Procurement Acquisition Support Services The Portfolio Action Tracker (PAT) is a transparency tool that can be used to monitor and review the real-time status of NASPO ValuePoint portfolios. Click here to view Status

The field of Acquisition has undergone considerable change in the last few years.  This is attributable to many factors including the necessity to research and implement strategies to realize cost savings due to an austere economy and advances in the use of technology and ability to collect and analyze data.  Even the way acquisition is perceived has changed.  It has become a high-level strategic function rather than a lower level process function.

 The intent of this procurement is to contract Acquisition Subject Matter Experts to supplement current lack of knowledge and expertise in any one or many areas of the acquisition lifecycle and not intended to be utilized to provide staff augmentation services.  For this request for proposals, use of “acquisition” refers to acquisition expertise.

Services expected include acquisition planning assistance, including market research and recommending procurement strategy; acquisition document development including cost/price estimates, quality assurance surveillance plans, statements for work, synopses, solicitations, price negotiation memoranda, etc.; expert assistance in supporting proposal evaluations, including price/cost analysis or technical proposal analysis; contract administration support services, including assistance reviewing contractor performance, development contract modifications, and investigating reports of contract discrepancies; contract close-out assistance; competitive sourcing support, including strategic sourcing studies; privatization studies, public-private partnerships. 

Services may be required in any phase of the acquisition life cycle phases shown below.

The State of Hawaii’s State Procurement Office (SPO) on behalf of the participating NASPO ValuePoint states plans to establish a vendor list for acquisition support services. The objective is to provide a wide range of professional acquisition support services to Hawaii and any of the other forty-nine states (that choose to participate) in the areas of planning and market research; pre-award and source selection; post-award contract management; policy support; category management; and vendor performance review planning.

The sourcing team is made of representatives from Virginia, Nebraska, Montana, and Hawaii.  A request for information was published in December 2016 to which twenty-seven companies responded.  In February 2017, an industry day has held and fourteen of the twenty-seven companies attended.  In reviewing the responses to the RFI and industry day discussions, the area of expertise is IT for many of the companies.  Additional research included reviewing GSA contracts for professional services in acquisition management support.  The GSA list is made up of 387 contractors. 

The labor categories in this solicitation were developed using a variety of market research tools, including GSA acquisition support services reference numbers and researching small, medium and large firms across the nation. 

Cooperative contacting allows states to collectively leverage their spending through a single solicitation that obtains best value pricing and superior contract terms.   The team has put together a solicitation that emphasizes the best value from its contractors considering price, quality, reliability, warranties, and service while protecting states’ interests with favorable terms and conditions.  This will be a first for participating states to receive the services that support what we do every day, an acquisition that results in stellar contracts!