The General Services Administration has issued second draft request for proposals for the next generation of the Alliant IT services contract vehicles: Alliant 2 Unrestricted and Alliant 2 Small Business.
The 300-page draft for the main Alliant 2 RFP outlines the eligibility and awards process for the $50 billion, five-year contract vehicle. The governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC) offers agencies a set of pre-competed contracts for IT services like website hosting, data center virtualization, breach monitoring, big data analytics and help desk (rather than products, found on IT Schedule 70). Defense agencies are among the top customers for the current Alliant and Alliant SB contracts. In fiscal 2015 the Department of Defense spent $783 million, followed by the Department of the Air Force’s $506 million and the Army’s $502 million, according to the GSA GWAC Dashboard.
Vendors are encouraged to read through the draft but shouldn’t begin writing proposals based on what they see, according to John Cavadias, procurement contracting officer for Alliant 2.
In a note on the draft RFP posted to FedBizOps, Cavadias said GSA expects the final RFP to have significant changes. This second draft is merely an opportunity for the agency to get feedback on a number of issues.
Specifically, GSA is interested in input on 10 aspects of the GWAC process, particularly as they concern the Alliant vehicles:
Refreshment of new IT labor categories and standard occupational classification to the GSA GWACs;
- Incorporating the required Defense Department clauses;
- Cybersecurity contract language flow down to task orders;
- Application of Requirements Contract type task order approach under the Fair Opportunity process;
- GSA GWAC-specific transactional data reporting;
- Contractor engagement performance-based acquisition requirements;
- Sustaining socioeconomic goals under small business subcontracting;
- Implementation of an open season;
- Environmental reporting (master contract versus task order level); and
- Efficient and speedy master contract/task order closeout.
GSA also released the second draft RFP for Alliant 2 Small Business, the accompanying vehicle for set-asides. While the draft RFP is slightly different — and almost half the length — GSA is looking for feedback in the same basic areas as with the Unrestricted draft RFP
Responses to both drafts are due Nov. 30.
