The Navy is poised to release a request for information for a follow-on contract to its massive Next Generation Enterprise Network, set to expire in June 2018. The RFI will be a "market survey" to single out key IT service providers and their methods ahead of the looming re-compete, according to a Navy release.
NGEN, itself the follow-on to the original agreement for Navy's mammoth Navy-Marine Corps Intranet, was awarded to Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services in June 2013 as a $3.45 billion contract for enterprise and transport services. NGEN provides the Navy with end-to-end secure IT services for NMCI, the largest private intranet in the world with more than 700,000 users.
The RFI was expected for release on Sept. 16.
Earlier this year Navy officials gave industry an early idea of what they'll be looking for in the re-compete, with emphasis on flexibility and scalability. A chief goal will be the ability to accommodate evolving cybersecurity and cloud capabilities in the coming years.
"We want to understand where is the best fit between what you do and how you do it, tied to government requirements. We're hoping that as we get information back it will start to answer things like should we have different contract types? Should we bundle services? Should we use the cloud?" Phil Anderson, deputy program manager for Naval Enterprise Networks, said at an industry event in May. "One of the lessons learned is that the [current] contract lets us do a lot of things, but sometimes it doesn't allow us to do things quickly. It's not a finger-pointing at anyone, it's just the way we designed it."
This will be the first RFI of two, with the second expected in the November-December time frame, according to a Navy release. There's no word yet on when a request for proposals may be expected, but it's likely the answer will depend on what the Navy gets back from the RFIs.
"We are using the insight from all responses to further solidify the requirements and to ensure that we release a quality RFP that industry will be able to bid on and execute in order to provide optimized enterprise services to our sailors and Marines," Capt. Michael Abreu, NEN program manager, said in the release.
