By Jeff Erlichman

Use GSA, NASA and NIH GWACs (Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts) to purchase every IT product and service imaginable.

Mary Powers-King, GSA’s director of GWAC programs didn’t mince words when describing GSA’s feelings about Alliant.

“It’s been awarded – exclamation point!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

After years of starts, stops and protests, GSA’s Alliant and Alliant Small Business (SB) GWACs are finally “open for business”, signaling that the next generation of GWACs is finally here.

Meanwhile same time, over at NIH, the NITAAC team is already planning on how to improve and combine two of its GWACs – Chief Information Officer – Solutions and Partners 2 Innovations (CIO-SP2i) and Image World 2 New Dimensions (IW2nd) GWACs – that are set to expire in 2010.

And at the headquarters of NASA, SEWP – recently named “Federal IT King of the Contracts” in a MeriTalk survey of federal IT buyers – staffers are increasing customer service with more people, expanded hours and introducing new Web tool enhancements.

“Using GWACs for its IT investments reflect the direction the government has been moving in the  last few years,” said Powers-King in a recent interview with 1105 Government Information Group Custom Media.

“It’s clear that IT is really the gear that drives government. Data needs to be stored, analyzed and transported. Everyone relies on some level of IT to accomplish their mission.”  That means the horizon is truly unlimited for IT buyers who are already using – or thinking of using – a GWAC to fulfill their IT product and service needs.


Lots To Like

IT buyers like Government-wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) because hardware, software, related supplies and services can be bought as part of an integrated technology solution without having to spend the time and money to go through a “full and open” competition.

GWACs offer pre-negotiated terms and conditions and give the customer the luxury of choosing from a pre-screened list of “approved contractors” who have proven skills. That means that Fair Opportunity requirements have been met. Then contract holders compete for task orders that have limited protestability.

GWACs provide the flexibility to add team partners and unique skills that may be added at the task order level. They include a full range of contract types; i.e., fixed-price, cost-reimbursement, time-and-materials, and labor-hour. They support small business and meet procurement preference goals, with availability and access to proven small business and 8(a) technology providers.

GWACs shorten procurement lead time, provide easy-to-use online tools and charge reasonable fees for their services that are built into the customer price.

So, in many ways GWACs are similar to the many Multiple Award Contracts (MACs) that have been awarded agency by agency, such as DHS EAGLE or Army CHESS. While the contract mechanics may be similar, GWACs are for governmentwide use; MACs are for specific agency use. So, a buyer at Interior can use any GWAC, but can’t use the DHS EAGLE MAC without DHS permission.



Alliant & Alliant SB – 2009’s Big Story

The 2009 GWAC story of the year so far has to be the successful awarding of GSA’s Alliant GWAC. Finally, on April 29, 2009 the wait was officially over. The notice went up on GSA’s Alliant web site (www.gsa.gov/alliant) announcing that as of May 1, 2009, Alliant was officially “open for business”.

John Johnson, recently retired GSA ITS Assistant Commissioner, spent a considerable amount of his time developing and bringing Alliant to its fruition. He thinks Alliant is a “game changer” because of what it does to make the buying process easier and more transparent.

“When we designed Alliant, we did that design based on what we saw in the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) and the DOD EA environment,” Johnson told 1105 Government Information Group Custom Media. “We did that so people could readily align their requirements to aspects of the enterprise architecture.”

“As the definition of IT changes over the lifecycle of the Alliant Contract, the scope will be considered to coincide with the current definition at any given time,” is what is written on GSA’s Alliant website.

What GSA is trying to do is eliminate “contract modifications” and not try to list every product and service imaginable Johnson said. “Alliant and Alliant SB tie themselves to an agency’s Enterprise Architecture and assist agencies completing their OMB 300.”

Johnson thinks Alliant will certainly make it easier for GSA customers to articulate their needs and be more efficient delivering services through Alliant. “I think we have invented some efficiency measures that will make it easier for customers to use, but at the same time easier for us to administer.”

What the advent of Alliant and Alliant SB also mean is that customers who are used to using ANSWER or Millennia (both set to expire next year) now should begin to turn their eyes towards Alliant and Alliant Small Business as their vehicles of choice.

“Alliant and Alliant SB are essentially identical,” Jim Ghiloni Alliant PM said in a recent interview with 1105 Government Information Group Custom Media.

“The question really is, is this work appropriate for a small business?  That’s a decision that’s usually made very early in the acquisition process. If it’s appropriate for a small business, then Alliant SB is ready to go. If not, use Alliant. Either way, they are going to have a suite of highly qualified industry partners that are again pre-qualified by us and ready to go and meet the requirements.”


What GWACs Do Best

According to Powers-King, what GWACs do best is help you minimize your risk, so you don’t have to buy solutions more than once.

“You don’t want to invest in a solution that doesn’t work; you want a provider to come in – knowledge in-hand – and solve your problems and facilitate whatever it is you are trying to accomplish.”

That could be standing up a new program or migrating current program data from a legacy system to a virtual server housed in a data center. That could be modernizing your IT infrastructure to meet your program’s growing data collection, collaboration, security and regulatory requirements. That could be upgrading your network infrastructure to handle future IPv6 traffic and information sharing initiatives, or that could be testing the Cloud Computing airspace.

Knowing you need IT as a part of any program mission solution is just a starting point. At some time in your business process you and your colleagues will have to decide what and how you are going to buy the services – and the associated IT products – needed.

To begin your search you have to know what is available. The articles in this report describe the GWAC vehicles from GSA, NIH and NASA – the only agencies that can offer GWACs by law – and tips every GWAC user should know.  You’ll see that with GWACs, your IT horizons are unlimited.