The State Department issued a Sources Sought Notice to its RFI for the EVOLVE contract vehicle intended to identify qualified U.S. small businesses capable of and interested in providing IT services for current and evolving IT requirements in classified, unclassified, and sensitive but unclassified (SBU) environments worldwide.
The department emphasized that no small business set-aside determination has been made. Responses to the sources sought are expected to give the government the information it needs to make set-aside determinations for each pool.
The government will post its small business set-aside determination for each pool on the contract announcement after the review of the sources sought.
Responses from other than small businesses will not be reviewed. The Department of State welcomes the participation of qualified Joint Ventures and also encourages teaming to ensure an effective solution. Small Business that are in or are considering Joint Ventures are encouraged to respond to the source sought. Responses will be considered in selecting the acquisition strategy and to determine the appropriateness of setting aside requirement groupings within an IDIQ for any one of the small business programs described in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 19.
IRM is currently undergoing a re-organization. Part of this re-organization will involve changing from a technology-centric approach of managing IT services to a more project-based approach. IRM intends to make multiple awards to meet IRM’s IT-Service needs. These awards will also help to transform IRM’s operating model to a Plan, Build, Test, Run, Support life cycle with improved customer service. The government intends to have a five-year period of performance for the IT-Services IDIQ.
In addition to this and in accordance with Executive Order 14028, the Federal Government must bring to bear the full scope of its authorities and resources to protect and secure its computer systems, whether they are cloud-based, on-premises, or hybrid. The scope of protection and security must include systems that process data (information technology (IT)) and those that run the vital machinery that ensures our safety (operational technology (OT)).
The Federal Government must adopt security best practices; advance toward Zero Trust Architecture; accelerate movement to secure cloud services, including Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS); centralize and streamline access to cybersecurity data to drive analytics for identifying and managing cybersecurity risks; and invest in both technology and personnel to match these modernization goals.
The Evolve solicitation will consist of five competition pools/functional categories (FC). Contractors will be able to choose to submit a proposal for– one, many, or all of the pools /FCs with the exception of Pool One. To avoid Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI’s), contractors who submit a proposal for Pool One and receive an award will not be considered for an award under pools 2-5. The Pools are:
- Pool One – IT Management
- Pool Two – Networks & Telecom Services
- Pool Three – Cloud & Data Center
- Pool Four – Application Services
- Pool Five – Customer & End User Services
To compete for an award within a given pool, a contractor must have the capability to meet each of the requirements listed in the Pool Descriptions. In this document, the services listed within each pool is not meant to be exhaustive; these lists are meant to be representative of the services to be delivered.
Read the Sources Sought Notice and RFI
