Rating
  • Volume IV: Factor 7: Pricing Submission – Pass/Fail
    • Price must  be less than or equal to MAS Catalog Price
    • Allows for utilization based discounts (e.g., price reductions, volume discounts, promotions) based on users' consumption of cloud services and calculated at the end of a TO PoP

Critical Insights for Ascend Bidders:

To secure a position on the Ascend BPA, bidders must be able to provide a variety of FedRAMP / DCAS-authorized cloud solutions and cloud-related IT professional services using their GSA MAS contract. While Pools 2 and 3 may contain set asides, small businesses should consider teaming (as a contracting teaming arrangement, joint venture, or prime/subcontractor) to compete successfully.

Summit Strategy Services

We provide a full spectrum of proposal support services tailored to help both large and small businesses secure a position on the Ascend BPA. Our expert team is equipped to guide you through every stage of the proposal process, from draft solicitation and final solicitation review to initial planning to final submission.
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Understanding and Analysis:
We analyze the final RFP to provide a clear understanding and insights.

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Scoring Systems:
Our experts explain the scoring system and offer strategic tips to maximize your score.

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Proposal Planning:
We assist with compliance matrix creation, proposal initialization, proposal outlining, template development, and detailed planning to ensure a well-structured and compliant proposal.

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Full Proposal Development:
Our dedicated proposal managers, along with supplementary resources such as writers, graphic designers, and desktop publishers, work to develop a top-notch high-scoring proposal. We will also actively monitor for RFP amendments and Q+A releases, and adjust your strategy as needed.

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Reviewing and Auditing:
We conduct thorough reviews, including compliance, color reviews, and QC checks, to optimize your proposal and enhance its competitiveness.

Success Stories

Hear from our satisfied clients who have benefited from our expert proposal support and secured significant federal contracts.

Game-Changing Win

"Partnering with Summit Strategy was a crucial strategic decision for us. Their extensive experience in assisting companies like ours pursue large, complex opportunities was instrumental in managing our team and the phased approach for this proposal effort. Winning this contract is incredibly impactful for our small firm, serving as a launch pad to pursue similar large contract opportunities. We look forward to relying on Summit for all our future proposal efforts, big or small, as our go-to proposal management team."

- CEO,
GovCon IT Consulting Firm

Elite Team

"It has been wonderful partnering with Summit Strategy. I highly recommend this elite team to any organization looking to take your performance to the next level.”

- Chief Growth Officer,
GovCon Intelligence + Security Solutions Firm

Exceeded Expectations

“My previous experiences with companies that do this type of work led me to have very low expectations, and you blew us out of the water! Everyone assigned to the [proposal] was professional, calm, helpful, thorough, and a pleasure to work with. You provided expertise and guidance to us throughout, and we really appreciated all you and your staff did. Thank you!

- Director of Contracts,
GovCon IT Consulting Firm

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