GSA sets summer expectations for EIS, Alliant 2

The General Services Administration plans to take the next steps on its massive Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract and the latest version of its Alliant governmentwide acquisition contracts in the coming months.

A notice posted on GSA's EIS Interact site on April 21 said offerors should expect to hear from the agency on the next big step for EIS in late July when it sends out questions about their contract proposals, which were filed in February.

The alert gives bidders a heads-up to prepare for a sometimes exhaustive phase in the contracting process: giving GSA specifics about their offers. In its Interact statement, the agency said it was "pleased with the level of competition" for the contract. Officials plan to award EIS near the end of this year.

The announcement follows an early April tweet by Mary Davie, assistant commissioner of GSA's Office of Integrated Technology Services, that said the Government Accountability Office had dismissed the lone bid protest filed against EIS. That ruling paved the way for the big telecommunications contract to proceed.

On its Alliant 2 Interact site, GSA officials responded to industry questions about the timing of the request for proposals for its Alliant 2 and Alliant 2 Small Business contracts by saying they planned to release the RFPs in the second half of June.

GSA will issue two presolicitation announcements on the FedBizOpps site about 15 calendar days before the RFPs' release to provide preliminary information on the documents.

Officials advised potential bidders not to use the forms and templates in previous draft RFPs to prepare their proposals because there are significant changes between drafts and formal RFPs that will likely render that kind of prep work moot.