Tom Hodges

With the shift from one incumbent to 10 winners, the odds of winning the $900M AFSTS recompete increased exponentially.  But the real value of this contract stems from its high importance and senior command access within the Air Force.

Program Details – Skip to Competitive Strategies section if desired

The character of this IDIQ (Solicitation Number – FA701420R0001) is established by a series of short- and medium-duration task orders, focusing on strategic issues and compelling work with Air Force senior leadership. The task orders fall into two separate categories:  Tier one involves strategy consulting task orders that concentrate on working on the USAF’s most important, highest-risk, and most sophisticated programs for transformational change. The range of disciplines spans strategy, organization, digital/analytics, and operations. The problems are incredibly complex and the task orders are short term. The scope of work in Tier one includes:

  • Strategy development and planning
  • Improve operational effectiveness and performance
  • Enable enterprise-wide reform
  • Create and sustain data-driven decision making
  • Support broader digital transformation
  • Build organizational success through redesign, transformation, and change management
  • Improve enterprise risk management
  • Respond to crises
  • Thought leadership
  • Access to leading industry SME’s across core business core functions on best practices
  • Data Modeling
  • Process modeling and related data capture

 

Tier two involves support to Air Force line organizations in transforming their business operations. These task orders can be longer, usually up to two years. The scope of work in Tier two would include:

  • Transformation
  • Agile Transformation
  • Culture Transformation
  • Digital Transformation
  • Data Analytics
  • Data Governance
  • Strategic Planning
  • Enterprise Architecture
  • Change Management
  • Strategic Communications
  • Facilitation Support
  • Continuous Process Improvement and Innovation (CP2I) Support
  • Innovation
  • Design Thinking
  • Organizational Design
  • Enable Data Driven Decision Making
  • Knowledge Management
  • PAD and PPlan Development
  • Business process re-engineering
  • Cyber Transformation

 

Contractors may bid into one or the other of the tiers and cannot operate in both.  This ensures that program designers are not also the executors. Out of the expected total of ten awards, there will be three Tier one IDIQ awards and seven Tier two IDIQ awards. Two of the Tier two awards are set aside for small business, leaving five for full and open competition. Booz Allen is the single incumbent contractor from the prior award.

The best estimate for release of the IDIQ final solicitation is in March 2020, with an award date in June 2020. The final draft is already in the marketplace, and the industry day was held on February 18.

Competitive Strategies

For the incumbent contractor, the biggest challenge is to bid to solicitation requirements and not be captivated by the current mode of program delivery. For challengers, the program research list is long; but bidders should deeply analyze the solicitation.  Let’s assume you are not friends with Source Selection Board (SSB) members. A work around is to keep rereading the RFP until the real requirements become clear.  And don’t forget to compare the current to the previousl RFP to find the differences that help bring the current AF needs into focus.

Bidder Progress Right Now

Bidder’s progress at this time should be close to a fully executed capture strategy, with most teammates booked, including a significant number of small businesses.  Significant work on draft writing should be underway, particularly that related to “Win Theming” and “Executive Summary” development.

Consultant Help

Bidders who believe their chances for an award could be enhanced by the help of a qualified consultant should call 703 689-9600.  Market activity is so fast this year, you don’t want to wait until the good consultants are taken. Oral Proposal consultants are in especially short supply.