GSA updates Alliant strategy

GSA Alliant page

The General Services Administration released a video today that outlines the agency's strategy for Alliant and Alliant SB, two proposed governmentwide acquisition contracts that will supplant existing GWACs that are nearing expiration.

New draft requests for proposals for the two contracts will be issued in June, said Jim Ghiloni, Alliant program manager, on the video. The contract strategy has changed enough since the first round of drafts went out in March 2005 to justify repeating that process, he said.

The final RFPs are expected in October. Contracts will be awarded in the summer of 2007, Ghiloni said.

Despite more than two years of contract development, GSA has not issued final RFPs for the program. One problem that the Alliant team has struggled with is avoiding overlap between the GWAC and the upcoming Networx telecommunications contract. With the convergence of information technology and telecommunications, separating them entirely is difficult and counterproductive, Ghiloni said. Alliant, however, is not a substitute for Networx, he said.

Other changes in the strategy include aligning Alliant's business cases with the federal enterprise architecture and including "ramps" so that companies can be added to or taken off the contracts when circumstances warrant, Ghiloni said.

GSA officials decided to issue the Web video rather than hold a traditional industry day because of the level of interest in the program and the difficulty of finding a space large enough to handle the expected attendance.