GSA | The Contracting Education Academy

January 16, 2019 By cs

Air Force turns to GSA pilot for DevOps platform

The Air Force is looking for an innovative DevOps platform to seamlessly integrate into its current environment and is tapping a General Services Administration pilot program to avoid having to go through the arduous processes set forth in the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

The Air Force — through a joint program between AFWERX, the Air Force Research Lab and Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center — is using GSA FEDSIM’s Commercial Solutions Opening, or CSO, pilot program to solicit bids from startups and private sector innovators who haven’t worked with the government in the past.

Rather than abiding by the FAR, which can often take months or years to get through the step-by-step solicitation process, the CSO process allows the contracting agency to issue a request for innovative solutions and fund multiple lines of research and development at the same time. This “opportunistic model,” as described by the Pentagon’s Defense Acquisition University, is used for non-FAR-based contracts, like those issued using other transaction authorities.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/01/air-force-turns-gsa-pilot-devops-platform/154024/

December 24, 2018 By cs

DHS turns to existing GSA, NIH contracts to (mostly) replace EAGLE

As with a number of major IT vehicles this year, the Homeland Security Department is tossing out plans to recompete a central IT services contract and is instead opting to rely on governmentwide acquisition contracts beginning early next year.

Rather than recompete the Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading-Edge Solutions, or EAGLE II, for a third generation, Homeland Security officials announced last week a transition to a broader acquisition strategy they’re calling EAGLE Next Gen. The strategy will tap a set of existing contracts to build a suite of IT services offerings for use across the department. Homeland Security officials also expect to compete targeted contracts to supplement niche mission needs.

In a determination made Dec. 17, Chief Procurement Officer Soraya Correa said as of Feb. 4, Homeland Security components will purchase IT services off of six GWACs managed by the General Services Administration and the National Institutes of Health: GSA’s Alliant 2 and Alliant 2 Small Business, 8(a) STARS II, VETS 2, and NIH’s CIO-SP3 and CIO-SP3 Small Business.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/12/dhs-turns-existing-gsa-nih-contracts-mostly-replace-eagle/153731/

December 6, 2018 By cs

IG shines light on GSA’s major management challenges

The General Services Administration faces significant management challenges — including recovering costs and filling critical positions — as it attempts to become the government’s “premier provider of efficient and effective acquisition,” according to the agency’s inspector general.

The agency’s many initiatives to improve procurement have left customers trying to use tools that don’t work and facing delays in critical projects like the transition of agency telecommunications to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract.

These and other management and performance challenges were identified by the GSA Office of Inspector General in a report released Monday.

The agency reported a net loss of $8 million in 2017 to its Acquisition Services Fund, a revolving fund that is supposed to cover costs and operating expenses of the Federal Acquisition Service’s business units, including the Office of Information Technology Category and the Technology Transformation Services. To better review expenses and billable work, the agency shifted TTS and the tech group 18F in 2017 under FAS after previous reports that 18F wouldn’t be in the black until at best fiscal 2018.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2018/12/ig-shines-light-gsas-major-management-challenges/153256/

December 4, 2018 By cs

Contractors face new data breach disclosure and investigation requirements

The government’s lead contracting agency plans to formalize how and when contractors are required to disclose data breaches and to mandate better government visibility into how serious those breaches are.

The proposed rule will mandate that the General Services Administration (GSA) and the agency that’s being served by the contract have access to breached contractor systems, according to a regulatory roadmap set to be published in the Nov. 16th edition of the Federal Register.

Contractors will also be required to preserve images of the affected systems for the government to review, the roadmap states.

The proposed rule is scheduled to be published in February with a comment period that closes in April.

Contractors have frequently been a weak point for federal cybersecurity efforts.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2018/11/government-contractors-face-new-data-breach-disclosure-and-investigation-requirements/152864/

December 3, 2018 By cs

GSA will rollout schedules reform plan through fiscal 2020

The General Services Administration’s sweeping plan to consolidate 24 acquisition schedules into a single vehicle will play out over the next two years and will offer contractors a standard set of terms and conditions, officials said in a conference call last week.

GSA administrator Emily Murphy said the plan, which will condense the agency’s Multiple Award Schedules program into a single portal offering products and services contracts, represents a fortunate confluence of timing to potentially streamline the federal acquisition process.

“I’m excited we finally have the technology, timing and opportunity to enact meaningful reform,” she said.

GSA plans to roll out the reform plan in phases between now and fiscal 2020, starting with standing up a new schedule through which the agency plans to eventually on-board approximately 17,000 contracts.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/gsa-will-rollout-schedules-reform-plan-fiscal-2020/

The Air Force is looking for an innovative DevOps platform to seamlessly integrate into its current environment and is tapping a General Services Administration pilot program to avoid having to go through the arduous processes set forth in the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

As with a number of major IT vehicles this year, the Homeland Security Department is tossing out plans to recompete a central IT services contract and is instead opting to rely on governmentwide acquisition contracts beginning early next year.

The General Services Administration faces significant management challenges — including recovering costs and filling critical positions — as it attempts to become the government’s “premier provider of efficient and effective acquisition,” according to the agency’s inspector general.

The government’s lead contracting agency plans to formalize how and when contractors are required to disclose data breaches and to mandate better government visibility into how serious those breaches are.

The General Services Administration’s sweeping plan to consolidate 24 acquisition schedules into a single vehicle will play out over the next two years and will offer contractors a standard set of terms and conditions, officials said in a conference call last week.

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