Glossary / Contracts
Multiple Award ContractMAC
Multiple Award Contract (MAC) is a generic term for any contract, typically an IDIQ, in which multiple vendors receive a prime position from which they compete for future task or delivery orders. Examples include multiple-award IDIQs, multiple-award Schedules, and multiple-award BPAs. MAC structures balance competition (task-order mini-competitions) with speed (no new source selection required). FAR 16.505 governs task-order competition under multiple-award IDIQs, including the 'fair opportunity' requirement.
Why it matters to your pipeline
A MAC seat is an annuity asset: once on, you have years of access to task-order competitions against a limited field. MAC on-ramps are competitive and infrequent, so missing a cycle can keep you out of that work until the next on-ramp, which may be years away. MACs also trigger specialized capture disciplines: short-duration proposals, recurring past performance citations, and tight pricing games among a small pool of informed competitors.
When this term shows up in an opening GovSmith finds for you, your vCM explains what it means for that pursuit and does whatever it calls for. You decide; we do the work.
Example
An agency issues a 5-year MAC to 12 prime holders. Task orders totaling $1.2B flow over the period. Each task order is competed only among the 12 primes. A firm winning one of those 12 seats competes for a much smaller pool than it would in the open market.
Find out what applies to you
Some terms will matter to your business right away and some won’t for years. A vCM can tell you which are which.