Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

The devil’s in the details as GSA seeks to consolidate the Multiple Award Schedules

By

The General Services Administration (GSA) will use the coming year to determine what its recently announced consolidated schedule will look like, according to the official leading the effort.

GSA announced in November the consolidation of 24 multiple award schedules into a single contract vehicle that federal agencies can use to purchase a range of more than 10 million products and services. Each year, agencies purchase about $30 billion worth of products — ranging from office supplies to various IT services — through GSA’s 24 schedules.

“Over this year, we’ll start the consolidation of the MAS program,” said Stephanie Shutt, director of the MAS Program Management Office, speaking at a recent GSA industry day.

Shutt said an integrated project team consisting of MAS members and officials from various acquisition centers and portfolios is doing much of the early work. This team will help make crucial decisions that could shape the single schedule.

For example, Shutt said they are reviewing all existing terms and conditions and determining where overlap exists among special item numbers, which generally categorize the kinds of good and services available. One goal, she said, would be to get rid of redundant or duplicitous conditions.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/12/devils-details-gsa-seeks-consolidate-multiple-award-schedules/153638/

DISA only wants tailored pitches from vendors

By

The Defense Information Systems Agency — the warfighter’s IT shop — is very interested in hearing what solutions and capabilities industry has to offer, but only in the context of how those technologies can be applied to the military’s specific needs.

“We tend to break capabilities that work in industry. I’ve seen it time and time again over the years,” Dave Bennett, director of DISA’s Operations Center, said last week during the annual Forecast to Industry.  “If you come in and you try to sell me on widget XYZ and you want to cite a scenario where you used it in industry … I will zero my mind out. I will be singing ‘la-la-la’ in the back of my head. Because what you did in industry, nine times out of 10 will not apply in my space.”

Instead, Bennett urged vendors to come armed with specific knowledge of the DISA environment they’re looking to support and a direct pitch on how their solution would benefit the agency and the warfighter.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2018/11/disa-only-wants-tailored-pitches-vendors/152587/

How to leverage the government’s focus on transformation

By

Vendors with truly transformational technologies may soon find more receptive ears in the public sector, as senior IT executives wrestle with topics from acquisition reform to creating an environment that will attract the workforce of tomorrow into today’s government.

In late August, a number of public and private sector officials met in DC for a series of brief conversations on government IT and procurement, focusing on transformation. These conversations considered how to use innovation for everything from protecting critical assets to reforming acquisition methods.

Three key conversations dealt with how to consolidate procurement schedules, collaboration for technology modernization, and making government more attractive to younger prospective employees.

Keep reading this article at: https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2018/09/14/insights-shaker-government-transformation.aspx

Software review provisions proposed by Senate Armed Services Committee could have significant impact on DoD contractors

By

As the Senate approaches the end of its debate on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2019, provisions of the bill regarding access to and review of information technology code deserve close attention.  These sections, if enacted, would significantly impact Department of Defense contractors and also would affect matters associated with investments subject to review by U.S. national security agencies.

As drafted, the provisions could expose current and prospective contractors to intrusive scrutiny and significant risks.  They lack clarity on key definitions, leaving the precise scope of those risks unclear.  We summarize major issues and concerns below.  We expect these provisions to receive scrutiny during the House-Senate conference on the NDAA over the summer.

Synopsis of the Proposed Legislation

Three sections of the Senate’s version of the NDAA, which passed the Senate Armed Services Committee in May, would establish new rules designed to mitigate “risks posed by providers of information technology with obligations to foreign governments.”  Those risks involve the access that foreign governments may have to code in products or services that are offered to the Department of Defense.  The provisions also impose new disclosure requirements on the efforts of a prospective vendor to obtain a license under the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) or the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (“ITAR”).

The pending legislation would require proactive disclosure of those matters, and would impose an ongoing duty to supplement those disclosures during the period of performance on the contract.  The Secretary of Defense would be authorized to assess and mitigate any resulting national security risks through contractual provisions or other performance requirements.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2018/06/senate-armed-services-committee-proposes-expansive-unclear-software-review-provisions/

Industry fears new telecom contract on path to repeat past transition delays

By

Agencies have just under two years to move to the new governmentwide telecommunications contract called Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions.

While this may seem like a lot of time, vendors and other industry experts are warning the General Services Administration that the current 11-year-old Networx contract may need to be extended.

Crystal Philcox, GSA’s deputy assistant commissioner for IT Category in the Federal Acquisition Service, said GSA is confident that agencies will have time to transition to EIS and modernize their IT infrastructures at the same time.

