Flying High With NETCENTS
NETWORKING CONTRACT BECOMES PRIMARY AIR FORCE ACQUISITION VEHICLE FOR MOVING TO NETCENTRICITY.
Air Force leaders are expected soon to issue a memo clarifying mandatory-use policies under the Network-Centric Solutions (NETCENTS) networking products and services contract.
The acquisition vehicle has had significant success during its two-year history, providing a total of $1 billion in IT and communications products and services through early May 2006.
The upcoming policy memo from Lieutenant General Michael W. Peterson, chief of warfighting integration and chief information officer (XC/CIO), Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, is expected to resolve questions about the requirement that Air Force offices use the program for relevant purchases. Other Department of Defense and federal agencies are also eligible to participate in the program.
The program, which is run out of the 754th Electronic Systems Group (ELSG) at Maxwell AFB, Gunter Annex, Ala., includes four large- and four small-business prime contractors, along with hundreds of participating equipment manufacturers and service providers.
While delivering systems at competitive prices is certainly a major objective of the program, its principal goal is to help the Air Force achieve network-centric operations, said Colonel Michael Harper, chief of the Enterprise Information Services Division within the XC/CIO.
“We see NETCENTS as the primary acquisition vehicle by which to move toward netcentricity,” he said. “It gives us the ability to acquire standardized IT systems, which will in turn help us achieve standardization. The end result is that we are able to move information in an accurate and secure way across the AF, which is turns into benefits for the warfighters, since they can get information to make the right decisions.”
Another objective targeted by NETCENTS has been to provide for strong small business participation, and in that effort the program has exceeded expectations. Although the contract goal for small business was 20 percent of sales, the program has directed 51 percent of contract dollars and 61 percent of task orders to small business.
INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP
A key aspect of NETCENTS is its emphasis on partnership with the contractors and their team members, who are responsible for delivering standardized IT systems that meet net-centric standards. “This helps us in several ways, but from a customer standpoint, the customer can focus on articulating capabilities and requirements, as opposed to chasing their own technical solutions. Sometimes customers will go after technical solutions and then have to worry if it is meeting the right standards. So we put that responsibility on our industry partners, rather than pushing it down to our customers,” Harper said.
The program, which has processed a total of nearly 1,400 orders, has received positive feedback across the board, Harper said. Customers appreciate having an efficient and responsive vehicle for meeting their IT needs, and contractors are glad to have a standard contracting vehicle by which they can submit bids for awards.
Even so, the original policy memo issued by former Air Force CIO John Gilligan, which laid out the mandatory use policy as well as establishing waiver procedures, has left uncertainties in the minds of participants, especially as the program has grown and evolved. The follow-up memo does not change the intent of the original memo, but seeks to clarify the different categories of mandatory use.
As might be expected with a new program, there is also room for growth as potential users learn more about it. “We need to get the word out both to our customers and to contracting officers, so that they are aware of the program,” said Harper. “We know that some of our industry partners, the prime contractors, do some marketing for it. A lot of them already have relationships with the bases and major commands. Several of the vendors have NETCENTS marketing briefings that they pitch to the bases. So the word is getting out, but we need to keep pressing and advertising it, especially as we publish the clarifying memo.”
Although NETCENTS is still relatively new, officials are already looking beyond the five-year term of the program. “Our customers are going to want IT services that last more than a couple of years. So we’re going to have to circle back in another six months or a year to determine if there is going to be a NETCENTS followon or extension. We’re sensitive to the fact that if customers are going to hire IT services off the contract, they will want those arrangements to last more than a year or two,” Harper said.
WEB PORTAL
While policy issues involving NETCENTS are managed within the XC/CIO, the day-to-day operations of the program are handled by 754th ELSG, which operates under the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom AFB, Mass.
The linchpins of the operation established by the ESG are a step-by-step ordering practice and a Web portal that serves as the exchange mechanism for requirements, requests for quotes or proposals and responses from vendors.
“Because we have centralized and decentralized ordering, we had to have a mechanism to keep up with the contract ceiling,” explained Melva Strang, chief of the products and services branch. “So we developed a portal Web application whereby both our local contracting officers, as well as those around the world, can go out and post an RFP or RFQ for products on there.
“They can do a small business set-aside request or a ‘full and open,’ because we have eight vendors, four of which are small business set-aside and the others large businesses. We have those options for the contracting community. Once they post those requirements, our contractors post their proposals and bids back to the portal. They exchange questions and answers and other information through that application in order to facilitate the orders,” she continued.
Any kind of IT product or solution is available through the program, although, as the name suggests, networking is a primary part of the contract. Stand-alone products and services or a total solution can be acquired, but products such as desktop and laptop computers and standalone printers are not included.
As an example of the program in action, Strang cited help given to the contracting team at Keesler AFB, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina demolished it. “At that time, we were trying to help them on an emergency basis, and to order the supplies and services that they needed to get back on their feet with the communications structure there. We’re very proud that the contract was able to support that kind of quick turn-around.”
