The Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM) provides assisted acquisition services for federal agencies. Housed within the U.S. General Services Administration’s (GSAs) Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) – Office of Assisted Acquisition Services (AAS), FEDSIM consists of nearly 300 employees, providing acquisition, financial, and project management support for the full acquisition life cycle.
This blog is intended to demystify FEDSIM, exploring what it is, how it operates, and what customers are most frequently using FEDSIM for procurement.
What is GSA FEDSIM?
FEDSIM has run several notable large-scale opportunities, including the U.S. Department of State’s $810 million ceiling value Consular Affairs Enterprise Infrastructure Operations (CAEIO) contract and task orders for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s CDM Dynamic and Evolving Federal Enterprise Network Defense (DEFEND) program.
The office is known for their rigorous procurement process. FEDSIM has gained a reputation for awarding contracts less often to incumbent contractors compared to other procurement offices, demonstrating their effort to lessen incumbent-bias in the bid evaluation process. Likely due to their conscientious approach, FEDSIM boasts a 99%-win rate against protests.
What U.S. Government agencies are using FEDSIM?
Figure 1 – Top 10 Federal Customers using FEDSIM by action ($M) obligations, FY2017-FY2021
Source: USAspending.gov
According to data from USASpending.gov for the past five fiscal years, the top customers that use FEDSIM to run procurements, by action obligation, are defense agencies. These agencies include the U.S. Army, Air Force, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Navy, and U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM).
When considering what customers are using FEDSIM, by number of opportunities, the results are similar, with defense customers utilizing FEDSIM most frequently.
Figure 2 – Top 10 Federal Customers using FEDSIM by number of opportunities, FY2017-FY2021
Source: USAspending.gov
This pool of defense work is well reflected in FEDSIM’s organization—the office is organized into seven components, five of which focus on defense agencies (Army, Air Force, DoD, Geographic Combatant Commands, and Navy).
However, it’s also important to note that some federal civilian agencies have used FEDSIM to run procurement for a number of their opportunities. These agencies include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
What do typical FEDSIM opportunities look like?
According to the same data, when looking at the total number of FEDSIM opportunities, nearly 40% of them are firm fixed price opportunities. This is followed by nearly 24% of opportunities designated as cost plus award fee contracts.
By examining families of NAICS and PSC codes most often used for FEDSIM opportunities, we can see that FEDSIM-run opportunities tend to procure the following types of services:
- Program management services
- IT and telecommunications services
- Special studies and analysis
- Computer system design services
- Professional engineering (systems engineering, other non-architectural & engineering) services
Figure 3 – Top 5 NAICS and PSCS families used on FEDSIM opportunities, by action obligation, FY2017-FY2021.
Source: USAspending.gov
Sample of FEDSIM contracts
Select high value FEDSIM-run procurements for defense and federal civilian agencies include the following:
| Customer | Sample of Contracts | Contract Ceiling | Services Provided |
| Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) | CDM Defense Group Awards | $3.4B (combined among six awards) | Delivery of cybersecurity tools, integration services, and dashboards |
| Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) | Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Organization (JIDO) Focused Support/Decisive Effort (FS/DE) Task Order | $326M | Analytical operations, intelligence, and training services |
| Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | EPA End User Support Contract | $320M | IT End user support |
| U.S. Department of State | Consular Affairs Enterprise Infrastructure Operations (CAEIO) | $810M | Enterprise IT support |
| U.S. Department of the Air Force | Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) | $347M | IT support, cyber analytical services and intelligence |
| U.S. Department of the Army | USACE Revolutionary Information Technology Services (RITS) | $1.3B | Enterprise IT support |
Figure 4 – Sample of recent and large contract awards made by GSA FEDSIM.
The FedSavvy Strategies takeaway
- Known for the rigorous manner in which it runs procurement and for its nearly comprehensive win rate against protests, FEDSIM provides an attractive alternative for procurement for federal agencies.
- The top customers that use FEDSIM are defense agencies, including the U.S. Army, Air Force, DTRA, Navy, and USSOCOM. The top federal civilian agencies using FEDSIM include DHS’s CISA and the EPA.
- Although DoD agencies appear to make the most use of FEDSIM, a range of agencies have leveraged the FEDSIM office to run large-scale, high-profile procurements including the CISA CDM DEFEND programs, DoS CAEIO, and USACE RITS to name a few.
- From past FEDSIM opportunities, FEDSIM appears to focus mostly on procuring opportunities that provide IT services, professional support, engineering support, and research or analysis support.
Stay tuned to the FedSavvy Strategies blog for a follow-on analysis of who wins from GSA FEDSIM.
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