by Dave Alexander, Lincoln Strategies, LLC
Are you writing a proposal for a GSA Schedule contract for professional services? If so, get ready to write GSA project descriptions.
How many will you need to write? How old can a project be to still qualify? Can you substitute personnel experience for corporate project experience? It depends. These and related questions are addressed in this article.
1. How many project descriptions per Special Item Number (SIN)?
In a few, rare cases, the answer is zero project descriptions per SIN. This option is available for “streamlined” offers. Very few companies qualify. It is limited to successful GSA contractors that are near the end of the final Option Period of their contract, and are seeking a new contract that covers the same Special Item Numbers (SINs) as the original contract. For these proposals, GSA waives the requirement to submit project descriptions.
Unless your firm qualifies for a streamlined offer, GSA project descriptions are definitely in your future.
For most GSA proposals for services, you will need to write 2 project descriptions for each SIN that is included in the proposal. For example, this rule applies to proposals for services under:
- All SINs in the Professional Services Schedule. This Schedule includes many of the formerly stand-alone GSA Schedules for services, such as MOBIS, Environmental Services, Professional Engineering Services, Language Services, Logistics Worldwide, and others. For all of the services SINs in each of these Schedules, the 2-projects-per-SIN rule applies.
- All SINs under many other Schedules, such as Travel Solutions (48) and Comprehensive Furniture Management Services (71-II-K).
- Almost all of the SINs in the Facilities Maintenance and Management Schedule (03FAC), the Scientific Equipment and Services Schedule (66), and the HR and EEO Services Schedule (738-X). There is one exception for each of these Schedules, as explained below.
- A few of the SINs in the Total Solutions for Law Enforcement, Security, Facilities Management, Fire, Rescue, Clothing, Marine Craft and Emergency/Disaster Response Schedule (84).
For GSA proposals for some Schedules and SINs, offerors are required to write 3 project descriptions per SIN. This rule applies to proposals for:
- SIN 561-002 (Water Based Fire Suppression System Preventive Maintenance and Repair Services), which is under the Facilities Maintenance and Management Schedule (03FAC).
- All of the SINs for services under the Information Technology and Services Schedule (70). This includes, for example, SIN 132-51 (IT Professional Services) and SIN 132-60f (Identity and Access Management Professional Services).
A tougher requirement applies for most services SINs under GSA’s Schedule 84: five project descriptions per SIN. Schedule 84 is commonly referred to as the Law Enforcement Schedule. (Its full title is “Total Solutions for Law Enforcement, Security, Facilities Management, Fire, Rescue, Clothing, Marine Craft and Emergency/Disaster Response.”)
The requirement for five project descriptions per SIN applies to all of Schedule 84 SINs that have a “246” prefix. Two examples are SINs 246-52 Professional Security/Facility Management Services and 246-54 (Protective Service Occupations).
There is also a special requirement for SIN 595-21 (“Human Resource Services”) under the HR & EEO Services Schedule. For that SIN, a proposal must contain 2 projects descriptions per sub-SIN. (This SIN is divided into 9 sub-SINs. A few examples are Recruitment and Internal Placement, Position Classification, Training, and Employee Relations. A proposal for SIN 595-21 can cover one, several, or all of the sub-SINs.)
For one of the SINs in the Scientific Equipment and Services Schedule (66) there is no numerical limit on the number of projects that must be described. This rule applies to SIN 627-50 (“Unmanned Vehicle Systems, Operations Support, Data Collection, Analysis, Reporting, and Related Services”). For that SIN, offerors are required to present descriptions for all relevant projects performed within the 24-month period preceding the submission of the proposal.
2. Can a single project cover more than one SIN?
In a nutshell, “yes.”
Let’s say that your proposal will include SINs 871-3 and 871-4, both of which are in the Professional Services Schedule. Your proposal will need to include 2 project descriptions that illustrate your experience in SIN 871-3, and 2 that illustrate your experience in SIN 871-4. If you have performed a project that illustrates your firm’s skills in both of these SINs, it can do double duty. This single project can be used to count as 1 of the 2 projects you will need for SIN 871-3, and can also count as 1 of the 2 projects needed for SIN 871-4.
If you have performed 2 projects each of which illustrates your skills in both of the SINs, then you can simply present these 2 projects to meet the requirement for both SINs.
The rule does not have any particular limit. For example, if you have a single project that illustrates your skills in each of 3 different SINs that are included in your proposal, then this single project can count towards the required number of projects for each of these SINs.
The ability to use 1 project description to illustrate more than 1 SIN applies to proposals for all of GSA’s Schedules and SINs.
Use this shortcut conservatively. Do not try to stretch the description of a single project so widely that it strains credulity. And when using a single project to illustrate skills in more than one SIN, be sure to use subheads within each section of the project description that you can. For example, in the section of the project description that describes tasks and results, be sure to include a separate subsection for each of the SINs. As another example, in the budget section of the project description, be sure to break out the budgets and amounts billed by SIN.
3. How old can the projects be?
For Schedules that require 2 projects per SIN, each project description must be for a project that meets one of the following 2 criteria:
- The project was completed within 2 years of the submission date of the proposal; OR
- The project is ongoing.
So, for example, if the project is slated to last for, say, 6 months, and by the time the proposal is submitted the project is in its 4th month, it would qualify. But for ongoing projects being performed under a contract with a Base Year and one or more Option Years, at a minimum the Base Year must have been completed by the time the proposal is submitted. And for projects that are based on multi-year task orders, at least the first year of the project must have been completed by the time the proposal is submitted.
