Page 19 - FCW, November, December 2018

isn’t always evident in government initiatives, the General Services Administration built Alliant 2 to be the go-to contract for IT innovation, a vehicle of IT modernization.
Looking toward the innovation horizon, Alliant 2’s developers explicitly included “multiple areas of leading-edge technologies that
we believe will be prevalent in the government over the next 10 years,” Saeb said, citing biometrics, artificial intelligence (AI), and autonomic computing.
“We made our best-educated predictions on the types of things that will come out” of the IT pipeline and into the mainstream
in the next decade, Saeb said.
“Ten years ago, cloud was the leading edge. Now it’s incorporated everywhere.”
“We believe biometrics will be more widespread in the next 10 years,” Saeb said.
Future needs notwithstanding, Alliant 2 covers virtually every
IT service that federal agencies might need today. Companies
on the Alliant 2 contract “have a little of everything with regard to leading edge technologies to meet the requirements we perceive in government now and in the next 10 years,” Saeb said. “That in and of itself is a selling point to customers. You know Alliant 2 can meet
your goals because to get on the contract vendors need to have broad experience. They had to meet a lot of stringent metrics.”
“The competition was stiff,”
he said. “To get on Alliant 2 is extremely difficult.”
Making the Cut
Alliant 2 vendors have proven expertise in 31 standard IT labor categories as defined by the Department of Labor. Awardees completed a matrix that cross references the government’s IT service categories and industry partners’ corresponding labor competencies, allowing “government contracting offices to build
better cost estimates and overall requirements documentation,” Saeb said.
For Alliant 2 vendors, the contract’s rigor is ongoing. Vendors must meet annual goals for submitting proposals to RFQ’s and winning competitions to deliver
IT services to Alliant 2 customers “to insure that all contractors are engaged with the customer base,” Saeb said. “There are a lot of contractor participation metrics. If contractors don’t meet them, they can be removed from the GWAC.”
At the same time, Alliant 2 also allows for holding open seasons and adding vendors when doing so will provide federal agencies with access to innovative IT. “We have the ability to incorporate new technology if something comes out that needs to be added,” Saeb said. “We have the ability to add labor categories that aren’t on the contract added to the GWAC if necessary.”
“If we deem it to be within the scope of Alliant 2 and the IT realm, there’s the ability to add it,” he said.
FCW | CUSTOM REPORT
S 19
Alliant 2 – Too Far Afield
The Alliant 2 GWAC was designed to cover a breadth
of IT services, but the contract isn’t equipped to handle everything. Here are some types of acquisitions for which A2 isn’t appropriate. (This is not an exhaustive list.)
• Orders for which IT services are not the principal purpose
• Renting/Leasing – an Industry Partner, as a private party, may enter into rental or lease agreements for real or personal property in order to fulfill order requirements as a service, but the government will not be a signatory to such agreements
• Blanket Purchase Agreements – consult with a Small Business GWAC PCO for alternatives
• Oral Orders and Orders for which supplies or software/ hardware are the principle purpose