GSA solicits input on IT contracts worth $65 billion
Agency modifies requests for proposals to fit more closely with OMB plan for government technology investments.
The General Services Administration on Thursday released a draft request for proposals for its long-delayed Alliant and Alliant Small Business contracts, two governmentwide information technology vehicles together valued at $65 billion over 10 years.
The draft RFP is the second to be released for this work; GSA first announced the two Alliant contracts in early 2004 and issued a draft proposal in March 2005. The procurement dragged on through delays and leadership changes, however, and the agency decided to reassess, leading to a February 2006 announcement of new plans for the contract.
Under the revised schedule, the public has until June 30 to submit comments on the draft RFP, and a final version will be published in October for contract award by summer 2007, according to GSA announcements. The draft RFPs, along with other documents for the contract, are posted on the FedBizOpps Web site, with additional information on GSA sites dedicated to the main contract and small business component.
The primary Alliant contract, worth $50 billion, will be awarded to 25 to 30 companies in full and open competition, according to a statement announcing the new draft RFP. The small business contract, worth $15 billion, will be awarded to 40 to 60 companies
"Alliant will increase government efficiency and effectiveness, providing the flexibility to support daily operations, infrastructure protection, anti-terrorism initiatives, development and marketing of emerging technologies," said John Johnson, GSA's executive in charge of the contract.
"To the best of our knowledge, the $15 billion Alliant SB [contract] is the largest ever federal set-aside contract for small businesses," he added.
The new requests have been modified to align more closely with the Office of Management and Budget's federal enterprise architecture, a still solidifying system designed to harmonize federal IT investments, as well as with Defense Department technical requirements.
The contracts also have been reworked to allow GSA to certify and decertify vendors over the five base years and five-year option period of the vehicle's life. This change is expected to improve the accuracy of the small business listings, as it would assist the agency in tracking the certification status of businesses and reflecting changes that result from the growth or sale of participating companies.
GSA has said it is seeking feedback on subjects including how the contract aligns with those specification systems, the alignment of labor categories with industry practices, the minimum order sizes specified and overall clarity.
John Okay, a former GSA senior official and now a partner at Vienna, Va.-based Topside Consulting, was pleased with the new draft. He said organization around the federal enterprise architecture gives it more structure than the previous version, as does the listing of services under three major headings of IT infrastructure, application services and IT management.
"I think [the draft RFP] fits well into the way agencies are buying and will buy in the future, which is relying on contractors to provide complex solutions and to provide the integration services, rather than agencies themselves serving as the systems integrator and buying components one at a time and trying to put them together themselves," Okay said.