EAGLE contract will save DHS $40 million

DHS has awarded twenty-five new contracts which the department says will save it $40 million a year in IT contract administration fees which it must now pay other departments. In addition, and more importantly, these contracts will help DHS achieve interoperability, standardization, and compliance with the department’s enterprise architecture, Charlie Armstrong, DHS deputy chief information officer, told FCW. DHS announced on 29 June that it had awarded indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts to twenty-five companies for Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading Edge solutions, or EAGLE. EAGLE contracts have a five-year base with two one-year options for renewal, for a total estimated value of $45 billion. The vehicle establishes a department-wide acquisition program for IT services in five functional areas: infrastructure engineering design, development, implementation and integration; operations and maintenance; independent test, validation, verification, and evaluation; software development; and management support services.

EAGLE will help DHS reduce the time it takes to identify program requirements and award task orders, Armstrong said. As part of the program, DHS will also upgrade its procurement systems to process electronic purchase orders. Some in the industry view EAGLE favorably, saying it is well-designed; they say that the fact that DHS has limited the number of companies with which DHS does business to a small group of well-known systems integrators would make for a smoother operation. Others, however, say that handing all the business to a few large integrators would make it difficult for midsize companies to participate in its programs.