The far-reaching strategy to improve the way government acquires communications and information technology infrastructure services — know as Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) — may soon become a reality. EIS is planned to be the new contract vehicle offering telecommunications and IT solutions. EIS will provide voice, video, and data transport services, as well as hosting services, cloud services, call centers, associated labor services, cable & wiring, and network and security equipment.

EIS is designed to provide continuity for the Networx and the Regional Local Telecommunications Services contracts, referred to as a Local Service Agreements (LSA) as they expire and to meet the demand for new and emerging services. A draft request for proposal (RFP) for the EIS program was issued February 28, with the final solicitation originally expected in July. However, GSA received more than 1,600 comments prompting the release to be pushed back until later this month, possibly as early as Sept. 25. A pre-solicitation notice was posted on FedBizOps on Sept. 10 which is required at least 15 days before the official solicitation is released.

Existing Regional LSA contracts will be negotiated and awarded extension periods of performance ranging from four (4) months for the shortest extension to up to four (4) years and six (6) months for the longest extension, with all ending on or before May 30, 2020. The purpose of the extension period is to facilitate a smooth and carefully managed transition to the EIS contracts, that are expected to be awarded in the fall of 2016.

Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions Implementation

EIS is designed to reduce the barriers to entry for potential offerors by allowing a larger pool of service providers for the expected 15-year EIS program life.

GSA intends to achieve this, in part, by eliminating the mandatory ubiquitous (geographic coverage) requirements. Instead, GSA will use Core-Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) to define coverage areas. In addition, staggering agency implementations will support strategic deployment of GSA and contractor resources and expertise to assist agencies. The three-year LSA extension and transition period will also give agencies the flexibility to balance internal resources between transition activities and other agency priorities.

Going forward, GSA will work with agencies and industry in transition planning for Networx and expiring regional contracts prior to award of EIS. In fact, GSA has already begun inventory analysis and validation on all expiring contracts. With the target award date by the end of 2016, GSA anticipates issuing a Notification to Proceed to successful offerors by January or February 2017.

Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions Incumbents and the Competition

One way to evaluate potential competitors and teaming partners is to look at which company is winning the most work. Knowing which companies have been successful and who have high customer satisfaction ratings will aid in making a decision about whether or not you can compete and win.

A search of the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS), shows that AT&T leads in both the ceiling value of task orders awarded under Networx (more than $1.2 billion) and reported spending on those awards (greater than $760 million), while Verizon had the highest volume of task order awards (more than 6,700).

What to Do Next

There are a number of issues and pre-RFP release activities potential bidders need to consider. Transition of services is so high on the list of GSA concerns, they are prompting agency to start planning now.  In fact, GSA has encouraged agencies to identify key personnel, including a senior transition sponsor, lead transition manager, and transition ordering contracting officer to draft an Agency Transition Plan.

According to GSA, agency transition planning began Q2 2014 with an Inventory Validation. Overlapping and beginning Q2 2015, agencies began developing their respective plans to transition services with an anticipated completion date of all plans by Q3 2016. With the award of the EIS contracted expected sometime in Q4 2016, Fair Opportunity Decisions will be made during the first quarter of 2017. Transitions must be completed no later than the end of Q2 2020. Marketing and business development groups should be addressing these tasks with customers, and program and proposal personnel should be planning for the transition, as well.

Another area of concern is cyber security. Government agencies continue to increase the demand for secure, reliable communications that ensure data integrity. Since the release of the draft RFP, security requirements in several areas have been enhanced and augmented to reflect current market usage, increase flexibility for agencies when buying cyber security services. Vendor engineering and network operation groups should be prepared to meet more rigid requirements than those in the past.

The technical evaluation criteria will be straight forward in assessing an offeror’s approach to meeting mandatory requirements. The offeror’s approach to mandatory services will be evaluated with respect to four Technical factors:  1) Technical Approach, 2) Management Approach, 3) Past Performance, and 4) Subcontracting.

Price evaluation will be done in six steps to determine compliance in two areas: Mandatory Services; and, Optional Services.

Mandatory Services will be evaluated to ensure the offeror has met the minimum CBSA compliance qualification – CBSA requirement for at least 25 of the top 100 CBSAs. Next, a detailed evaluation of CBSA dependent services will be performed. If prices are found acceptable for at least 25 of the top 100 CBSAs, the evaluation will proceed to Step 3. The third step will determine award candidates; only these candidates may proceed to Step 4 for evaluation of optional services.

To Bid or Not to Bid Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions

A major consideration in the Bid / No Bid decision is determining whether or not your company’s current and target customers use Networx. A current or target customer’s preferences can help determine what type of contract vehicles will enhance your opportunity to increase business. For example, FPDS data shows that Networx has been widely used across the government, with 46 department-level buyers. Defense customers make up the majority of awards and spending on the program, followed by Veterans Affairs (VA). In terms of reported spending on Networx, AT&T is the top vendor with the VA, Treasury, USMC and USAID; Verizon is the top vendor with Army, DoD, Air Force, DOJ and DOT; and, Century Link is the top vendor with the Navy.

For questions, contact John Cook at 703 689-9600 or jcook@ociwins.com.