The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s is preparing to release a draft solicitation for its multi-billion-dollar Professional and Technical Support Services contract (Pro-Tech), which will include set-asides for small businesses.

      It is one of the largest professional services acquisition vehicles anticipated this year, with a value of $3 billion, according to Deltek.

      The contract has five domains: Ocean, Satellites, Fisheries, Weather and Enterprise Operations. Each domain has been assigned a NAICs code for the purpose of assigning a size standard for small businesses:

• Ocean - 541690 - $14 million;
• Satellites - 541712 - 500 employees;
• Fisheries - 541690 - $14 million;
• Weather - 541712 - 500 employees;
• Enterprise - 541611- $14 million.

      NOAA’s Office of Acquisition and Grants’ website indicates that the Pro-Tech draft and final solicitations are anticipated in Spring 2014 and multiple awards are to be made in Spring 2015.

      Pro-Tech will be mandatory for NOAA, which has a total contracting budget of about $1.2 billion a year.

      In a notice last year, NOAA said it planned to reserve the majority of Pro-Tech contract awards for small businesses.

      NOAA has a strong track record with small business contracting. In fiscal 2013, the agency spent 47.8% of its contracting dollars on small companies, Mitchell Ross, director of acquisition and grants at NOAA, said at a recent industry event. The goal for fiscal 2014 is 49%, he added.

      Pro-Tech is one of NOAA’s efforts to boost efficiency during a time of flat budgets by reducing the number of transactions.

      In 2009, NOAA had 18,000 acquisition transactions. By 2012, the number of transactions had dropped to 12,500, Ross said.

      Another major solicitation at NOAA anticipated soon is NOAALink/Small Business. Contractors are wanted to provide services to NOAA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer. NOAA is offering a series of training sessions on NOAALink through June.

More information:
NOAA Pro-Tech information: http://www.ago.noaa.gov/acquisition/pro-tech/10_pro-tech.html
NOAALink information http://www.cio.noaa.gov/NOAALink/index.html