(EPA IT SOLUTIONS BUSINESS INFORMATION STRATEGIC SUPPORT SERVICES III (ITS-BISS III)

Peter Adam

On March 10th the EPA issued new presol material concerning a dramatic reconfiguration of ITS-BISS III requirement.  Its budget’s down — from $.5B to $140 million.  The functional areas have been modified and the draft SOW resembles an SOO rather than a detailed program description.  This Multiple-Award IDIQ’s TOs will have hybrid pricing.   Functional Areas include:

  1. Integrated Program Support Services (IPS), and
  2. Independent Assessments and Support (IAS) Services.

And, bidders must be prepared to perform all required tasks and deliver all required items and deliverables.  This is for a one-year contract with four, one-year options.

12 contract awards are anticipated, for work now done by seven companies:  Ace Information Systems, Blue Canopy, XLA, Booz Allen, Project Performance and CSRA.

The final RFP for this F&O with a partial SBSA is expected to drop soon.

SOW What?

The Draft SOW is brief; contractors will have to prepare detailed solutions.

Fortunately, Greg Godbout, EPA’s former CTO,  a high profile, US Government IT Savant, has provided guidance.  Methods which contractors, vendors and government agencies can use to ensure IT system optimality can be found on the website of 18F Digital Services Unit (DSU), an operation that Mr. Godbout founded.  Its address:  https://18f.gsa.gov.

That’s What — Meeting the Government IT Challenge

Bidders would do well to take this to heart and study Mr. Godbout’s check list, which covers the following:

  1. Project Management (Modernize and Practice Lean and User Friendly Systems)
  2. Technical Architecture (Collaborate and Reuse)
  3. Pilot and Data Visualization (Climb the Learning Curve)
  4. Agile Acquisition and Vehicle Support (Scale and Adapt).
  5. EPA Innovation Fellowship (Talent and Continuous Improvement)

See detail at: https://playbook.cio.gov/

New Team, New Approach – Heavy Lifting Ahead

If the EPA ITS-BISS III presol material is any indication, the new administration in DC is serious about cutbacks in non-defense programs , and, agencies will be increasingly disinclined to provide detailed SOWs and PWSs — instead  they’ll require RFP respondents to rely on SOOs.

Fortunately, for those in the IT realm, particularly bidders to be on this particular contract, have the aforementioned additional guidance to rely on.