GSA Awards $800M Contract to Support Internal Use of Emerging Tech

The General Services Administration—which has carved out a niche helping other agencies modernize IT systems—is turning inward with a new $807 million task order to NCI Information Systems, which will act as adviser for the agency’s own modernization efforts.

The Digital Innovation for GSA Infrastructure Technologies, or DIGIT, contract will help GSA’s internal digital infrastructure team field the latest advancements in technologies like automation and cloud.

“With IT environments in the government and private sector evolving, GSA IT requirements shifted toward a more agile model for operations with an emphasis on digital transformation and value creation for customers,” a GSA spokesperson told Nextgov. “This award will provide the technical expertise required to move the government closer to industry leading practices in IT modernization, improving access and quality of services to internal customers and reducing delivery costs.”

The Office of Digital Infrastructure Technologies, or IDT, previously known as the IT Office of Infrastructure and Operations, was officially restructured last year to “shift from project-based stovepipes into product-based plan-build-run or intake-broker-integrate-orchestrate teams,” according to a description of a GSA-hosted Tech Talk with Brian Muolo, deputy CIO of the newly named office.

“The strategic value of this new business model lies in leveraging existing technology, resources and vendor relationships in a new utility service environment, while improving access and quality of services to clients, and reducing costs of delivery,” the description states, all toward the broader goal of improving GSA’s internal IT.

The IDT Office works with GSA components on internal IT issues like help desk and on-site support; device management; network and telecommunications support; and identity, credential and access management.

The contract—awarded as a task order off of GSA’s Alliant 2 governmentwide acquisition contract, or GWAC, vehicle—taps NCI as “a strategic partner” in this modernization effort, which includes “the agency’s shift to a fully digital experience along with its adoption of advanced, emerging technologies such as intelligent automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning,” according to a company announcement issued Thursday.

As a strategic partner, “the contractor shall leverage the latest technologies and best practices to continuously drive innovation, expand refresh capabilities, and ensure platforms and IT infrastructure operations provide optimal performance,” according to the task order request for proposals issued in August.

The performance work statement outlines eight specific objectives for the task order:

• Provide a cohesive automation strategy aligned with GSA’s mission needs to avoid creating silos of automation devoid of platform agility.
• Deliver, maintain and improve secure environments for GSA and associated customers centered on enterprisewide infrastructure, hardware and software supporting a full range of end-user services; communications and collaboration; wired and wireless networking and telecommunications; compute, storage, and server technologies (e.g., hyper convergence/cloud); and experience management (e.g., network, application, and performance monitoring).
• Leverage and support the drive for continuous improvements and new processes necessary to deliver customer experience, business value and innovation (e.g., disruptive technologies such as automation, new cloud services, and [artificial intelligence/machine learning).
• Assist GSA IDT with realigning tool investments to maximize experience management, delivery automation and performance analysis.
• Position GSA IDT to enhance and expand self-service and reduce technical debt and legacy infrastructure via automation over time.
• Create, support and conduct analysis of performance measures, which drive business value, via dashboards and metric reporting for role-based access and requirements.
• Provide comprehensive and flexible support through evolving delivery models and frameworks (e.g., [IT Infrastructure Library] 4, development, security, DevSecOps, DevNet, and agile) for IT service delivery and support to on-site and teleworking users.
• Assist GSA IDT with transitioning to Anything-as-a-Service (XaaS) and consumption-based models for service delivery.

NCI noted the contract is the company’s largest award in its 31-year history.

“GSA is a new customer for NCI, and we are honored they have trusted us to lead this effort,” Paul Dillahay, NCI president and CEO, said in the release, calling the award “a watershed moment” for the company. “Modernizing GSA’s legacy infrastructure, technology and workforce will accelerate operational processes and create more efficient ways to serve the agency’s internal customers.”

The contract has a base of one year, with options to extend the task order up to six additional years.