DHS officials detail plan to unify IT acquisitions

The Homeland Security Department Tuesday began the process of consolidating $6 billion worth of information technology acquisitions into two programs with the purpose of creating a departmentwide IT infrastructure.

Addressing industry representatives in Washington, DHS Chief Procurement Officer Greg Rothwell said the consolidation will create a support services program known as EAGLE and a commodities initiative called FirstSource. The programs will bring the eight procurement shops in DHS under one roof, he said.

Two requests for proposals will be sent out for the new programs, according to Rothwell. Comments on a draft RFP issued for industry are due by Aug. 26. The RFP will run for five years with two one-year optional extensions. The value of the RFP will be determined on how well the plan is executed, he said.

Both procurements will be awarded in multiple indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts.

DHS Chief Information Officer Scott Charbo said the programs will focus on improving security, leveraging IT infrastructure and advancing shared services.

"We'll be looking for results," Charbo said.

The DHS Information Technology Acquisition Center within the department's Office of Procurement Operations will oversee the contracts. EAGLE is being carried out with a partial small business set-aside and FirstSource will be a 100 percent small business set-aside.

The FirstSource contracts will include IT equipment, software, networking equipment, imaging products, voice recognition technology and online data reporting services. EAGLE will provide services ranging from engineering design, operations and maintenance, testing, software development and management support services.

Rothwell said "time will tell" which current purchasing vehicles will fall by the wayside since he cannot predict which companies will win awards under the new programs.

The contract is "mandatory for consideration," said Rothwell, to a ripple of laughter from the audience. He explained that he meant that DHS does not want to jeopardize DHS's mission by forcing department offciials to purchase merchandise for incompatible systems. After the program gets under way, it will become "more mandatory," he said.

The first contracts will be awarded in the first-quarter of 2006. The agency does not anticipate any discussion on the awards, said Mike Smith, the contractofficer for FirstSource.

Smith said the department is looking for easy ways to buy IT commodities and wants to set up a Web site similar to Amazon.com, where items can be picked out and purchased, with this one using government charge cards.

Rear Adm. Ron Hewitt, chief information officer for the Coast Guard, said integrating the agency's IT infrastructure is necessary if it is to perform its mission. A 45-day plan focusing on the fiscal 2007 budget is guiding the consolidation.

In response to the announcement of the two programs last week, an industry expert said that change will give Homeland Security more control over technology purchases and allow it to avoid supply schedules and interagency agreements.