Security agency to award millions in contracts to small businesses

The National Security Agency could award as much as $350 million in work to small businesses over the next six years under a new contracting vehicle.

The intelligence agency, based in Fort Meade, Md., recently established an indefinite-quantity/indefinite-delivery contract, known as the NSA Set Aside for Small Business. The contract will be used to buy information technology equipment and various other training and business support services from more than 160 small businesses.

Under this type of contract, vendors are pre-approved to sell services and equipment to federal buyers at set prices on an as-needed basis. Contracting experts say these agreements make it easier for agencies to buy the goods they need at better prices. Vendors on such contracts typically offer lower prices because they have the chance to win millions of dollars of work.

NSA set the contract for six years with a value of as much as $350 million. The contract established 14 business alliances, made up of more than 160 companies that can compete against one another for the work. Each of the alliances is headed by a small business member from the Washington D.C.-Baltimore region.

The set-aside contract is the agency's latest step in reforming its acquisition process and attracting new companies to work with. Citing security concerns, NSA has traditionally relied on only a handful of contractors. But agency officials found that practice drove up prices and limited industry innovators from working with them.