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Modernizing Federal IT — The Path Forward

By Kay Ely, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Information Technology Category

IT modernization is one of the biggest challenges facing the federal government today — it’s a complex issue with a lot of moving parts. Fortunately, with the IT Modernization Report, Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act and its Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), and the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) and Cross-Agency Priority Goals, the stars are really aligned with support and tools to get the job done.

We’ve been talking about modernization for a long time and now, with all of this support and leadership, we’re in the best position I’ve ever seen to take on this challenge.

Here’s my take on what all of this means for agency partners.

IT Modernization Resources

Developed in response to Executive Order 13800, the Federal IT Modernization Report outlines an agile process to help the government harness American innovation to deliver better services to its citizens.

Additionally, the MGT Act authorizes agencies to tackle IT system modernization and establish working capital funds. GSA is also responsible for administering the TMF as part of the MGT Act through a project management office we’ve established. These funds are designed to:

  • improve, retire, or replace existing IT systems to enhance cybersecurity and to improve efficiency and effectiveness;
  • transition legacy IT systems to cloud computing and other innovative platforms and technologies;
  • assist and support efforts to provide adequate, risk-based, and cost-effective IT capabilities that address evolving threats to information security; and
  • reimburse amounts transferred to the agency from the TMF with the approval of each agency’s Chief Information Officer.

Further, the PMA lays out a long-term vision for modernizing the federal government across many fronts. One of the key drivers of transformation is updating and modernizing our legacy IT systems and networks. Helping the federal government adopt and acquire commercially available modern IT products and services is an important priority for GSA, and agencies rely on us to help them get there.

Cross-Agency Priority Goals

Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goals drive PMA implementation and tackle critical governmentwide challenges that cut across agencies.

ITC is directly supporting the following CAP Goals:

  • IT Modernization
  • Sharing Quality Services
  • Category Management
  • Federal IT Spending Transparency
  • Improvement Management of Major Acquisitions
  • Security Clearance, Suitability and Credentialing Reform

These goals drive what we do as the government’s acquisition experts, so we’re developing and refining acquisition solutions to address these areas.

Supporting IT Modernization

GSA is supporting governmentwide modernization in four ways.

  1. In partnership with the White House’s Office of American Innovation, GSA’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS) team is standing up IT Modernization Centers of Excellence.
  2. We are tasked, in whole or in part, with half of the 50 key initiatives identified in the IT Modernization Report.
  3. We are well positioned to support the operation and administration of the recently approved Technology Modernization Fund.
  4. We are making it easier to navigate the systems we use to serve our agency customers and help them with their IT acquisitions.

GSA is committed to leading the way to help modernize IT across government. We’ve created a multi-pronged strategy to enhance mission effectiveness and reduce cyber risks through a series of complementary activities between now and 2022.

Mission effectiveness activities include modernizing the IT stack by retiring legacy systems and embracing cloud through implementing cost-effective, cloud-based, commercial IT solutions.

Activities around reducing cyber risks include; managing asset security by implementing capabilities that provide observational, analytical, and diagnostic data of an agency’s cybersecurity; and protecting networks and data by implementing advanced protection capabilities. Another is helping government limit “personnel access” by implementing credential and access management (ICAM) capabilities that ensure users only have access to the resources necessary for their job function. Additional activities are outlined within the Modernizing IT CAP Goal action plan.

What Success Looks Like

To succeed, agencies should work toward several key milestones this fiscal year:

  • using new opportunities to drive foundational technology changes that will improve critical citizen services and increase efficiency by modernizing their networks as they shift to our Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract.
  • submitting their EIS Agency Transition Plans (ATPs) to OMB this fiscal year.
  • using the TMF and working capital funds to support their modernization plans.

GSA Resources

We have several resources that agencies can use to help them acquire and adopt modern IT products and services.

For example, GSA is home to the Technology Transformation Services (TTS), 18F, and the Centers of Excellence that can help implement modernization. We work with OMB and agencies to create acquisition solutions that support modernization efforts, many of which are Best-in-Class (BIC) solutions that produce 10-15 percent savings, so agencies can divert money into their working capital funds.

Some of GSA’s BIC solutions for IT modernization include:

We recognize that modernizing federal IT won’t be easy; it will take working together, sharing best practices, and using resources available to achieve the goals that the PMA has set.

