DHS taps 11 companies for First Source

The First Source contract winners are set to provide commodity products such as PCs, servers, monitors and the like.DHS requested proposals from prospective First Source vendors in November 2005 and received them on July 10, 2006, according to Input of Reston, Va.The department now purchases commodity IT equipment via a range of procurement vehicles, including contracts centered around certain components; task orders against the General Services Administration; and Government-Wide Acquisition schedules and interagency agreements.First Source vendors will obtain the equipment and its associated software from original equipment manufacturers. The products must support various aspects of the department's IT vision, such as implementing its enterprise architecture, according to the acquisition plan.First Source is a companion procurement to the Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading Edge project, awarded last August. The Eagle acquisition chose vendors to provide IT services across the department.As of this month, DHS has awarded eight task orders under the Eagle contracts. If the department exercises all options under all eight task orders, their total amount could rise to $74 million.First Source task orders will replace existing contracts for commodity technology items as the old contracts expire or come up for renewal, according to the procurement plan. Washington Technology's .