Army researches contract to fill ITES gaps

Small businesses will have another chance to snag a contract with the Army. This fiscal year, the Army Small Computer Program plans to award a $23 million multiple-award contract for information technology services to small businesses. The contract will complement the Army’s Information Technology Enterprise Services – 2, said Micki Laforgia, project director at ACSP. The Army has yet to release the request for proposals for the IT Services – Small Business contract, and is still working out its acquisition strategy. Jan. 18 was the deadline to submit input on the Army’s market research, Laforgia said. The contract won’t be “baby ITES,” Laforgia said. Instead it will offer services not covered by the older, larger contract. Speaking Thursday at a breakfast meeting in Bethesda, Md., Laforgia said the Army found that ITES-2 doesn’t cover certain areas, such as maintenance on some equipment, and when the contract was written, recent requirements, such as green IT, didn’t exist. The set-aside contract aims to fill those gaps. Laforgia said she hopes the research will turn up more areas that aren't includes in ITES that ITS-SB should cover. There’s a lot of interest in the contract based on the number of Web site hits, she said. The notice on the contract states that contractors will be required to support at least a secret security clearance, and some tasks may require a top-secret and sensitive compartmented information security clearance.