DISA puts computer store on hold to resolve issues

The Defense Information Systems Agency last week put on hold plans to create a virtual computer store that would provide hardware and maintenance services to the Defense Department.

The agency withdrew a draft statement of work for its Defense Information Infrastructure Equipment and Maintenance (DIIEM) program. The draft statement of work was issued two weeks ago. DIIEM awards had been scheduled for June. The program was to provide a one-stop source of products that comply with DOD's DII architecture. The procurement was to have both large-business and small-business components.

A spokeswoman for DISA said the draft statement of work is being reviewed within the agency along with comments received from industry. "Given the small-business opportunities inherent within a vehicle of this type and scope parameters must be clearly defined and potential issues resolved prior to further development " a DISA statement noted. The agency declined further comment.

While the DISA statement suggests the draft statement of work is being retooled to address small-business issues industry executives said the agency may be making adjustments to account for potential overlap with other DOD contract vehicles. They pointed out that DISA's Defense Enterprise Integration Services II program and the Air Force's Integrated Computer-Aided Software Engineering contracts also support DII.

DEIS II is designed to build DII components and create applications that are compliant with DII's Common Operating Environment. DOD is advancing COE as a standard that will allow distributed systems to interoperate.

I-CASE meanwhile provides commercial off-the-shelf software products that meet COE requirements and also offers Sun Microsystems Inc. hardware as a software development platform.

"I think the requirements they had could easily fall into one of the contract vehicles " said one executive who requested anonymity.