Army readies release of RFP for ITES2

The Army is expected to finally release a request for proposals for its $20 billion contract vehicle for IT equipment and services by the end of next week.

The Army is expected to finally release a request for proposals for its $20 billion contract vehicle for IT equipment and services by the end of next week, despite two lengthy delays that kept the service bottlenecked in reviews and evaluations.

Information Technology Enterprise Solutions-2 Services 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.

Contracts will likely be awarded in the fall. The Army tapped 17 companies to compete for contracts and expects to award eight contracts, four to large businesses and four to businesses having 1,500 employees or fewer.

"My understanding is that we are approaching our last review and should be releasing at the end of this month," said Kevin Carroll, the Army's program executive officer for enterprise information systems.

The Army initially planned to release the RFP for ITES-2S 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 senior writer for Washington Technology's sister publication, Government Computer News.