Both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, from The Hill to the White House, have shown their support for modernizing the federal government, and I am confident that together we can collectively seize this unprecedented opportunity to make real and lasting improvements to federal IT.

Please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITC and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.

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Achieving IT Modernization Through EIS

Author: Crystal Philcox, Deputy Assistant Commissioner, IT Category

The federal government is in the middle of an unprecedented opportunity to modernize and create an infrastructure that works to help agencies deliver services to today’s workforce and the American people — that means more reliable, efficient, and mobile networks.

The Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract is specifically designed to help agencies achieve this goal. With its recent Best-In-Class (BIC) designation, agencies can leverage the contract to meet established goals to modernize their networks and deliver better, faster services as well as gain significant cost savings.

EIS Has Everything You Need: Complete Solution for IT Modernization

EIS isn’t just a telecom contract, its a total solution to help agencies modernize. Agencies benefit through cost savings and the ability to tap a common contract instead of cobbling together their own solutions. EIS can be used for managed services, security and telecom services — it has everything agencies need to modernize their networks.

Modernized networks mean higher bandwidth, better performance, and more network reliability. And, bandwidth is dramatically cheaper in modernized networks. Furthermore, modernized networks can embed cybersecurity features that adapt to changing threat models.

The potential savings with fully taking advantage of modernizing networks using EIS are huge. Because of the consolidated buying power we have under GSA contracts, we realized a savings with EIS prices that average 21 percent lower than our current contract, Networx. That’s real money that agencies can put back into application modernization or cloud migration.

To achieve the advantages of EIS through modernization, agencies should consider the following keys to success:

  • Make transition a high priority. Treat it as a critical project.
  • Modernize, wherever possible.
  • Budget for transition and modernization.
  • Ask for GSA’s help, as needed.

Next Steps

There are several opportunities for both agencies and industry to engage in this continuing conversation. Throughout the lead-up to transition, GSA has provided extensive assistance to help agencies prepare for this and we conducted educational sessions on how to structure solicitations so modernized networks can be purchased efficiently.  Over the past few weeks, we’ve spent more time with agencies listening to their concerns. What we heard was that a lot of agencies want to modernize, but need more time. We are interested in hearing from any agency that is experiencing that, or any, concern.

We’ve held workshops to help industry share their perspectives on how agencies can modernize legacy enterprise networks. Also, we’ve collected agencies’ forecasts of solicitations and provided detailed timelines to EIS contractors to help them plan their response strategies.

Industry has a significant customer agency outreach effort. EIS suppliers have scheduled numerous meetings with agencies to showcase their capabilities and how they can assist in modernization efforts. Agencies are also hosting “industry days” for the EIS supplier community.

In partnership with government, ACT-IAC has established the Transition/Modernization Working Group. All EIS suppliers and a significant number of agency representatives make up this important initiative.

On May 24, GSA is hosting a “Meet Your EIS Industry Partners Day” at GSA Headquarters. This will provide another avenue for agencies to meet and discuss their individual mission needs with EIS suppliers. We want agencies to come with their ideas about what they want to achieve through network modernization and talk to the EIS industry partners about those ideas and how best to get them done. Register here!

And on June 19, ACT-IAC is hosting an IT Modernization Conference focusing on how the transition from Networx offers an opportunity to transform and modernize legacy network architecture.

We encourage you to join us at these events and look forward to hearing your ideas on modernizing networks.

Please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITC and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.

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Strengthening Strategic Partnerships – Health IT

By Keith Nakasone, Deputy Assistant Commissioner, IT Acquisition

To do our job as the premier provider of efficient and effective acquisition solutions across government, GSA relies heavily on strong partnerships to provide our customers with faster, smarter, and better value IT solutions.

Recently, I participated in an industry day hosted by the Defense Health Agency (DHA). I attend these types of events because they bring executives, operations, and industry together in real-time to make important decisions at the speed of innovation.

Supporting and collaborating with DHA on their health IT industry day is just one way we continue to strengthen our partnership with them.

Gaining a better understanding of DHA’s health IT requirements, as well as how GSA fits in to its strategic plan as an acquisition solutions partner, helps us shape our solutions to drive mission success for DHA and other customer agencies.

