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.
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 cloudenterprisewide@gsa.gov. 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.
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
- RFI:
- 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:
- Pool 1
- Final Draft RFP
- On eBuy, search for RFQ1729153
- Pool 2 RFI
- Pool 3 RFI
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
Summit Strategy Services
Understanding and Analysis:
We analyze the final RFP to provide a clear understanding and insights.
Scoring Systems:
Our experts explain the scoring system and offer strategic tips to maximize your score.
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.
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.
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
Ready to maximize your chances of securing a position on the Ascend BPA?
Contact us for more details and inquiries about our proposal support services.
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