Railroad agency inks EIS services order

The Railroad Retirement Board signed a 13-year contract with AT&T for telecommunications services under the federal government's $50 billion next-generation Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) vehicle.

The RRB, an independent agency in the executive branch, issued a task order on May 17 to AT&T under the General Services Administration's EIS contract. The contract covers IT and telecom systems analysis, including web hosting services, according to a filing in the Federal Procurement Data System.

The task order is for $1 million over the first year, but it has a $10 million ceiling over 13 years, until its conclusion in 2032.

The FPDS filing shows RRB received two bids on the task order, although it didn't name the second provider.

GSA has granted the three largest EIS vendors, AT&T, CenturyLink and Verizon, official authority to respond to agency bids. The remaining six vendors are closing in on their authorities, however.

The RRB provides benefit programs for railroad workers and their families. Although its headquarters is in Chicago, the agency has over 50 field offices around the country.

The agency's CIO, Ram Murthy, was a 2019 Fed 100 winner for his work on a transformation strategy to move the RRB away from the unsupportable long-term maintenance costs for legacy systems to modernized systems that would yield long-term savings.