DHA Reverse Industry Day

DHA also held a reverse industry day, with their industry partners covering innovative solutions through vendor think tank presentations on topics such as comprehensive IT tracking systems, standardizing medical device integration, cloud services, telehealth solutions, and cyber governance.

This integrated industry day helped DHA get to know the capabilities of providers on our Health IT Services Special Item Number (SIN) 132-56 on IT Schedule 70.

Our Health IT Services SIN helps agencies to easily find new partners and access emerging and innovative health IT services. The GSA Health IT Service SIN :

  • simplifies the process of procuring commercial health IT services,
  • provides cost savings through aggregated volume buying,
  • offers greater price-and-spend visibility, and
  • fosters competition while supporting small business.

Collaboration Leads to Solutions

Having these in-person engagements allows us to build our procurement solutions to better understand industry’s capabilities and agency requirements. All parties involved benefit from the knowledge exchange:

  • Agencies can share their forecasted requirements with industry,
  • Industry representatives can present their perspectives and capabilities to the acquisition workforce, and
  • GSA helps our agency customers acquire the solutions they need from industry.

It’s all about collaboration–beginning with knowledge sharing, which leads to problem-solving and ultimately an acquisition solution.

We plan on doing more collaborative events like DHA’s industry day. For us, attending and supporting these events underpins our mission of maximizing customer value and mission productivity through IT acquisitions.

If your agency is interested in hosting an industry day event, let us know so we can support and attend.

We welcome any feedback from our partners to continue improving these engagement opportunities.

For more information on collaborating with us, please visit www.gsa.gov/itc.

Please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITC and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.

Back row (left to right): Keith Nakasone-GSA ITC DAC for Acquisition; Jill Thomas-GSA ITC Div Director; Keith George-GSA ITC Contracting Officer; Karen Beyer-GSA CSD, Jane Scroggins-GSA ITC Branch Chief.
Front Row (left to right): Jackie Pinkston-DHA Chief J4 CAE Contracting Office; Tara Wetli-GSA ITC Contract Specialist; Pat Molina-GSA ITC Contracting Officer, Dr. Barclay Butler-DHA CAE

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GSA’s VETS 2 GWAC Open for Business

By Kay Ely, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Information Technology Category

Veterans Technology Services 2 (VETS 2) Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) is now open for business and ready to accept task orders.

VETS 2 is the only GWAC in the federal government set aside exclusively for Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB).  It’s designed to meet diverse agency IT services requirements, including new and emerging technologies. SDVOSBs are foundational to helping the government make important changes to modernize aging and legacy IT systems.  GSA is committed to ensuring we tap into their expertise through contracts like VETS 2.

Like its successful predecessor, VETS 2 provides agencies with access to customized IT solutions from a highly qualified pool of industry partners.  The original VETS contract helped participating SDVOSB businesses deliver $2.1 billion in services and solutions to the federal government. We’d like to match or exceed that on VETS 2.

In developing the new VETS 2, we performed an unprecedented amount of market research that centered around customer and industry feedback.  In addition to issuing a request for information (RFI) and draft request for proposal (RFP), we also surveyed hundreds of past and current GWAC ordering contracting officers, created a government customer working group, and used the feedback to enhance the offering.

VETS 2 GWAC highlights include:

  • Best-in-Class – VETS 2 is a Best-in-Class (BIC) contract designated by the Office of Management and Budget as a preferred governmentwide solution
  • Comprehensive Scope – VETS 2 meets a variety of diverse agency IT requirements, including new and emerging technologies
  • Flexible Contract Types – fixed price, cost reimbursement, time & materials, and labor hour orders are all allowed
  • Allows for Long-Term Planning – VETS 2 has a five-year base period and one five-year option period
  • Robust Contractor Pool – VETS 2 provides access to 70 highly qualified SDVOSB firms
  • Socioeconomic Impact – VETS 2 helps federal agencies support our veteran community while achieving their prime contract goals using SDVOSBs

IT Services Scope

In addition to common IT services that the federal government regularly purchases, VETS 2 also fulfills projects that require new or emerging IT services.

Scope includes, but is not limited to:

  • Data management
  • Information and communications technology
  • IT operations and maintenance
  • IT security
  • Software development
  • Systems design

We look forward to working with you through the VETS 2 GWAC as we continue our commitment to providing IT solutions with the ongoing help of the veteran community.

