The DHS Offices of Procurement Operations and Chief Information Officer will host a virtual industry day on July 31, followed by the release in late August of a draft solicitation and a final solicitation in mid-October, according to a June 30 notice on the federal business opportunities website beta.sam.gov. Contract awards are projected in Jan. 2021.
Last August, DHS said it would issue the solicitation for FirstSource III in the January 2020 timeframe but then, more recently in May, the department released the draft work scope for the contract vehicle minus any procurement timelines.
The FirstSource II contract vehicle was awarded to multiple vendors in 2012. There are 40 awardees on the contract vehicle.
For FirstSource III, DHS said it expects to award a “limited suite of department-wide indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts.” Awards will be made in five separate set-aside small business tracks, including 8(a) business, Historically Underutilized Business Zone, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, Women-Owned Small Business, and the final one for all small businesses.
In addition to the draft statement of work, DHS released proposed evaluation factors and some questions to industry on ways to improve FirstSource going forward.
DHS said in the statement of work that with FirstSource III it “intends to continue efforts to standardize commodities and the procurement processes to further reduce acquisition lead-times and include managed services. Furthermore, DHS will add or remove standardized configurations as necessary to adapt to changing agency needs and market trends, such as the increased use of tablets and the transition from traditional computing to virtual infrastructure.”