Would like to hear some feedback on anyone who has used GSA OASIS, specifically for A&AS  to see what were your successes and failures.  Is it a preferred method?  Ease of use?  Does your local policy make it mandatory?  Thanks in advance!

What's good:

- The contract has everything and the kitchen sink on it.  In December 2003, the Combined Joint Task Force 7 got into hot water for using the GSA FSS to purchase interrogation services.  They should have used OASIS (sarcasm).

- With the number of large and small businesses, you should never have a hard time getting a quotation. 

- Variation in businesses.  There are lots of different small businesses and variation in small businesses to meet your agency's small business goals.

- The tiered fee schedule makes it great for agency's that place large orders.  0.75-percent is industry standard.  OASIS drops down to 0.1-percent if your order amount is high enough.

 

Not so good:

- OASIS is a GWAC, which means you need to provide fair opportunity to all contract holders.  With so many vendors, for non-esoteric services, the number of quotations you receive for A&AS could be high.  You need to create a down-select for your evaluation methodology.  Otherwise, you will have to evaluate twenty quotations, which is not fun.  On a procurement I issued, we had 17 quotations and we used a down-select to drop to 5.

-   Lack of flexibility with repetitive purchasing.  You cannot setup a blanket purchase agreement, basic ordering agreement, or indefinite delivery contract.  Only task orders.  The best you can do for repetitive purchasing is a task order with options. 

- Prices:  I have found other GWACs, such as GSA Alliant, to be more competitive in terms of price.  Your results may vary.

 

 

I've used it a few times. One challenge is that you have to go through training in order to receive the Delegation of Procurement Authority (DPA) from the OASIS team. One other aspect is that you can issue direct awards on OASIS. The OASIS Ordering Guide states that the OASIS SB contract also authorizes the OASIS OCO to choose to issue a direct award to a HUBZone, SDVOSB, or 8(a) contract holder, as authorized by statute (see FAR 16.500(b) and 6.302-5(b)). Please follow specific FAR and Agency guidance in making direct awards.