For more information, including how to order, please visit www.gsa.gov/VETS2 or contact us at VETS2@gsa.gov.

Please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITC and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.

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GSA’s Enterprise Mobility Program Continues to Drive Agency Benefits and Savings

By Kay Ely, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Information Technology Category

GSA continues to help shape governmentwide IT acquisition through our strong industry partnerships and collaboration with agencies across government. The operating principles of “Standardization, Simplification, and Savings” guide how we talk about, develop requirements for, and buy mobile products and services.

One of our more productive efforts is the governmentwide Mobile Services Category Team (MSCT). This cross-government group fosters effective collaboration and advancements among government IT and acquisition professionals through a membership base of almost 200 agency and 80 industry participants. Through the MSCT, we’re working with these stakeholders to improve and streamline how the government buys mobile technologies.

Established in 2015, the team consists of the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and State, as well as the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Shaping Governmentwide IT Acquisition

The MSCT’s mission is to advance adoption of mobile technology to support an agile and evolving government workforce. MCST helps government agencies learn from each other how to most effectively meet their missions and do their work securely, anywhere, anytime, and on any device.

The MSCT gives agencies the tools they need to implement various aspects of mobility more effectively and efficiently through:

  • Unified acquisition: Consolidates the number and variety of dispersed contracts to reduce life-cycle management costs and drive better volume discounts via existing government-wide solutions.
  • Improved information management: Simplifies management and enables centralized access to requirements, standards, and data to easily identify opportunities for cost savings.
  • Center of excellence: Uses best practices and collaboration across stakeholders to optimize performance and increase value.

GSA worked with the MSCT to build a library of resources available to government agencies. These new resources help federal buyers address a broad scope of mobile technologies and capabilities to include:

  • telecommunications expense management (TEMs)
  • virtual mobile infrastructure (VMI)
  • mobile device/enterprise mobility management
  • mobile identity management
  • mobile backend, and
  • mobile threat protection

Each resource includes a technology definition, service overview, and buying guidance that can be used for education, solution design, and acquisition support. Consolidating these resources will help agencies develop a mobile strategy that supports their purchasing.

GSA’s Contracts Drive Savings and Growth

GSA’s Mobility Team continues to increase savings for buyers in the mobile space through the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI). On average, GSA customers saved 26% in 2017 through FSSI Wireless solutions.

To drive more savings across the mobile category, we’re extending the FSSI Wireless Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) for six more months to November 2018.

This extension will help government agencies finalize their agreements this fiscal year.

As we plan for the next generation of buying tools for the wireless space, rather than develop a replacement for the current BPAs, GSA’s Enterprise Mobility Program is working with the MSCT to develop a Request for Quote (RFQ) engine that agencies can use to buy wireless services through existing contracts in a flexible, cost-effective, smart, and simple way.

We’re proud that federal agencies are getting great savings and results through the FSSI Wireless solution. We’re also thrilled with the work our GSA Enterprise Mobility Program is doing with the MSCT. The MSCT has set the bar for successful and productive cross-agency and industry engagement, demonstrating that government-industry partnerships and collaboration across agencies can help federal agencies meet their mission in government’s day-to-day mobile operations.

Want to know more? Visit the MSCT website.

Have questions or want to provide feedback? Contact wireless@gsa.gov.

Please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITC and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.

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Recent Successes Inspire Our Way Forward

By Kay Ely, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Information Technology Category

As the end of the year approaches, I’m full of pride looking back on the accomplishments of the Office of Information Technology Category (ITC) in 2017.

Our team has achieved best-in-class (BIC) designations on a number of important contract vehicles and we’re continuing to work towards BIC on others. We launched — or are on the verge of launching — a number of significant contract vehicles, including Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS), Alliant 2, Alliant 2 Small Business, and Veterans Technology Services 2 (VETS 2). We further advanced our offerings for cybersecurity, geospatial, wireless solutions, and many others.

Each of these efforts will help our customers accomplish their missions with greater efficiency and lower costs in 2018.

Since taking the reins of ITC, I’ve challenged the team to follow three guiding principles:

  • Achieve breakthrough performance
  • Be a catalyst for customer mission success
  • Shape government-wide IT acquisition

As we wrap up 2017, I’d like to share just a few stories of how ITC has done this, working with agencies and our industry partners.

