Federal Contracting: A Decade In Review
10 Major Events of the 2010s
As we enter 2020, our team reflected on some of the major events that affected the Federal contracting industry this decade across a few areas.
Contract Vehicles
OASIS Unrestricted On-Ramp: This best-in-class vehicle, incorporating subject matter such as program management, management consulting, engineering and scientific services as well as financial services was awarded in May 2019 with a period of performance lasting ten years. Also, with a total ceiling value of $60B spread out among 244 vendors, this vehicle is heavily utilized by multiple government departments and agencies. This vehicle has a small business counterpart (OASIS SB) and also has multiple on ramping opportunities as well for vendors looking to get involved.
Alliant 2 Unrestricted: A best-in-class vehicle that was awarded in July 2018 to 62 entities, Alliant 2 has a $50B ceiling value that provides best-value IT services to numerous federal agencies. This vehicle offers numerous cutting edge IT services ranging from 3-D printing, to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence solutions, all of which can be solicited for a wide-breadth of agencies including Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Defense (DoD), and the General Services Administration (GSA) to only name a few agencies that utilize this vehicle. The small business counterpart (Alliant 2 Small Business) has a separate ceiling value of approximately $27M. Alliant 2 was created in coordination with the Federal Enterprise Architecture and the DoD Enterprise Architecture, thus creating an environment that allows contracts to be at the cutting edge of the newest technological innovations.
CIO-SP3 Unrestricted: A vehicle procured by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within HHS, CIO-SP3 is a ten-year IDIQ with a period of performance beginning June 2012 and ending in May 2022. With a ceiling value of $20B and over 137 labor categories spanning from bioinformatics software/services, scientific computing, modernizing health IT systems to biomedical simulation and much more, this vehicle has been a staple for NIH and many related agencies in providing innovative and effective health IT solutions.
8(a) STARS II: A best-in-class vehicle released in September 2011 with a ceiling value of $10B, 8(a) STARS II specializes in acquiring IT services for the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Defense, and the Treasury Department. This large vehicle has allowed numerous small businesses to compete and offer their innovative IT solutions for nearly two decades. This large GWAC continues to provide numerous IT services for a plethora of federal agencies.
Technology & Solution Innovations
Cloud: In 2010 the Obama Administration developed the 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management, which first introduced the movement of “Cloud First” to the federal government. Following this in 2011, the Cloud-First strategy was shared by the White House to accelerate the pace at which the federal government should begin to implement cloud technologies. In late 2017, the 2018 implementation of the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act began; and with this Act, there has been a continued emphasis on transitioning legacy systems to commercial cloud computing.
Transition from Waterfall to Agile: This decade witnessed the transition from Waterfall development to Agile development methodologies in the federal sector. Waterfall, traditionally used by the government to develop software and applications, has been outpaced by the newer Agile methodology. Agile development focuses on the ability to create and respond to change throughout the development process and is often included in DevOps and DevSecOps.
Mobile: Many government agencies picked up on the use of mobile technology in early 2011, and it quickly became a staple technological need of many federal organizations. Industry has brought many mobile technologies to all federal agencies, the most notable including increased interoperability, simplified document processing, increased accessibility to federal applications, and efficiency in government employees working in the field.
Major News & Policy Shifts
Government Shutdown: The longest United States federal government shutdown occurred on December 22, 2018 and lasted until January 25, 2019. At the heart of the dispute was an appropriation bill that did not include funding for a wall along the US-Mexico border desired by the White House. Approximately 380,000 federal employees were furloughed, and an additional 420,000 employees for the affected agencies were expected to work with their pay delayed until the end of the shutdown, totaling 800,000 workers affected out of 2.1 million civilian non-postal federal employees. At the end, President Trump agreed to endorse a stopgap bill to reopen the government for a short period, and then later signed the spending bill to keep the federal government progressing. As a result, many federal workers, as well as contractors were able to resume work without the fear of another shutdown.
OPM Data Breach: In April 2015, the government experienced a cybersecurity breach of millions of SF-86 forms and fingerprint IDs of both federal employees and contractors. This breach occurred in the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), an independent government agency in charge of managing the government’s civilian workforce. The span of the attack can be traced to December of 2013, when the systems of two government contractors, USIS and KeyPoint, were breached. These contractors had access to OPM servers, as they conducted background checks for government employees.
FISMA: In 2014, President Barack Obama signed a bill reforming the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA), which provided a framework for the development and maintenance of minimum-security controls to protect federal information systems, to Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA). The new law authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to assist the Office of Management and Budget Director in administering the implementation of agency information and security practices for federal information systems. FISMA allows for additional potential contract opportunities because the law explicitly recognizes that commercially developed information security products offer advanced, dynamic, robust, and effective information security solutions.
