NASA dishing up SEWP III

NASA plans to release a draft solicitation by the end of the month for a second follow-on to its popular Scientific and Engineering Workstation Procurement contract.

SEWP III will pick up where SEWP II leaves off when the $1.8 billion governmentwide contract ends in November. SEWP II has 14 prime contracts that offer workstations, peripherals, network equipment and other services to all federal agencies and their contractors.

NASA announced Monday that it plans to release a draft solicitation for comment by June 30. The space agency plans a formal request for proposals on or about July 30.

Documents will be posted at the SEWP III home page. NASA plans to award indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts for nine computer systems/servers classes and five supporting equipment classes.

Several companies have already expressed interest on the SEWP III procurement site, including ACL Computers, Avtec Systems Inc., CDW-G, Creative Computers, PCMall.com, Comark Federal Systems Inc., Compaq Computer Corp., Federal Data Corp., GTSI Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp., Silicon Graphics Federal Inc., Sun Microsystems Federal Inc. and iGov.com.

SEWP's main purpose is to ensure the availability of the most appropriate commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software for the NASA science and engineering community through IDIQ vehicles, NASA told potential vendors during an industry information session on Dec. 6, 1999.

NASA has no plans to offer services through the contracts — unlike the Outsourcing Desktop Initiative for NASA, a 10-year effort to outsource replacement and management of desktop computers and help desks governmentwide.

SEWP has developed a partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency and collaborates with other federal agencies but is still focused on the high-tech needs of NASA, officials said at the industry briefing.