The Department of Health and Human Services’ National Institutes of Health (NIH) is preparing to launch the next iteration of the Chief Information Officer – Commodity Solutions (CIO-CS) Government-wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). This 10-year, Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, with an estimated ceiling value of $20 billion, is a key vehicle for federal agencies to procure cutting-edge information technology (IT) commodities and solutions, encompassing a wide range of health, life sciences, and general IT initiatives.
CIO-CS At a Glance
- Solicitation Date: Estimated in May 2024.
- Award Date: Estimated in April 2025.
- Duration: 60 months base period with a 60-month option.
- Competition Type: Full and Open / Unrestricted and Partial Small Business Set-Aside.
- Expected Awards: Multiple, exact number unknown.
Scope in Detail
The CIO-CS scope of work includes deploying technologies in two models: On-Premise, where products are deployed onsite, and Managed Services, reflecting the market trend towards cloud services. The contract categories span across:
- End User Hardware and Software, including laptops, desktops, and operating systems.
- IT Security Software like anti-virus programs.
- Enterprise Performance Management Tools, encompassing database management and performance monitoring systems.
- Health and Biomedical Research IT Capabilities, such as laboratory information systems.
- Infrastructure services including enterprise servers and storage solutions.
- Telecommunications plans and services.
Get a Competitive Edge: Start Preparing Now
Too many proposals end up coming down to the wire, creating far more stress for your proposal team and yielding a sub-par final product. The best way to avoid the proposal scramble is to start planning now.
- Win Themes Development: Start or finish your win themes now. Developing win themes the right way is a capture task not a proposal task. Working through the Win Themes process will likely identify holes in your customer knowledge, win strategy, or teaming solution. Working through the win themes process early allows you time to recover and fill your holes prior to the final RFP release. Win Strategy Workshop for U.S. Government Bids
- Competitive Analysis, PTW, and Teaming: Finalizing critical capture tasks need to take center stage. Likely, you already have performed an initial analysis, but it’s time to finish and start making critical decisions based on the analysis. A Black Hat and PTW exercise can provide the missing insights as you work to finalize your team. Performing these tasks in conjunction with developing Win Themes will greatly increase your Pwin. Competitive Analysis and Black Hat to Win for U.S. Government Bids | Labor Rate Analysis and Price to Win for U.S. Government Bids
- Solution Development: Looking forward to an eminent RFP release will help focus on the things that will be critical to winning. Do you have super start key personnel identified with a signed letter of intent (LOI)? Are the resumes updated and customized to these requirements? Do you have past performance staged and customized for yourself and your partner companies? Do you have a CONOPS or one in progress? The list of elements to start working on now goes on and on, but the more we can start working on now, the better the proposal will be. Capture Management Consulting for U.S. Government Bids
- Expert Guidance: Look ahead to one critical element of capture that often gets overlooked: identifying the personnel needed to finish capture, start the proposal off on the right foot, and develop a winning proposal. Finalize your proposal team and get working on these things. Our team’s expertise in IT solutions and federal contracting fills the gaps needed for developing a winning proposal. Proposal Management Consulting for U.S. Government Bids
OST Global Solutions is a professional business development consulting firm. We have extensive experience in winning large, strategic bids like CIO-CS. We can provide capture and proposal teams to develop a complete, winning proposal. Or we can provide consultants on a case-by-case basis to fill gaps on your business development team. Our services related to CIO-CS consist of team identification/negotiation, capture management, win strategy consulting, Black-Hat and price to win (PTW) services, proposal management, pricing, color reviews, proposal writing, editing, and desktop publishing.
Upcoming Bid & Proposal Academy Classes
Desktop Publishing for Proposal Professionals
OST Global Solutions Virtual Classroom MD, United StatesGovernment proposal desktop publishing teaches valuable skills in designing, laying out Government proposals in MS Word. Present your company’s offer in the most professional light to Federal evaluators. The course covers tools and features MS Word offers to the desktop publisher, and shortcuts to increase speed and efficiency. It covers color palette and styles, tables of contents, headers and footers, and elements of design to ensure your proposal is attractive.
AI-Enhanced Advanced Proposal Management
OST Global Solutions Virtual Classroom MD, United StatesThis class covers the spectrum of the most important topics, from preparing for a proposal effort and making a bid-no-bid decision, to orchestrating a great proposal kickoff, driving subject matter experts to produce winning content, exhibiting superb leadership and team management skills, managing conflict, setting the right expectations, optimizing proposal team performance, getting the most from the proposal color reviews, and mitigating proposal risks at every stage to reduce stress and increase your proposal’s Pwin. The course also focuses on measuring and improving cost-efficiency and effectiveness of the proposal team.
How to Develop a Compliant Proposal with AI Support
OST Global Solutions Virtual Classroom MD, United StatesA compliant and high-scoring proposal starts with a well-thought-out outline. This course dives into the intricacies of developing proposal outlines, annotating these outlines, preparing compliance and cross-reference matrixes, and preparing storyboards or work packages the right way. It starts with analyzing different types of Requests for Proposal (RFP) and Requests for Quote (RFQ) formats to show how various customers may organize the requirements.
