Page 8 - FCW, September 15, 2017

ADMC-2
CDW-G DELIVERS
ARMY TECH CONTRACT JOINS ELITE LEVEL
The Army’s ADMC-2 contract has evolved to help equip the Army with the latest technology.
HE OFFICE OF
MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET (OMB) made the Army Desktop and Mobile Computing-2 (ADMC-2) a “Best-in-Class” federal IT contract earlier this year.
It is just one of four so far to be given that designation. It specifies ADMC-2 as one contract all agencies, military and civilian, should consider as a preferred source for their IT needs.
The most prominent aspect
of ADMC-2, is the Consolidated Buy (CB). The consolidated buy consists of two buying periods (Jan-March and June-Sept). During the two CBs, the eight ADMC-2 vendors regularly offer additional volume discounts on top of the contract’s already low
pre-negotiated rates, and users can go to ADMC-2 to get desktop, laptop, and peripheral systems at large discounts.
Historical data shows buyers have gotten discounts of over 50 percent on certain hardware models compared to catalog prices, says Doug Haskins, product lead for the Army Computer Hardware, Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS), which has ADMC-2 as one of its contracts. “So I think we do a good job in driving the prices down from these items.”
The other goal of ADMC-2, which as a CHESS contract is mandatory for Army purchases, is to help improve IT standardization across the service. That’s more difficult to quantify, says Haskins, but when a
customer buys from ADMC-2 during the CB, they don’t have to worry about various compliance issues. The base systems vendors supply throughout a CB are already certified as complying with such things as the Trade Agreements Act (TAA) and Energy Star specs.
There are also technical requirements to ensure all systems bought throughout CB periods meet the Army’s performance and security standards to work
on the Army network. That will
be especially important during the Army’s move to Windows 10, which is mandated for all systems and set to be fully deployed by early 2018.
“There are some unique hardware requirements for enabling (Microsoft’s) Device
ADMC INCREASES CB FREQUENCY
The next iteration of the contract— ADMC-3—will be similar in scope to ADMC-2, and has already gone through the competition process. The biggest change is the Consolidated Buys will expand to three four-month periods, from the two three-month periods with ADMC-2.
Those back-to-back periods should help get new technology with improved specs that users need out to them faster, says Doug Haskins, CHESS product lead. The defense agency customers always have a chance to spend whenever they need.
“With things like the continuing resolution and other budget issues they’ve faced in recent years, Army customers can’t really plan on getting their money when they ask for it,” he says. “So if they get it in March and the CB window closes, they now have to wait another three months until they can spend it on a CB.”
They often can’t wait that long to get the IT they need, he says, and may have to look elsewhere. The new CB setup will also mean more frequent technology insertions, with new specs available to users every four months instead of every six with the two-period CB frequency.