Using Innovative Solutions to Achieve Breakthrough Performance

We recently completed our proof of concept to use Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to further enhance the Making it Easier FASt Lane proposal review process. DLT will allow us to automate many of the manual business processes and steps required to award a new IT Schedule 70 contract. Including time-intensive things like financial reviews and developing the pre-negotiation memoranda.

Using innovative technologies such as DLT will have a major impact on making it easier to do business with GSA. It will make the award process more efficient for new contract holders by not only reducing the award timeline but also decreasing industry’s burden. Additionally, we expect this to significantly lower the direct cost to award a contract. This is just one example of our breakthrough performance over the last year.

Helping Agencies Achieve their Missions

The Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Disaster Assistance (ODA) supported hurricane relief efforts. To achieve their mission, the team needed 1,000 laptops — and they needed them fast.

GSA’s IT hardware team quickly connected with the SBA to help. Our BIC Government-wide Strategic Solutions (GSS) Laptop/Desktop program, that offers pre-negotiated standard pricing for laptop configurations, was just what SBA needed. They placed the order for laptops in less than one week.

It resulted in a reduced delivery time of approximately two weeks and saved the SBA nearly $75,000. The order was awarded to an 8(a) small, women-owned business under IT Schedule 70.

SBA was so pleased with GSA’s price, performance, and quality of goods, they issued follow on orders for an additional 1,500 laptops and 2,140 monitors.

Shaping Government-wide IT Acquisition Everyday

The IT world is always changing, with advances in technology, shifting buying patterns and delivery methods, and a growing competitive landscape.  We strive everyday to improve how government buys IT.

In 2017, we made great progress with implementing category management. This has changed the way we operate and has helped us to better meet market demands, improve our operations, and enhance our customer solutions.

Everywhere you look in ITC you’ll see innovations in acquisition. We’ve baked in the ability to rapidly onboard new technologies into new contracts from the beginning. Startups are finding it easier than ever to deliver innovative solutions thanks to our Startup Springboard program.  And, our work to provide constructive input into the IT modernization process will help usher in a new era of modern government.

Paving the Way Forward

We’re leading the way in helping the government buy IT smarter. 2017 was an incredible year, marked by a number of important milestones — 2018 is looking just as promising.

Please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITC and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.

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GSA’s Startup Springboard Speeds Access for Small Businesses to Government

By Kay Ely, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Information Technology Category

Just a few years ago you’d be hard pressed to find a tech startup with a GSA contract.  But that’s a thing of the past, thanks in part to GSA’s innovative IT Schedule 70 Startup Springboard, which offers new and smaller IT businesses an easier and faster way to get a Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract.

What is the Startup Springboard?

An integral part of GSA’s Making It Easier initiative, the IT Schedule 70 Startup Springboard offers tech startups and young companies an alternative to the two-year professional experience requirement traditionally required of a company trying to get on a GSA Schedule.

With Springboard, prospective industry partners can use their executives’ professional backgrounds, key personnel’s project experience, and related financial documents to complete their IT Schedule 70 proposals.

Making It Easier

For years we heard from industry that the unique government requirement of two-years of corporate experience before becoming a schedule contractor caused problems for small businesses, and were particularly challenging for startups. Vendors had previously found it very difficult to navigate the complex path to getting on the schedule while customer agencies were not able to access the emerging technologies available in the market particularly from startups.

The Startup Springboard addresses our customers’ emerging technology needs by getting companies and their innovative solutions onto IT Schedule 70 and into the hands of customer agencies faster, increasing acquisition and operational efficiencies, providing greater opportunities for small businesses, and saving taxpayers money.

Success Stories

As of September 2017, 14 companies, 13 of them small businesses, have been awarded IT Schedule 70 contracts under the Startup Springboard initiative. Among them is Vricon, a provider of imagery solutions to the intelligence and military communities. Vricon had its first deal within a week of getting on IT Schedule 70: a $2 million contract with the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). And with $5 million in sales to the government to date, the young company quickly helped us prove the Springboard really does what it was designed to do: make it easier for new and innovative companies to start working with government.

Security Solutions Technology (SST) had only been in business eight months before joining IT Schedule 70 through the Springboard program. SST provides IT and cybersecurity services and solutions to federal, state, and local government agencies and has more than $1.8 million in sales so far.

