GSA plans June release of revised draft Alliant RFPs
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The General Services Administration will release a second round of draft requests for proposals for its highly anticipated Alliant IT vehicle in June, and hopefully award the governmentwide acquisition contract by the summer of 2007, a GSA official said today.
The General Services Administration will release a second round of draft requests for proposals for its highly anticipated Alliant IT vehicle in June, and hopefully award the governmentwide acquisition contract by the summer of 2007, a GSA official said today.
Speaking at a virtual industry day via the World Wide Web, Jim Ghiloni, Alliant project manager, also outlined several significant changes to the Alliant procurement strategy and said industry will have ample opportunity to comment before the final RFPs go out in October.
GSA released the Webcast in lieu of an actual industry day because of the immense interest in the Alliant contracts'a $50 billion Alliant full and open procurement, which is geared toward large IT companies and systems integrators, and its $15 billion Alliant Small Business procurement.
Alliant is a 10-year contract that will let all government agencies buy IT solutions and complex integration services, and replace the expiring Millennia and Applications and Support for Widely Diverse End User Requirements (Answer) contracts for governmentwide IT services.
The Webcast marked the first details about the changes to the Alliant strategy after a team led by John Johnson, assistant commissioner for GSA's Office of Service Development and Delivery, reviewed and analyzed the contract plans and comments on the first set of draft RFPs last year.
One significant change, Ghiloni said, is that the statements of work in the Alliant GWACs will reflect the Federal Enterprise Architecture. This 'innovative' approach will ensure that the contracts keep up with the evolving IT sector and changing needs of GSA's federal customers, he said.
With this approach, GSA doesn't need to list all the exact requirements in the statement of work and 'instead, we will capture the requirements in a flexible model that will change over time along with the IT industry,' Ghiloni said.
The contracts also will contain mechanisms for the government to take a company off the GWAC if it goes out of business or underperforms and add a new one so the initial number of awards does not change, Ghiloni said.
GSA will consult with a company before it is taken off the contract and will post the reasons it may take such an action in the draft RFPs, he added.
Furthermore, Ghiloni said GSA will ensure that any overlap that occurs between Alliant and other contracts'such as the massive Networx telecommunications vehicle'within the agency's portfolio will be managed adequately.
'We will make sure the contract's scope is clearly stated in the statement of work,' Ghiloni said, adding that GSA will work with its customers to find the best IT vehicle for its needs.
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