$5B training RFP moves closer to release

The General Services Administration is readying a pair of solicitations for a contract likely to have a ceiling of $4 billion or more.

The request for proposals for the Human Capital and Training Solutions contract will released on May 19 with a reward expected by the end of 2015. The contract will be replace the Office of Personnel Management’s Training and Management Assistance Support contract.

The new contract goes by the acronym HCaTS, which makes me think Hellcats, so hopefully the contract will have a great logo.

Fun logo or not, HCaTS will consist of a small business vehicle and a large business vehicle. Companies will compete for task orders to provide human capital support and planning in three key service areas:

• Training and development services
• Customized human capital strategy services
• Organizational performance improvement

The draft RFP for HCaTS was released this week and goes into details about the scope of work that will fall under each of those three service areas.

For example, a chart breaks down components of Customized Training and Development Services into services such as training program management support, technical skills and knowledge training, career development and management and general skills and knowledge training development and coaching. There are similar charts for each of the key service areas.

The contract likely will attract a large field of bidders. The current TAMs contract has 32 prime contractors and was awarded in 2007, according to Deltek. It continues to operate under a bridge contract. Eleven of those companies have pulled in more than $100 million in task orders.

Booz Allen Hamilton leads the way with $885.8 million, followed by SRA International with $479.3 million and Deloitte with $333.1 million.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

• IBM ($288.3 million)
• Serco ($273.4 million)
• C2 Technologies ($156.9 million
• Federal Management Partners ($151.3 million
• Carney Interactive ($128.7 million)
• Human Technology ($119.5 million)
• Center for Organizational Excellence ($118.4 million
• ICF International ($116.4 million)

In total, the TAMS has pulled in $3.6 billion in task orders, and a bridge contract has pulled in another $403 million, according to Deltek. The estimate for HCaTS is $5 billion over five years.

It is worth noting that the TAMS contract hit is peak from 2010 through 2012. 2010 saw $739 million in task orders awarded; 2011 was $636 million, and 2012 was the biggest year at $838.1 million.

2013 saw a significant drop with $237.9 million, and 2014 was only slightly higher with $254.2 million.

All government agencies will be able to use HCaTS and can use a wide variety of contract types including fixed price, cost-plus, time and materials, and labor hours.