GSA Now Taking Bids on $50B Telecom Contract

After several years of planning and releasing a handful of draft requests for proposals, the General Services Administration today issued the formal RFP for its $50 billion Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract.

EIS, the agency’s follow-on to Networx, is a 15-year telecommunications infrastructure contract -- made up of already-vetted products and services -- that a host of federal agencies can use to transition their aging communications infrastructures for a modern world.

Proposals are due Jan. 15, 2016. GSA will take its time selecting award winners, with an expected unveiling in late 2016.

"The EIS acquisition demonstrates GSA’s commitment to provide federal agencies with the business solutions they need to fulfill their important missions," said Mary Davie, assistant commissioner of GSA’s Integrated Technology Services, in a statement.

The final RFP is the “culmination of an extensive and successful collaborative process” between GSA, other agencies and industry, she said.

Currently, federal agencies spend about $2 billion each year on network services through GSA’s Networx and Regional contracts. Assuming no award issues or lengthy bid protests, EIS should be available for agencies to begin leveraging by early 2017.

In preparation for EIS, GSA again extended the Networx and Regional contracts an additional three years – from 2017 to 2020 – to help ease the burden on agencies as they begin to upgrade the communications and network infrastructures that serve as the backbone of their missions in today’s modern, digital world.

In addition to managing the acquisition process, GSA has been working behind the scenes with federal agencies to improve transition planning and activities. That communication stems from lessons learned during the transition from FTS-2001 to Networx almost a decade ago. That transition took six years.

GSA is looking for a much quicker turnaround this time.