Springboard has also helped HUBZone and certified veteran-owned small businesses (VOSB) and woman-owned small businesses (WOSB) get on IT Schedule 70. See the complete list of businesses now on IT Schedule 70 that went through the Springboard process at the end of this blog post.

Bringing it All Together

The success of the IT Schedule 70 Startup Springboard and our other tools is a direct result of our commitment to addressing longstanding concerns of industry partners and government agencies. We’re addressing our customers’ emerging technology needs by getting companies — and their innovative solutions — onto IT Schedule 70 faster.

For general information about the program, visit the IT Schedule 70 Startup Springboard page.

The following companies have been added to IT Schedule 70 via the Startup Springboard since the program began in April 2016:

  • Alpine Consulting Partners, LLC — providing computer systems design services
  • Cambridge Federal, LLC — a HUBZone VOSB providing IT and Investigations and Security (I&S) Security: providing commercial IT equipment, software, and services
  • Coffmatech — an economically disadvantaged minority woman owned small business (EDWOSB) providing commercial IT equipment, software, and services
  • Concept to Integration Technologies,LLC — a service disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) providing commercial IT equipment, software, and services
  • The Crevalle Group, LLC — providing commercial IT equipment, software, and services
  • Nala Digital Solutions, Inc. — a SDVOSB providing commercial IT equipment, software, and services
  • Planet Defense, LLC — a woman owned business providing commercial IT equipment, software, and services
  • Resilient Solutions 21 LLC — providing commercial IT equipment, software, and services
  • Security Solutions Technology ,LLC — a veteran owned a VIP-certified SDVOSB providing commercial IT equipment, software, and services
  • Spathe Systems, LLC — an 8(A), small business, and SDVOSB-certified business providing commercial IT equipment, software, and services
  • Tangent Technologies, Inc. — a woman owned SDVOSB providing commercial IT equipment, software, and services
  • TrussWorks, Inc. — providing commercial IT equipment, software, and services
  • Vricon, Inc. — providing commercial IT equipment, software, and services

Please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITC and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.

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Art of the Possible in Innovative Acquisition Solutions

(Note: This is a guest blog post by Keith Nakasone, Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Acquisition Operations within ITC in GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS). In this capacity, he oversees ITC’s acquisitions workforce.)

Over the past 25 years, I’ve learned that textbook or classroom education alone won’t do the job. Staying on top of the IT acquisition curve also requires staff to regularly use IT innovation labs, environments where bleeding-edge technology has been successfully used to solve day-to-day business challenges.

As we explore the Art of the Possible by using artificial intelligence (AI) within acquisition solutions, I took a small team to visit a company that develops and delivers AI capabilities. Exposing government acquisition professionals directly to new technologies helps our staff to more fully understand what AI can do. In turn, they can help program managers develop even better contracts to more effectively help deliver mission requirements and desired outcomes in government.

As we continue to build IT procurement vehicles, we recognize how important it is to understand the technology, what it can do, and how we can inject new and innovative solutions into our acquisition vehicles not only for now, but for the future.

Please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITC and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.

GSA’s Jasmine Alexander, Brendan Mahoney, Brian Whitaker, Giovanni Onwuchekwa, and Keith Nakasone visiting IPsoft in New York City.

 

Our staff was greeted by Amelia, IPsoft’s cognitive agent. According to our industry partner, Amelia can take on a wide variety of service desk roles and transform customer experience.

 

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Veterans Technology Services 2 (VETS 2) GWAC Awarded

If small businesses are the backbone to our economy, then veterans of the armed forces are the backbone of our country. Even after their sacrifices through military service, many veterans continue to serve our great nation by providing innovative information technology (IT) solutions to government.

GSA prides itself on delivering mission critical IT solutions that make a meaningful difference to the agencies we support and the citizens that count on them. This philosophy is at the center of our development of new IT contract vehicles and I’m proud that it played a vital role as GSA created our new Veterans Technology Services 2 (VETS 2) Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC).

VETS 2 – a unique acquisition vehicle

The new VETS 2 GWAC is a unique contribution to the federal acquisition community — the only GWAC set-aside exclusively for Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB). VETS 2 is designed to be flexible enough to meet diverse agency IT requirements, including new and emerging technologies. VETS 2 also enables GSA to continue its support of the SDVOSB Procurement Program, while helping federal agencies achieve their socio-economic goals.

