Not the time to go home
It is hard sometimes not to get distracted by the numbers when you look at the
list of contracts that market research firm Input Inc. compiled for our cover
story.
I've never been entirely comfortable with the phrase
billions of dollars. Even hundreds of millions makes me
squeamish.
But the government game has evolved to the point
that if you aren't chasing the billions, you might as well
take your ball and go home.
Our cover story highlights some of the most important
government contracts that will be awarded in the
next 18 months. Nearly all of them
are follow-ups to existing contracts.
Associate Editor David Hubler
focused on three contract opportunities
in particular: the Air Force's
Network Centric Solutions
(NetCents) 2, the Navy Marine Corps
Intranet Next Generation Enterprise
Network and the Homeland Security
Department's Information Technology Managed Services (ITMS).
NetCents is a multiple-award contract that in its newest version will be divided
into three parts: products, small-business services, and full-and-open services.
The follow-on contracts for NMCI and ITMS will likely be single awards,
as their predecessors were.
Those contracts reveal how and what the government is buying.
NetCents symbolizes the continued role of task-order contracts, while ITMS is
important because it shows that the government needs help modernizing its
infrastructure.
NMCI is about infrastructure, too, but it is also a story of how EDS Corp.
turned around a troubled contract. The competition's attempts to unseat EDS
will be among the more interesting stories of 2008 and 2009.
Budgets are tight and new initiatives few, so the
competition for work will only intensify.
Now is the time to step up and play ball.
About the Author
Nick Wakeman is the editor of Washington Technology.