GSA explores regional transition issues with new EIS posting

When it finally comes out, the GSA Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract will be the largest telecommunications contracts awarded. It’ll have multiple winners and a reach across the country and many parts of the globe.

But until it is awarded, GSA is still working diligently to iron out all of the details. As a recent request for information amply illustrates, the devil, to a paraphrase Ross Perot, is in those details.

In its new RFI, GSA is trying to establish how to transition regional local telephone and communications services to EIS.

The agency wants to accomplish two things with the RFI:

• Inform industry and potential bidders about on GSA’s strategy for selecting contractors for regional services.
• Gather comments from industry on the strategy and related technical solutions described in the RFI.

GSA’s goal is to transition from Networx to the $50 billion EIS no later than May 2020. Proposals were due Nov. 4, and awards are expected to be made this spring.

But the transition will be complicated. In describing the Regional Network Services Program, now known as GSA’s full-service model, GSA said it includes all 50 states, and six U.S. territories. There are 53 agency-level customers, over 8,000 sub-agencies and 16,000 customer accounts.

Some of the items GSA is looking for feedback on include the merits of its aggregated approach for full-service fair opportunity evaluation, what kind of data fields will help bidders, the tradeoff between LPTA and best value, and the minimum degree of service coverage to qualify for a task order award.

GSA also is concerned about coverage gaps that will not be bid by any bidder to the Full Service solicitation. If a company isn’t bidding, they’d like to know why.

Responses to the RFI are due Feb. 27.