GSA shifts Alliant conference to January

The General Services Administration expects to hold its industry day on the Alliant contracts in early January to introduce changes made to the $65 billion IT procurement, an agency spokesman said today.

John Johnson, GSA's assistant commissioner of service development and service delivery, and his team completed a review of Alliant's strategy before Nov. 11. Johnson originally planned to hold a public forum in the second half of November. That date was then pushed to early December. However, the conference likely will take place in early January after the holidays, said Blake Williams, a GSA spokesman.

The forum will give industry and other interested parties another chance to voice their opinions on the 10-year, governmentwide acquisition contract that will let agencies buy IT solutions and complex integration services.

As part of the changes to Alliant, GSA has created a national-level staff to oversee the contract and has moved the program's management center from San Diego to Washington. Johnson said in October that GSA may issue a second set of draft requests for proposals if the agency made any major changes to the program during the review.

Some of the issues GSA examined were the role of the Alliant procurements within the agency's wider portfolio of contracts, the ability to accommodate future IT requirements, evaluation factors, the possibilities of overlaps between Alliant and other GSA contracts and sustaining value and opportunities for small businesses.

After completing the review in November, GSA said it would hold briefings with internal government stakeholders to reach a consensus on Alliant.

GSA issued Alliant's first set of draft request for proposals March 31. The agency held Alliant presolicitation conferences April 18 in Washington and April 26 in San Diego. No specific date has been set yet for the final RFPs, which will come out in 2006.

Alliant will replace the expiring Millennia and Applications and Support for Widely Diverse End-User Requirements contracts for federal IT services. It consists of two separate procurements. The Alliant Full and Open contract is valued at $50 billion, while the Alliant Small Business set-aside is valued at $15 billion. GSA plans to issue 20 awards for the full and open, and 40 awards for the small business contract in 2006.