RFP released for Army ITES-2 procurement

The Army released a request for proposals today for its $20 billion Information Technology Enterprise Solutions-2 Services program.

ITES-2 is a consolidated contract vehicle for products and services and will serve as a follow-on to the original ITES program. The contract vehicle will run for nine years and will include a wide range of IT services that support the Army's enterprise infrastructure, according to service officials.

The contract vehicle "provides an enterprise contracting approach and helps focus a smaller group of contractors on the Army's network management," said Kevin Carroll, the Army's program executive officer for enterprise information systems. "This will help the soldier to be able to rely on reach-back consolidated IT locations to get to their CSS [Combat Service Support] software applications."

The RFP was released by the Army Small Computer Program, the Army Contracting Agency, and the Information Technology, E-Commerce, and Commercial Contracting Center.

Earlier this year, the Army tapped 17 companies to compete for contracts and expects to award eight deals, four to large businesses and four to businesses having 1,500 employees or fewer.

The Army initially planned to release the RFP for ITES-2 in late April and then in early summer, but ditched both plans to refine its performance-based contracting focus, which supports the Army's enterprise infrastructure goals.

Dawn S. Onley is a staff writer for Washington Technology's sister publication, Government Computer News.