Contract development at its best

Lessons learned from our original VETS contract played a big role in building VETS 2, as did extensive market research. In conjunction with issuing a request for information (RFI) and draft request for proposal (RFP), we also surveyed hundreds of past and current GWAC ordering contracting officers, created a government customer working group, and utilized a GSA Interact page to collaborate with more than 1,000 members from industry and government to design VETS 2. The result is a multiple award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract with a best-in-class designation and 70 of the world’s premier SDVOSB IT service providers.

What’s new with VETS 2

All of the team’s research and due diligence, coupled with VETS success resulted in a VETS 2 contract that is even better than its predecessor. New key features include:

  • The ability for cost-type contracts
  • An expanded scope for virtually any IT services-based solution – including cybersecurity and new, emerging technologies
  • An overall simplified contract through the elimination of functional areas – a simplified scope covering all IT services
  • A larger pool of suppliers — an even greater proportion of which now hold International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certifications, facility clearances levels, audited/approved cost accounting systems, and experience working with multiple agencies.

We couldn’t be more thrilled about the launch of VETS 2 as we continue our commitment to providing IT solutions with the ongoing help of the veteran community.

For more information, please visit www.gsa.gov/VETS2 or contact VETS2@gsa.gov.

Please follow us on Twitter @GSA_ITC and LinkedIn to join our ongoing conversations about government IT.

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OMB Marks More GSA Tech Solutions as “Best in Class”

GSA’s Office of Information Technology Category (ITC) received some exciting news at the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2017: five more of GSA’s Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) and one Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPA) based on IT Schedule 70 SIN 132-53 have been designated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as “Best-in-Class” (BIC).

BIC designations signal to the acquisition community that these vehicles meet rigorous category management performance criteria and confirm that we’re offering solutions and processes necessary to meet government’s IT requirements not just today, but well into the future.

The six new additions to ITC’s BIC offerings are all pre-vetted, governmentwide contract solutions supporting the governmentwide move to mature, market-proven solutions:

With these additions, GSA has a total of eight BIC IT offerings—our Government-wide Strategic Solution (GSS) Laptop/Desktop and IT Schedule 70’s Hardware & Software SINs were part of the first group OMB recognized in the IT category.

We see these new BIC designations, as proof that GSA is developing the programs and contracts that will shape and lead future IT category management efforts. What’s more, they’re evidence that we use taxpayer funds efficiently and productively, enabling our customers to better fulfill their missions.

BIC Benefits

How does BIC benefit government agencies?

BIC contracts are recognized as being “good-for-government” purchasing solutions which should be used by all agencies. To be named BIC, contract vehicles must satisfy five key criteria defined by OMB:

  1. Rigorous requirements definitions and planning processes
  2. Appropriate pricing strategies
  3. Data-driven strategies to change buying and consumption behavior (i.e., demand management)
  4. Category and performance management strategies
  5. Independently validated reviews

BIC GWACs

Alliant, Alliant SB, and VETS 2 GWACs offer fixed-price, cost-reimbursement, labor-hour, and time-and-materials task order types, providing greater flexibility in procuring a broad range of IT services. These solutions provide access to new and emerging technologies designed to help government agencies meet their mission requirements. Our BIC GWACS can also help agencies save between 4 percent and 19 percent on average. Again, GSA expects to award the second iteration of Alliant and Alliant SB (Alliant 2 and Alliant 2 SB, respectively), by the end of the calendar year.

BIC BPA

Our FSSI Wireless BPAs are based in GSA’s IT Schedule 70 SIN 132-53, which improves the procurement and management of wireless services across government. And the good news is that the market opportunity for government wireless services is currently estimated to be $945 million annually.

Going Forward

These BIC designations let agencies and industry know we are meeting our own high standards of customer service and acquisition expertise. Whether they are using contracts officially recognized as “Best-in-Class” or another solution, our customers and partners can expect the same quality and excellence in all of our products and services. As I wrote in an earlier blog, “We believe a BIC designation is not the end state, but rather an important milestone on a journey to help agencies improve their buying strategies.”

Learn more about GSA’s BIC designations on Acquisition Gateway.

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