In early April, the Army released the long-awaited Marketplace for the Acquisition of Professional Services (MAPS) solicitation. This solicitation has been in the works for years and has gone through several iterations before reaching its final form. Shortly before the solicitation was released, the Army published several changes to the draft solicitation, which are critical for prospective contractors to understand. In this blog, we’ll cover what the MAPS Solicitation is, what the recent changes were, and what’s happening with the solicitation now.
As the name implies, the Marketplace for the Acquisition of Professional Services solicitation is a contract for Professional and IT services supporting the Army and other Department of Defense (DoD) agencies. MAPS is a multiple-award, Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, and is a follow on and combination of two previous IDIQs: the ACC-APG Responsive Strategic Sourcing for Services (RS3) and Product Lead (PL) Digital Market’s Information Technology Enterprise Solutions – 3 Services (ITES-3S).
MAPS has 5 service domains:
The ordering period for MAPS consists of one 5-year base period and one 5-year option period.
Before releasing the final solicitation, Army Contracting Officers released a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) which included several changes from the previous draft. Some of the most significant changes were an increased number of awards, updated vendor classifications, and clarifications on Joint Venture proposals. The Army also released the first Amendment to MAPS, which we’ll cover below.
In the latest draft, the number of awards expected was raised from 50 per domain to 70 per domain, for a total of 350. Of these awards, 30 will be for large businesses, 25 will be for small businesses, and 15 will be for commercial-sector vendors. Out of the 30 large business awards, 15 will be reserved for Emerging Large Businesses. While 70 per domain is the intended number of awards, the solicitation notes that the government reserves the right to adjust that number up or down without limit. Additionally, the business size allocations may change if there are not enough eligible businesses of each size.
Another major change to the solicitation involves vendor size classifications, specifically, the definition of “Emerging Large Businesses” and “Commercial-Sector Vendors”. Emerging Large Businesses are defined as businesses who have become other-than-small in the past five years and have less than $250 million in average annual revenue over the last five years. This expands the definition from the previous solicitation draft, which had a limit of $50 million in average annual revenue.
Commercial-Sector Vendors are defined as businesses who have not performed a government contract or subcontract for other than “commercial services” within the past 4 years. The definition was updated to reflect that vendors who have never performed any government contracts or subcontracts are also considered Commercial-Sector Vendors.
These changes were made to more clearly define the vendor classifications and allow for a more competitive pool.
The final solicitation added clarifying language regarding Joint Ventures. It specifies that members of a Joint Venture (JV) can propose to each domain as either a JV or an individual offeror, not both. In other words, a company cannot hold a base contract in the same domain as both an individual entity and as part of a JV. The final solicitation also added language clarifying requirements for SBA-approved Mentor-Protégé Joint Ventures. Any requirement that can be satisfied by the managing partner of a standard Joint Venture can be satisfied by the mentoring partner of an SBA Mentor-Protégé Joint Venture. Additionally, the definitions of JVs, populated Joint Ventures and Mentor-Protégé Joint Ventures were updated to provide greater clarity.
The MAPS solicitation was formally released on April 1, and offers are due May 1, 2026, at 5:00 PM EDT. All offers must include a cover letter, scorecard, and qualifying projects demonstrating past performance, and large businesses are required to submit a small business subcontracting plan. Contractors must submit a separate proposal for each domain but can reuse the cover letter and qualifying projects between proposals.
The Army also released the first amendment to MAPS. The due date has remained the same, but there were some changes to the solicitation, especially as it relates to the Qualified Project (QP) dates and the rate scoring structure. The most important change to note is the QP reference date is now set at 3 years, so only projects with performance completed on or after May 1, 2023 can be used.
This could impact whether you use a project for past performance, so it’s important you review all the changes in this amendment. Detailed instructions and all required attachments can be found on the opportunity listing on SAM.gov. Awards are expected sometime in late summer, but that timeline is subject to change.
Now that the Army MAPS Solicitation has formally been released, it’s crunch time for any contractors who want to submit a proposal. If you have questions about Army MAPS, or other government contracting opportunities, reach out to us. One of our skilled consultants will be happy to help.