“What’s not on the table right now is just extending current contracts, extending legacy capabilities and not modernizing, and then asking for an extension. I think that’s something we are not interested in,” Philcox said in an exclusive interview with Federal News Radio. “We are continuing to really listen to agencies and we have a lot of venues to do that. We have been working with them, talking with them, listening closely and I think for those agencies that are really trying to rethink, trying to modernize and move off those legacy systems, we are interested in hearing how much time that will take and what we can do to help with that.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/contractsawards/2018/06/industry-fears-new-telecom-contract-on-path-to-repeat-past-transition-delays/

Advancing threats necessitate new approach to DoD technology acquisition

By

The global ubiquity of technology means that U.S. military superiority is becoming more challenging to maintain. Players large and small have access to sophisticated technology that can quickly match the United States’ capabilities in many areas.

Remote monitoring technologies, battlefield communications hardware, network infiltration devices and tactical weaponry are among the groups of unprecedented tools that will continue to advance adversarial threats if the process for more rapidly identifying and implementing new capabilities does not change. Although adversarial warfighting innovations are becoming more commonplace in defense forces around the world, the Defense Department is expanding the use of highly effective collaborative methods to help bridge its technological gaps and advance its mission.

The Time Lag of Traditional Acquisition

The old way of doing business for the Pentagon—with large companies bidding on contracts that can take years to complete—simply cannot move quickly enough to meet the threats that the U.S. is facing today and will face into the future. Whereas many private-sector enterprises can simply vet and purchase tools as soon as they become available on the market, federal government agencies like Defense are not afforded the same luxury.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/ideas/2018/06/advancing-threats-necessitate-new-approach-defense-technology-acquisition/148699/

While agencies scramble to spend, SEWP may help

By

The end-of-year spending spree is set to begin in about a month, as the federal government heads into the last quarter of fiscal 2018. And agencies still have tens of billions of dollars to spend on information technology products and services.

As it has in past years, much of that spending will go through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V. Historical contract spending data shows that the vehicle has been heavily used at the end of the fiscal year and customers are likely to turn to it again as fiscal 2018 wraps up.

Bloomberg Government’s analysis shows about $30 billion to $35 billion in remaining IT contract obligations likely to be awarded by the end of September. IT contract obligations are on pace with those of fiscal 2017, but agencies have more money to spend this year.

Keep reading this article at: https://about.bgov.com/blog/agencies-scramble-spend-sewp-may-help/

Georgia National Guard wants some help prepping for a big cyber test

By

The Georgia Army National Guard is gearing up for an inspection of its cyber posture and is looking for a contractor to provide technical assistance as it prepares.

The guard unit plans to upgrade its IT systems ahead of the review and needs assistance with “network configuration, server administration and information assurance,” according to a solicitation on the government contracting site FedBid.

“The objective of this contract is to provide skill and expertise in order to successfully pass the [Command Cyber Readiness Inspection],” according to the performance work statement. “This work will be performed to bring the [Georgia Army National Guard] into compliance with current DOD network security standards.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2018/05/georgias-national-guard-unit-wants-some-help-prepping-big-cyber-test/148190/

$17.5 billion defense IT contract award survives four protests

By

The 20 companies awarded a place in November on the Defense Information Systems Agency’s $17.5 billion IT services contract, ENCORE III, will get to keep their spots, the agency recently announced.

The award survived protests from Data Systems Analysts, NCI Information Systems, Peerless Technologies Corporation and Planned Systems International. The companies filed their protests with the Government Accountability Office in November; all four were dismissed on Feb. 21.

The protest decisions from GAO are under a protective order and awaiting redaction before being released to the public.

See the names of the 20 companies and keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/03/175-billion-defense-it-contract-awards-survives-four-protests/146738/

GSA awards first wave of contracts in White House’s IT overhaul

By

The General Services Administration on Wednesday announced awardees of the first round of contracts to support the White House’s IT Modernization Centers of Excellence.

GSA issued awards to support each of the five pillars in the administration’s IT modernization efforts: SIE Consulting Group for cloud adoption; McKinsey & Company for IT infrastructure optimization; ICF Incorporated for customer experience; Kaiser Associates for contact center; and ICF Incorporated for service delivery analytics.

Beginning with the Agriculture Department—the testbed agency for the first centers of excellence—the groups will develop strategies to tackle issues within their respective spheres, creating best practices so other agencies can quickly follow suit.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/03/gsa-awards-first-wave-contracts-white-houses-it-overhaul/146678/

Contracting News

Read More

Contracting Tips

Read More

GTPAC News

Read More

Georgia Tech News

Read More