DHA wants out of the test infrastructure business it built

The Defense Health Agency wants to consolidate the test infrastructure that underpins many of its systems in a move to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

In a new commercial solutions opening released Wednesday, DHA says it is looking for commercial solutions that can be acquired on a fixed-price basis.

DHA's current contract provides operational support. But no single entity is accountable for performance, cost efficiency, or optimization of the environment as a whole. DHA is calling the new contract Enterprise Software Services Next.

DHA uses a decentralized model, where individual programs allocate resources and assume responsibility for configuration and management. While initially flexible, the CSO says the model's lack of central governance has led to “uncoordinated growth that now significantly exceeds operational demand."

The structure also led to deferred hardware refresh cycles, resulting in an aging infrastructure and growing maintenance costs.

“The result is an environment where the government is paying for capacity it does not use, programs are diverting technical personnel from product delivery toward infrastructure administration, and costs are disproportionate to the value delivered,” according to the CSO.

The CSO does not specify what DHA wants. Instead, it is soliciting commercial solutions that can address the problems.

DHA's base-period goals include consolidated infrastructure and facilities, enterprise platform governance and cost-effective service, and cybersecurity and authorization accountability.

Two additional goals are structured as options to be exercised after the award. This includes integrated testing and independent verification and validation services, as well as enterprise tooling and operational support for product delivery.

The CSO says their timing depends on when other DHA contracts end.

Evaluation factors include “advancement.” In other words, DHS is looking for something creative and new: “Solutions that do not represent a meaningful improvement will be ineligible for award.”

Factor 2 is efficacy and outcomes. Outcomes must be linked to proposed pricing structure.

Factor 3 is the technical approach and adaptability.

Price is factor 4, but only comes into play in phase 2 of the competition.

Phase 1 submissions are due Aug. 20 and proposals must include the solution concept, which needs to be specific and identify tangible results.

A due date for phase 2 will be given to the companies who are invited to compete in that phase.

Awards will be fixed-price contracts based on the delivery of tangible results, not levels of effort or labor hours.

DHA anticipates the competition to result in multiple awards.