COMSATCOM Contract Moves Ahead

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MIT 2010 Volume: 14 Issue: 2 (March)

Joint Agency Team Issues Draft Requests
and Seeks Industry Input on New Program for
Increasing Federal Demand for Services.

(Editor’s Note: The following article was provided by the Defense Information Systems Agency and General Services Administration.)

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and General Service Administration (GSA) currently manage separate contractual vehicles to provide commercial satellite communications (COMSATCOM) services to the federal government.

The DISA Defense Information Systems Network (DISN) Satellite Transmission Services-Global (DSTS-G) contracts provide satellite bandwidth and services to meet the majority of Department of Defense fixed satellite services (FSS) requirements. The DISA Inmarsat contracts provide broadband mobile services to meet DoD mobile satellite services (MSS) needs. The GSA SATCOM II contracts provide federal agencies with FSS and MSS COMSATCOM end-to-end solutions.

These separate vehicles overlap in terms of service offerings, providers and markets. As all of these contracts expire in the 2011-2012 timeframe, DISA and GSA are strategically partnering in the creation of the Future COMSATCOM Services Acquisition (FCSA) as they work to meet the federal government’s increasing demand for COMSATCOM services.

GSA recognizes the value and importance of this initiative. “One of my priorities has been to engage with customers to better understand their requirements and forge strong relationships,” said Ed O’Hare, GSA assistant commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service Office of Integrated Technology Services. “The SATCOM initiative is a prime example of this. We formed this historic partnership with DISA to meet their commercial SATCOM needs—as well as that of the entire federal government—and will also save the taxpayer money, by sharing acquisition costs and establishing a more efficient marketplace.”

The partnership has several benefits, including:

Establishing a common marketplace for all government customers
Ensuring that all government customers receive solutions that consider nationally directed information assurance and protection requirements
Improving access to Federal Supply Schedules, which offers ongoing opportunity to add new competitors
Continuing competitive approaches that deliver below market prices
Maintaining the COMSATCOM services offered today and adding expanded subscription services and end-to-end capabilities.

SERVICE AREAS

DISA and GSA are developing multiple contract vehicles segmented along three targeted services areas for FCSA. A combination of GSA Federal Supply Schedule 70 and two new GSAowned indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts will be used to satisfy user requirements within the targeted service areas:

Transponded Capacity: Dedicated bandwidth and power on a communications satellite in any available COMSATCOM frequency band, including, but not limited to, L-, S-, C-, X-, Ku-, extended Ku-, Ka-, and UHF. Transponded capacity will be satisfied using the Federal Supply Schedule 70.
Subscription Services: Pre-existing, pre-engineered FSS and/or MSS solutions, typically including shared or dedicated satellite resources, ancillary terrestrial components, and contractor specified networks and equipment, in any available COMSATCOM frequency band, including, but not limited to, L-, S-, C-, X-, Ku-, extended Ku, Ka-, and UHF. Subscription services will also be satisfied using the Federal Supply Schedule 70.
End-to-End Solutions: Customer defined, end-to-end solutions, consisting of a combination of bandwidth, teleport access, terminals, terrestrial tail circuits, network management, and engineering services. Two new multiple award IDIQ contract vehicles will be established to satisfy end-to-end solutions requirements. One will be full and open competition for large-scale requirements and the other will be a small business set-aside for smaller-scale requirements.

As FCSA continues to progress, so has the communication with industry. In October 2009, a draft Schedule 70 request for information (RFI) was sent out to the vendors to request feedback, comments, concerns and recommendations on the draft COMSATCOM Transponded Capacity and COMSATCOM Subscription Services Special Item Numbers (SINs), and associated Terms and Conditions, Price Examples, and Evaluation Criteria.

On October 22, 2009, the FCSA team hosted a Schedule 70 Industry Day at the GSA building in Washington D.C., focused on the draft solicitation, how transponded capacity and subscription services will be implemented on Schedule 70, and also more generically on how to use Federal Supply Schedules. SCHEDULE 70 Schedule 70 is a continuously open solicitation, available to both small and large businesses. It allows for the addition of qualified vendors at any time, and permits vendors to define and price their own commercial offering. DoD, other federal agencies, and state, local, and tribal governments will be able to purchase COMSATCOM Transponded Capacity and Subscription Services off the Schedule 70 COMSATCOM SINs. DISA and GSA received more than 30 vendor responses to the RFI. This feedback, along with input from the Schedule 70 Industry Day, was used to revise the COMSATCOM services to be offered under Schedule 70. GSA released Schedule 70 Refresh #25 in February 2010.

DISA anticipates using the COMSATCOM SINs on Schedule 70 to service DoD requirements when adequate competition (defined both in terms of the number of contractors with awarded SINs, and multiple contractors with service offerings covering the scope of government requirements) is available. For additional information on Schedule 70, please visit www.gsa.gov/schedule70.

On the IDIQ front, the FCSA team released an RFI in November 2009 seeking information on small business capabilities to help align the scope of the small business set-aside IDIQ. Thirty-nine vendor responses were received, including 13 from small businesses. The FCSA team is currently incorporating this feedback into the draft request for proposal (RFP) for both the full and open competition and small business set-aside IDIQs and plans to release the draft RFPs for industry feedback in March 2010.

The FCSA team will host an Industry Day focused on the draft RFPs, explaining the planned approach and soliciting immediate feedback. Feedback received on the draft IDIQ RFPs will be used to revise the RFPs prior to release of the final IDIQ RFPs in third quarter fiscal year 2010. The team plans to award the IDIQ contracts by fourth quarter fiscal year 2011.

The FCSA Website includes a variety of information, including the briefings presented at the Industry Announcement and Schedule 70 Industry Day and a series of frequently asked questions based upon feedback received from industry.subscription services will be implemented on Schedule 70, and also more generically on how to use Federal Supply Schedules.

SCHEDULE 70

Schedule 70 is a continuously open solicitation, available to both small and large businesses. It allows for the addition of qualified vendors at any time, and permits vendors to define and price their own commercial offering. DoD, other federal agencies, and state, local, and tribal governments will be able to purchase COMSATCOM Transponded Capacity and Subscription Services off the Schedule 70 COMSATCOM SINs.

DISA and GSA received more than 30 vendor responses to the RFI. This feedback, along with input from the Schedule 70 Industry Day, was used to revise the COMSATCOM services to be offered under Schedule 70. GSA released Schedule 70 Refresh #25 in February 2010.

The latest information on FCSA is available at www.gsa.gov/fcsa. ♦