As discussed above, a proposal must contain 3 project per SIN for SINs 561-002 (Water Based Fire Suppression) and 132-51 (IT Professional Services). For these SINs, each of the 3 project descriptions must meet one of the two criteria spelled out directly above.
And as noted above, for most of the services SINs under Schedule 84 (Law Enforcement, etc.), a proposal must contain 5 project descriptions per SIN. In this case, at least 2 of the 5 projects must meet one of the two criteria spelled out directly above. The other 3 projects do not. So, for these 3 projects, you could select:
- Projects that were completed more than 2 years ago; and/or
- Currently ongoing projects with Base and Option Years where you have not yet completed the Base Year.
Use common sense. If you use a project that is very old (say, completed more than 5 years ago), or a project that is so new that it doesn’t really prove your company’s skills (e.g., an ongoing project that is only a few weeks old), you are asking for trouble. A GSA Contracting Officer might not accept these projects—and probably with good reason.
4. Are substitutions allowed?
The RFPs for many of GSA’s Schedules provide what at first blush appears to be attractive relief for companies that want to submit a proposal but do not have the required project experience. Part of the instructions for the “project experience” section of the RFPs for many of GSA’s Schedules state:
If relevant project experience does not exist, the Offeror may substitute the relevant projects of predecessor companies or key personnel that will be performing major aspects of the work. If the Offeror chooses to make such a substitution, the narratives must clearly identify the entity or personnel that performed the services. (emphasis added)
I recommend caution in using such substitutions. If a company invokes such substitutions in its proposal, it can be very difficult to do so without contradicting a different part of the proposal. In particular, in the “corporate experience” section of the GSA proposal, the offeror has to certify that it has at least two years of experience in providing services within the scope of the Schedule.
In my opinion, invoking the project substitution provision is simply too dangerous. At minimum, it probably will cause the GSA reviewer of your proposal to doubt whether your firm truly has the requisite experience to justify the award of a contract.
In any event, the substitution provision is not available for any proposals under GSA Schedule 70 (IT) or Schedule 84 (Law Enforcement, etc.), nor for selected other SINs (e.g., for the Unmanned Vehicle Systems and Services SIN, in Schedule 66).
Note: The requirement in the “corporate experience” section to certify at least 2 years of relevant corporate experience is not required for SIN 541-4G (Challenges and Competitions Services), in the Professional Services Schedule.
5. What are the mandatory contents of each project description?
For most SINs under most of GSA’s Schedules, the required contents of each GSA project description are straightforward. Examples of required contents include:
- Administrative data (e.g., project budget and actual amounts invoiced; period of performance).
- Client information (e.g., name, telephone number, and e-mail address of the client). (Note: In my experience, GSA reviewers do not contact clients.)
- Technical information (e.g., descriptions of tasks performed and results achieved; overview of methodologies and tools that were used).
- Scope relevance information (i.e., description of how the project was similar in scope to the SIN that it supports in the proposal).
Some Schedules (e.g., the Professional Services Schedule) require offerors to include copies of the contractual statements of work underlying the project (i.e., the scope of work attached to the task order or contract).
For all Schedules and SINs, proposals have to include projects for which the client found the work to be satisfactory. Of course, even in the absence of such a rule, this makes common sense. There is no particular requirement to present tangible evidence of client satisfaction, although of course it also makes common sense to weave such information into each project description.
6. Which is more important: the scope or size of a project?
In my opinion, when selecting projects for the “project experience” section of a GSA proposal, it is always more important to consider the scopes of the candidate projects than their size.
For example, let’s say that you are selecting projects to use to illustrate your firm’s experience in professional IT services—SIN 132-51 under GSA’s Information Technology Schedule (70). Let’s further assume that among the projects you are considering, Project Candidate A, with a total budget of $25,000 was 90% within the scope of this SIN, and Project B, with a total budget of $500,000 was 70% within scope. I would favor Project A over B for inclusion in a GSA proposal, despite the fact that the latter project clearly involved a larger absolute amount of IT professional services than did the former.
7. Resonance with other parts of the GSA proposal.
A Past Performance Evaluation Report (PPER), prepared by Open Ratings, Inc. (ORI) is a mandatory part of every GSA proposal. Offerors are required to submit a copy of the PPER, along with a copy of the Order Form. This Order Form will list the names and organizational affiliations of each client reference to which ORI sent a Past Performance Survey. The list of client references on the Order Form typically ranges from about 8 to 20.
It always makes sense to ensure that the list of client references includes all of the client references for the projects included in the project experience section of the proposal. For some GSA Schedules, this is a formal rule. But whether it is formally stated or not, this rule should always be followed. This will have an impact on the sequencing and timing of the development of the proposal. I always encourage my clients to nail down the list of specific projects to be presented in the project experience section of the proposal before we finalize the list of references to be included on the Order Form that is sent to ORI.
In addition, it is important to coordinate the “corporate experience” section of the proposal—a relatively brief narrative—with the “project experience” section. In my opinion, the former should explicitly mention several of the specific projects included in the latter. This will help add cohesion to the proposal.
About the author:
Dave Alexander is the Principal of Lincoln Strategies, LLC. He helps service providers and manufacturers enter and thrive in the federal government market. He has helped many types of service providers—software and hardware firms, advertising and public relations agencies, engineering and architectural firms, management consulting firms, environmental firms, and others—obtain GSA Schedule contracts. He can be reached at (978) 369-1140 or da@LincolnStrategies.com.