Library of Congress opens $40M contract for IT support
The Library of Congress, fighting its way out of an IT environment hamstrung by legacy technology, plans to spend up to $40 million on contractor support to help govern and manage its computer modernization development and investments.
The legislative branch agency published a solicitation requesting proposals from IT vendors that can support the Library’s newly formed Office of the Chief Information Officer “in accomplishing initiatives in the areas of management and governance processes, including mission and IT strategic planning, effective and efficient use of technology investments within the context of business and IT investment portfolios, service management, and improved support to the Library’s various service units for both business and IT project and program management.”
The anticipated indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract will have a five-year ordering period in which the Library can issue multiple task orders up to a $40 million ceiling, with a minimum ordering amount of $50,000. The Library’s operating plan for fiscal year 2016 dedicated about $85 million to IT spending, according to a budget justification.
The Library of Congress is seeking contractors who can provide services in the following task areas:
- Governance process development and management;
- Investment planning, selection, review and control (including portfolio analysis);
- Enterprise architecture;
- IT service management and project management policies and procedures (including change management and metrics);
- Program/business process analyses and recommendations including requirements analysis, business case analysis, cost/benefit analysis, cost effectiveness analysis, risk analysis, and schedule/milestone analysis;
- Information technology-oriented research products and services including access to an online library of contractor generated research reports and white papers, industry best practices analyses on specific topics, and consultative meetings with analysts with deep expertise in information technology disciplines and related trends.
The Library’s decision to move to independent contractors to support these IT functions comes after a series of critical audits in 2015 from its inspector general and the Government Accountability Office, which in part called for the agency to outsource a commercial firm to review its IT projects and help better manage them.
Those audits also called for the Library to appoint its first full-time CIO in years. The agency obliged, naming Bernard A. Barton Jr. to that role in September 2015, and his office took over the Library’s critical IT functions and developed a five-year strategic plan, much of which this contract will support.
The Library of Congress will accept proposals under the contract until July 29.
Contact the reporter on this story via email at Billy.Mitchell@FedScoop.com or follow him on Twitter @BillyMitchell89. Subscribe to the Daily Scoop to get all the federal IT news you need in your inbox every morning at fdscp.com/sign-me-on.
