The Department of Energy is examining what it would take to overhaul the IT behind its business operations, possibly resulting in a contract that could be worth up to $850 million.
Last week, the department’s chief information officer posted a small business sources sought notice related to the CIO Business Operations Support Services portion of its IT portfolio.
In the posting, the department said it is gathering market research on contractors that could support cybersecurity and shared services, including network, infrastructure, application support and asset management.
“Key to building a successful IT organization is the development and implementation of shared services,” the document reads. “OCIO must target enterprise solutions, reducing the number of duplicate IT services used throughout the Department, while improving both collaboration and cybersecurity by fostering the standardized IT processes associated with these centralized services.”
The information from this request will be used in conjunction with a forthcoming suite of blanket purchase agreements or an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract.
According to the department, the contract will either be a one-year base period with four one-year options or a five-year period without any options.
Energy’s acquisition team has yet to determine how small businesses will be able to bid on the project’s work. According to the Small Business Administration, the size standard — the maximum amount of money a designated small business can earn in one year — is $27.5 million.
Companies interested in submitting information to the department must answer a questionnaire and include examples of prior government contracts.
An optional question in the sources sought document shines some light on the department’s broader IT modernization work. In the document, the department says two of its data centers are at capacity and lack the power, cooling and floor space needed to support modern technologies inside the agency.
Furthermore, the CIO is interested in feedback on migrating Linux and Windows workloads onto a FedRAMP-approved, infrastructure-as-a-service cloud.
The sources sought notice has been a long time coming: It’s a supplement to a previous procurement document released in June 2014. Since that time, Energy has had three chief information officers.
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