GSA wants cloud and agility with COMET

The General Services Administration is looking to transform tech at the Federal Acquisition Service's with cloud platforms and agile development.

GSA's CIO Modernization and Enterprise Transformation (COMET) request for information issued on Nov. 21 focuses on the agile development and the cloud platform model to help transform business services at FAS. According to the RFI, the agency is planning a single architectural and programmatic service contract, as well as a multiple award, blanket purchase agreement contract for app maintenance, enhancement and transformation services.

COMET is a recompete of GSA'S CAMEO contract that supports the main IT environment at FAS, encompassing GSA Global Supply, Multiple Award Schedules, Personal Property Management, Travel, Fleet, Purchase Card Services, and Integrated Technology programs.

GSA has been working with industry to develop a flexible agile, cloud-based approach to COMET. It held an industry day for the developing contract in August.

The RFI provides more detail about how GSA wants to execute COMET. The agency said its CIO Office of Acquisition IT Services will work with industry to accelerate development and deployment of applications, but also wants industry innovation and implementation of "cloud ready" solutions that can be immediately, or eventually ported to cloud-based infrastructure or platforms as a service that don't require a lot of architecture redesign.

The agency wants the BPA to support agile delivery services, including IT management and governance, business process analysis, user-centered design, agile solution architecture and design, agile application development and configuration, analytics, integration, and DevOps using the agency's IT Schedule 70 or other IT government wide acquisition contracts.

GSA didn't provide an estimated contract value in the RFI, but task orders to Leidos and Alliant Solutions Partners under CAMEO had a combined ceiling value of more than $168 million, according to GovWin data. At the GSA industry day last August, agency officials stressed the new CAMEO contract would focus on "true digital transformation" as opposed to the "replatforming of siloed applications" and help FAS customers realign their development and legacy spending.