12 small firms to vie for $960M in AF contracts

The Air Force has awarded $960 million in contracts to 12 small businesses that will make it quicker and easier for warfighters to obtain innovative IT services and capabilities covering the full spectrum of operations and missions, the service said.

The Air Force's Network Centric Solutions-2 team awarded its Application Services Small Business Companion contract June 21.

It’s the first of two application services contracts that will be available for use by the Air Force.

The second, a full and open competition, is still in source selection.

The small business contracts have a three-year base ordering period and four 12-month options and are expected to be available in August.

The indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts were awarded to the following small businesses:
ActioNet, Inc., of Vienna, Va.;

• Array Information Technology Inc., of Greenbelt, Md.;
• Datum Software Inc., of Johns Creek, Ga.;
• Digital Management Inc., of Bethesda, Md.;
• Diligent Consulting Inc., of San Antonio, Texas;
• Diversified Technical Services Inc., of El Paso, Texas;
• DSD Laboratories Inc., of Sudbury, Mass.;
• Exeter Government Services LLC, of Gaithersburg, Md.;
• Excellus Solutions LLC, of McLean, Va.;
• IndraSoft, of Reston, Va.;
• Segue Technologies, of Arlington, Va.;
• SI Systems Technologies, of Folsom, Calif.

The NetCents 2 Application Services acquisition provides a vehicle for customers to access a wide range of services such as sustainment, migration, integration, training, help desk support, testing and operational support.

The application services contracts are one of seven sets of NetCents 2 contracts that include systems sustainment and development, migration, integration and netcentric data services. They replace the Air Force's existing NetCents contracts. Their combined ceiling is $24.2 billion, of which $11 billion will be available to small businesses through small business-only competitions and small business subcontracting requirements.

Once fully awarded, the NetCents 2 contracts will be the Air Force's primary source of netcentric and IT products, services and solutions.

The other NetCents 2 categories are:
1. Enterprise Integration and Service Management (awarded November 2010) which provides the Air Force with strategic consulting and support for enterprise-level information technology management using non-personal Advisory and Assistance Services contracts;

2. Network Operations and Infrastructure Solutions and Infrastructure Solutions (includes two separate contracts currently in source selection) which will provide network management and defense, service oriented architecture infrastructure, enterprise level security and management and implementation and operations; 

3. Netcentric Products (in source selection) which provides a full range of innovative, competitively priced, world-class netcentric IT products to support the full spectrum of netcentric operations and missions.

4. IT Professional Support and Engineering Services (solicitation not yet released) which includes IT program management support and engineering services.

5. Application Services (full and open; in source selection) which provides a vehicle for customers to access a wide range of services such as sustainment, migration, integration, training, help desk support, testing and operational support.