Defense Agencies Want a Help Desk Vendor That’s Just the Right Size
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By
Aaron Boyd
The new back-office support services will be split into virtualized and on-premise help desks.
The Defense Information Systems Agency is looking to upgrade its IT help desk services offerings but isn’t sure what size vendor would best fit the bill.
The agency released three notices for sources sought Monday, each tailored to a specific business type: an unrestricted pool open to large companies; a HUBZone set-aside for vendors based in historically underutilized areas; and a small business notice covering 8(a), service disabled veteran-owned and woman-owned businesses.
The contract winner will offer support desk services to entire fourth estate—a collection of back-office agencies within the Defense Department, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Acquisition Agency, Defense Health Agency, Missile Defense Agency, National Defense University and many others, including DISA itself.
The 2.1 million employees working within those support services must have access to the help desk 24/7/365. According to the notice, the vendors can expect to handle an average of 207,000 interactions a month.
In a divergence from the current contract, those services will be broken up across two tiers based on the contractor’s proximity to the problem. Under the new contract, the vendor will be able to handle Tier I services from their own locations, so long as they are reachable from anywhere in the world and can securely connect to the unclassified NIPR network and the secret SIPR network.
For Tier II services, the contractor will need to have representatives able to perform work in-house at each of 421 facilities in and out of the U.S. Many of those facilities are close to one another, creating a total of 50 locations in the continental U.S. and 36 offshore.
Contracting officers will use the information gathered to plan the final solicitation, including the business size of the prime contract holder and potential subprime partners.
The current contract is held by Unitech Consulting, an 8(a) small business.
Responses to each of the notices are due by 10 a.m. on Oct. 16.