Defense Agency to Merge 2 Multibillion-Dollar Tech RFIs: Top 20 (1)


By Chris Cornillie

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The Defense Intelligence Agency plans to combine two proposed multibillion-dollar information technology solicitations into a single multiple-award vehicle, according to an announcement to industry on Jan. 17.

DIA’s decision to reissue a combined solicitation, which it’s calling Solutions for the Information Technology Enterprise III (SITE III), is the topic of this week’s Top 20 Opportunities.

DIA had planned to issue two separate contracts to follow on its $6 billion Enhanced Solutions for the IT Enterprise (E-SITE) contract, which doesn’t expire until 2025. DIA’s decision to pull the plug on E-SITE well before it expires in July 2025 should send a strong message to contractors that the agency is planning to revamp and overhaul its IT systems and management processes in new ways that E-SITE would not have been able to deliver.

The contract will offer “worldwide coverage for integrated IT requirements and technical support services to the Government to address the evolving needs vital to the security of the United States,” according to the announcement. SITE III is intended to streamline the acquisition of infrastructure related services funded through E-SITE. DIA plans to post a draft solicitation and hold a presolicitation conference within two months, according to the announcement.

The change would merge the proposed $3 billion Infrastructure Sustainment and Development 2 (IDS2), supporting classified and unclassified data center support and cloud computing services, and the $2.1 billion Application Sustainment and Development 2 (ADS2), supporting software engineering, data integration, and other support services. Based on March 2019 draft statements of work for IDS2 and ADS2, it’s likely the new-look SITE III contract will emphasize enabling the intelligence agencies to more effectively modernize systems and applications.

Both IDS2 and ADS2 were featured in BGOV’s Top 20 Opportunities in FY 2020 report and webinar. BGOV has now combined the two opportunities in our data.

DIA elected to merge the two solicitations after a round of industry feedback beginning in March 2019. Bloomberg Government projects that SITE III will have a $6 billion ceiling value and offer spots for both large and small businesses.

The predecessor E-SITE contract is classified, and DIA does not publish spending figures to the Federal Procurement Data System. In July 2015, the agency issued contracts to 25 large businesses and 25 small businesses. The large-business awards went to:

The small business awards include:

DIA has not released any information about the number of slots on SITE III or how they will be allocated to large and small businesses. DIA officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Chris Cornillie is a federal market analyst with Bloomberg Government.

To contact the analyst on this story: Chris Cornillie in Washington at ccornillie@bgov.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Snyder at dsnyder@bgov.com; Jodie Morris at jmorris@bgov.com

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