Optimal Solutions Group, L.l.c

Optimal Solutions Group, L.L.C. (doing business as Optimal Research Group), a minority-owned, self-certified small disadvantaged business headquartered in Berwyn Heights, Maryland, delivers research, program evaluation, and data-driven analysis services to the federal government as a prime contractor (99% of recent awards) under General Services Administration contract vehicles and agency-specific indefinite delivery vehicles. The firm operates predominantly in the Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services NAICS category (92 awards) with secondary work in Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (18 awards), and competes full-and-open across multiple agencies rather than under set-aside designations, though several of its IDVs are designated Total Small Business.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward civilian civilian agencies, with the top five funding agencies by potential value accounting for approximately 95% of combined ceiling across all awards. The Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences dominates the value ranking with six awards carrying a combined $2.03 billion potential value, primarily the Procurement of Research Evaluation and Statistics Task Orders (PRESTO) multiple-award IDIQ with a $2 billion ceiling awarded February 28, 2023. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration ranks second with $500.4 million across five awards. The Department of Labor's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy contributes $99 million across two awards, including a single-award Blanket Purchase Agreement with a $99 million ceiling established September 5, 2023. By award count, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services leads with 29 awards ($52.8 million combined potential value), followed by the Small Business Administration Office of Performance Management and the Chief Financial Officer with 24 awards ($29.5 million). The vendor serves 31 distinct customer agencies across education, health, labor, homeland security, small business development, and commerce sectors.

Optimal Solutions Group holds seat positions on six major indefinite delivery vehicles: the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (68 task orders, $179.8 million combined potential value), a $99 million Department of Labor BPA for evaluation and research services (single award, running through September 2028), the $2 billion Department of Education PRESTO IDIQ (multiple award), a $30 million Department of Homeland Security BPA for Program Analysis and Evaluation services (single award, total small business set-aside, through January 2028), an $8 million General Services Administration Office of Performance Management and Chief Financial Officer BPA (through April 2028), and a $9.9 million Department of Defense Office of the Secretary BPA for Section 508 web conformance SaaS (single award, through September 2027). Representative contract work includes a $4.38 million delivery order under PRESTO from the Institute of Education Sciences for technical advisory services developing standardized report and table production protocols (awarded July 1, 2024, performance through February 10, 2025), a $798,975 definitive contract from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for housing insecurity research support for the American Housing Survey (awarded September 30, 2024, performance through October 29, 2026, invoiced $455 thousand against 0.8 FTEs in FY2025), a $989,761 BPA call from the Department of Defense Chief Financial Officer for evaluation capacity building labor support (awarded September 30, 2024, performance through May 6, 2026), and a $2.99 million definitive contract from the Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences for assessment division support task services (awarded June 1, 2022, performance through August 31, 2023).

Activity has been uneven in recent years: eight awards in 2022, ten in 2023, seven in 2024, two in 2025, and five through August 2026. Combined recompete exposure in the next twenty-four months is minimal — only two awards with $899 thousand combined potential value face ultimate completion inside that window. On the SCI-reportable federal services contract subset (contracts above the $150,000 reporting threshold), the vendor invoiced $5.1 million across FY2022–FY2025, with peak invoicing of $2.5 million in FY2023 against 6.0 FTEs and a trailing FY2025 level of $1 million against 3.8 FTEs. Government-paid hourly rates on SCI-reportable prime contracts run a median of approximately $162.93 per hour, with senior labor pricing through $303 per hour at the 90th percentile; the GSA labor portfolio spans 37 unique categories from Support Services Specialist at $72.19 per hour (high school, two years' experience) through Subject Matter Expert at $347.03 per hour (PhD, eight years' experience), with no security-cleared roles offered. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, the vendor performed approximately 96% of contractor hours in-house, with an average subcontractor share of 4% and six named subcontractors reported; the vendor operates as a self-performing prime rather than a feeder to larger contractors.

The firm's corporate background, per source material, reflects registration with SAM.gov since 2003 and demonstrated capacity across federal research, evaluation, and analysis work spanning education, small business development, homeland security, commerce, labor, and health and human services sectors. Its positioning as a minority-owned small disadvantaged business with a significant seat on high-value civilian IDVs — particularly the $2 billion PRESTO vehicle and $99 million Department of Labor BPA — establishes it as a substantive player in federal evaluation and research services, though its recent award trajectory and SCI-reported staffing suggest operational scale in the low-to-mid single-digit FTE range on SCI-reportable contracts rather than a large staffing operation.

Innovative and rigorous small public policy research firm (founded in 2000) located at the University of Maryland's Discovery District. Multidisciplinary staff of 60+, majority with advanced degrees. Has completed over 100 prime contracts domestically and 25 task orders in 28 countries for USAID. Four major research centers in health, education, housing, workforce development, and an international practice, an analytics practice and a Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Focus is on enabling Real-Time Data-Driven Decision Making leveraging technologies. Software products include research and data science software, Revelo and ecommerce platform.