BPA | The Contracting Education Academy

October 24, 2018 By AMK

FBI drops full and open competition for $5 billion IT recompete

The competitive pool for the FBI’s $5 billion IT commodity and services contract has been shrinking throughout the year and recently got even smaller.

Rather than hold a full and open competition for spots on the Information Technology Supplies and Support Services contract, also known as ITSSS or IT Triple-S, the bureau announced that spots will be awarded to vendors that already hold contracts on the General Services Administration’s IT Schedule 70.

Bureau contracting officials have been scaling back the contract as they’ve gathered market research through requests for information and industry days. After initial rumors the contract would be split into multiple parts for services like cloud computing and cybersecurity, the bureau announced in April that ITSSS would remain a single contract made up of multiple tracks.

The track structure remains in the latest revision, however, the blanket purchase agreement will now only include vendors with pre-vetted tools and services being offered on Schedule 70, further narrowing the competitive pool.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/10/fbi-drops-full-and-open-competition-5-billion-it-recompete/152031/

March 9, 2017 By AMK

Navy officially adopts GSA reverse auctions acquisition platform

The Department of the Navy, looking for more efficiency in its acquisition process, has adopted the General Service Administration’s Reverse Auctions eTool to increase savings on commonly purchased office products, equipment and services.

Signing a memorandum of understanding on Jan. 18, 2017, the two parties have extended a longstanding partnership for reverse auction procurements, where sellers compete to win business from agencies with prices decreasing as the competitive auction progresses.

The eTool can be used to facilitate the request for and submission of quotes, offers or proposals for products, services and solutions through GSA Multiple Award Schedules and Blanket Purchase Agreements and Open Market (non-schedule) acquisitions.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/articles/navy-officially-adopts-gsa-reverse-auctions-acquisition-platform

August 30, 2016 By AMK

Why agile is still so hard for the government

Getting more of the federal government to buy agile technology services will be anything but quick, analysts say.

Transition to Agile In the past couple years, pockets of the federal government have tried to promote agile software development, a process in which customers and coders work closely on small chunks of larger tech projects, rapidly spinning out and testing prototypes.

One example is the General Services Administration’s tech consultancy team, 18F, which debuted a pre-approved list of vendors who specialize in this methodology; other groups, including the Homeland Security Department, are following suit. Many private-sector tech recruits, including members of 18F, have made it their mission to eliminate the waterfall approach, in which a product’s requirements are decided upfront and then revisited, often years later, after launch.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2016/08/government-has-way-go-agile/131034

June 7, 2016 By AMK

Homeland Security wants its own contract vehicle for agile services

The Homeland Security Department wants to jump on the agile bandwagon for its mobile and Web applications.

DHS eventually wants to award one agencywide contract to a business that can provide digital design and development, according to the department. For now, it’s gathering information on the best way to award contracts for “agile services,” which use a project management process that breaks large technology projects into smaller sprints.

The request for information about agile services comes a few months after the General Services Administration awarded 17 vendors a spot on its own agile blanket purchase agreement — a pre-approved list of businesses qualified to provide digital development services to other agencies.

Other agencies and departments are not required to use GSA’s agile BPA, which has been halted at least twice by protests from vendors not chosen to be on it.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2016/05/dhs-wants-its-own-contract-vehicle-agile-services/128644

February 5, 2016 By AMK

GSA takes the easy way out to solve contracting challenge

The General Services Administration’s choice to create a blanket purchase agreement for Salesforce cloud integration and support services on the surface seems logical.

It’s a widely used platform — according to a simple search on USASpending.gov website there have been 227 contracts worth more than $61 million since fiscal 2011— and one that needs more structure and control across government.

“The marketplace for Salesforce implementation and integration services was fragmented and had some disparity in there,” said David Shive, GSA’s chief information officer during a press call on Jan. 20. “When we looked, we saw there were no established quality standards for Salesforce development. We saw there were inexperienced vendors that were winning with new Salesforce customers, but sometimes had some dubious results coming out from those inexperienced vendors. We saw there was inconsistent delivery of code and configuration from agency to agency. There was failed implementations that was negatively impacting adoption of the tools and the processes surrounding those tools. And we saw that some vendors were rebuilding the same apps for the same agency and were developing closed systems in an otherwise open environment.”

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2016/01/gsa-takes-easy-way-solve-contracting-challenge/

The competitive pool for the FBI’s $5 billion IT commodity and services contract has been shrinking throughout the year and recently got even smaller.

Getting more of the federal government to buy agile technology services will be anything but quick, analysts say.

The Homeland Security Department wants to jump on the agile bandwagon for its mobile and Web applications.

The General Services Administration’s choice to create a blanket purchase agreement for Salesforce cloud integration and support services on the surface seems logical.

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