Strang summed up the benefits of NETCENTS on a practical level this way: “On average, I’d say that we can do a substantial size service and solution order that might be as large as $100 million, and be able to turn it around within about 35 days from the time we talk to the customer until it goes on contract. When you look at the size of that kind of effort, and the time and energy required to do a separate source selection, you’re looking at the difference between a year and a little more than a month.”
ELSG officials also have launched an outreach program designed to increase awareness of the program’s enterprise offerings. “We have an active campaign to continue to build people’s awareness of this contract, to give them the opportunity to leverage the efficiencies in the processing, timelines and savings they can achieve, while supporting their customer and the AF small business objectives. It’s a continuous effort to build people’s awareness. We’ve had some success with other defense agencies and sister services that have come to us because they see the value of the NETCENTS contract,” said Matthew Benavides, director, acquisition and commodities division.
COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT
NETCENTS prime contractors see the program as a promising but competitive environment.
“We’ve bid over 2,500 opportunities under NETCENTS and have been successful with quite a few,” observed Charlie Plummer, senior director for AF programs for General Dynamics Network Systems.
General Dynamics has received awards of more than $125 million under the NETCENTS program. For example, the company last year won a contract to design, develop and install a second-generation wireless local area network solution for the Air Force Combat Information Transport System Program under NETCENTS.
A key to a successful NETCENTS strategy for General Dynamics has been assembling a strong team. General Dynamics has 20 core team members, notably CACI, Harris and BAE, and some 120 original equipment manufacturers, including Sun, Cisco, EMC and Nortel.
“When we originally structured our team, we went out and looked at the major players in the DoD market who would be complementary to the services that General Dynamics can provide,” added Plummer.
“Our NETCENTS team was created with the goal of helping the Air Force achieve information superiority while at the same time bringing best value to the Air Force. Our team has been successful because our services do not overlap, and we are able to offer our customers the breadth and scale required to meet their challenges,” Plummer said.
“We have both large and small business partners,” he continued. “One of the requirements under NETCENTS, in addition to the 20 percent small business goal for the primes, is that each of the large businesses also have a 20 percent minimum for small business.”
Plummer pointed to several factors contributing to his company’s successes in the program. “We’ve been in this business for over 40 years, and have a well-tuned knowledge of the Air Force customer and their missions. NETCENTS is focused onenterprisewide, standards-based solutions. We are committed to making the successful integration of the Air Force C2 Constellation Net into the Global Information Grid a reality.”
General Dynamics has a 10-year history of designing and installing the Information Transport System, which is the backbone for the Air Force, with more than 70 bases completed. The company has also supported the operations and maintenance as well as modernization of voice switching systems at over 120 Air Force sites worldwide.
“We use the knowledge of the customer’s mission and our ability to leverage ever-changing technology to support them in performing that mission quicker, better and faster,” he said. “We know where the Air Force is today and where they want to be. Being a large company with a dynamic team, we’re on the cutting edge of technology, so we can deliver the solutions and offerings that make the most sense.”
BUILDING THE BENCH
Small-business prime contractor Telos, meanwhile, has a NETCENTS team with about 60 companies. As Jim Morehouse, NETCENTS program manager and vice president for strategic programs, explained, the company selected its partners after checking with all of the Air Force major command/communications directorates.
“When NETCENTS first started out, we did some marketing with them. We knew that there were a lot of companies that had not gotten the word yet about NETCENTS. So we added a number of partners that were the directorates’ favorites, so that’s what brought a lot of companies onto our team,” he said.
“About 75 percent of our team are small businesses—8(a)s and service-disabled companies,” Morehouse said. “It was not initially clear what effect the mandatory use policy was going to have on those companies and the level they worked at. About 20 companies are very active on NETCENTS. We’ve got a great team, with tremendous bench strength.”
NETCENTS was the most important contract for Telos last year. The company had almost $65 million in sales through it, with another $33 million in options.
“That was the first year, and now the contract is getting a lot more use in the Air Force. Like all new things, it was not really familiar to the field. But this year, the use of the contract far exceeds last year,” Morehouse said. “They’ve been through one year now, and it’s well recognized in the Air Force as the contract vehicle for networkcentric opportunities.”
Telos and its partners continue to actively market to customers, trying to understand what opportunities will be coming out so they will be ready to respond. “The solicitations are on quick turnaround times,” Morehouse noted, “so if you’ve done some advance work on it and know what’s coming, then you can put in a credible proposal.”
Indeed, Morehouse sees the agility and nimbleness of a smaller company like Telos as an important part of its NETCENTS success. “Because a lot of these tasks come out on short notice, you have to be able to be able to do things very quickly. A small business can turn some of these things more quickly than many larger companies.” ♦
