Editor's Note: This article was originally published on Sept. 4, 2014.
The Homeland Security Department's Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading Edge Solutions II contracting platform has a few notable features that make it stand out among other vehicles.
Prime vendors value the ability to team with other subcontractors at any time under EAGLE II. There is potential for accelerating the procurement process because of smaller competition pools in two out of the three functional categories under the information technology sourcing vehicle, relative to other vehicles. In addition, the requirement for prime contractors to compete within only one of the three functional categories, without crossing into the other two, should simplify the procurement process. EAGLE I has five functional categories, but EAGLE II only has three because EAGLE II's FC1 includes the same types of work that are covered in EAGLE I's FC1, FC2 and FC4.
Several contractors agreed it makes sense to allow post-award teaming, a facet seen with some but not all vehicles. For example, post-award teaming is not allowed under DHS' PACTS 1 contract, for non-IT Program Management, Administrative, Clerical and Technical Services. The feature allows companies, conceivably, to assemble a different team for each task order solicitation, depending on the scope of work.
The government itself doesn't know how the technology will evolve over the next few years, "so the ability to add teammates over time allows us to be a better contractor to the government," said Kim Nguyen, chief business development officer of Pragmatics in Reston, Virginia, an FC3 unrestricted awardee.
Brian Baker, teaming coordinator for Ambit Group in Reston, Virginia, which received an FC2 small business award, said the ability to add special or niche expertise when needed is helpful.
"That should ultimately benefit more creative thinking and solution development for the government," Baker said. "It would be impossible to think that in 2010 you could comprehensively construct a team that would be able to build the right solutions for a mission-specific problem in 2015. The flexibility is key."
Baker also said that the relatively smaller number of pre-qualified awardees in EAGLE II's functional categories 2 and 3, compared to the bigger pools in similar governmentwide acquisition contracts, should theoretically speed the procurement process.
Kevin Murray, president of TestPros Inc. of Sterling, Virginia, a small business FC3 awardee, said EAGLE II should save components time over a full-fledged procurement because the department already vetted the vendors' references, prices and qualifications.
"They can reach out and get contractor support much more quickly now," Murray said. "They've had a lot of new work that they wanted to get done that just couldn't get funded the last few years. Now that they have the funding, they have this backlog of requirements and needs. EAGLE II most likely would be fastest way to get at that."
Requiring prime contractors to choose only one of three work areas helps avoid conflicts of interest and clarifies instances where conflicts might exist, which in turn, should prevent some protests that would slow down the process, vendors said.
"As prime vendors, we have to stay within our lane," Baker said.
Suzanne Petrie Liscouski, vice president for federal civilian agencies at NCI Information Systems headquartered in Reston, Virginia, said DHS was smart to restrict lane-changing.
"My sense is it will make it much easier for them to make [organizational conflicts of interest] stand out," said Liscouski, whose company received an FC1 unrestricted award. "The rules are certainly more simple to understand on both sides."
Barbara Rosenbaum, vice president for Capgemini Government Solutions' federal practice, said it's important, for example, that her company maintain its autonomy by staying out of FC1 — systems design, development and integration — so it can effectively provide the Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) work in FC3. With IV&V, contractors check up on other contractors' work.
"I think it was well thought out in terms of how they set it up," Rosenbaum said.
Capgemini, which has some EAGLE II bids pending before DHS, will help give components "the security of knowing whether their IT projects are meeting their expectations, whether they're making the right decisions," said Nancy Meiers, Capgemini's EAGLE II program manager. "We also help in terms of providing those warning signs to reduce the risk and to prevent project failure."
Ideally, IV& V starts at the beginning of a project, Meiers said. "That's where you reap the most return on your investment, but not every agency does that. We insert ourselves earlier in the process, so that by the time we assess deliverables, they're usually right on target."
Murray of TestPros, another company awarded the chance to compete for EAGLE II IV&V work, put it this way: "Are we building the right system, and are we building the system right? Our job is simply to be a watchdog on behalf of DHS."
