The Navy released the final Service, Management, Integration and Transport (SMIT) Request for Proposals (RFP) on Thursday under the service’s Next Generation Enterprise Networks Re-compete (NGEN-R).
SMIT is one of the two components in the NGEN-R, the follow-on to the Navy’s current enterprise-wide information technology services contract vehicle, NGEN. NGEN provides IT services to the Navy and Marine Corps personnel within the continental United States (CONUS) through the Marine Corps Enterprise Network (MCEN) and the Navy Marine Corps Internet (NMCI).
NGEN-R is set to add coverage outside CONUS (OCONUS) via the OCONUS Navy Enterprise Network (ONE-Net).
NGEN-R splits up the original IT vehicle into SMIT and End User Hardware (EUHW), meant to in part help drive down costs. The two winners will be required to work together.
SMIT includes print services, software core build services, service desk, and computer network defense while EUHW covers hardware as a service and hardware for purchase. The EUHW RFP encompasses EUHW used on the NMCI, ONE-Net, and MCEN.
The new SMIT RFP was released on FedBizOpps with responses by Jan. 10, 2019. The Navy said it expects to award a single contract with a performance period lasting five base years with three one-year options.
In the notice the Navy said the Service Management part of SMIT is the organizational capacity that facilitates the planning, provisioning, delivery, operation, and sustainment of service management services used on the NMCI, ONE-Net, and MCEN.
Integration means “effective seamless management” with other NGEN-R contractors, while transportation means full life cycle management and support for the installation, operations, monitoring, and modernization of the network infrastructure.
Previously the Navy published the RFP for EUHW in September in FedBizOpps with a deadline of Nov. 19. That RFP said the Navy intends to obtain EUHW as a service (EUHWaaS) and/or as a supply for use on the Navy Department’s classified and unclassified networks.
The RFP noted the vehicle includes computers, tablets, virtual desktops, and associated peripherals like monitors and keyboards. EUHW as a service will include the provisioning, storage, configuration, hardware maintenance, and end-of-term disposition of workstations and associated peripherals.
The EUHW RFP underscored that in acquiring EUHWaaS, “the Government is only acquiring the service of use an EUHW device. This is not a purchase, and titles for all EUHWaaS devices remain with the contractor.”
EUHWaaS specifically includes the provisioning, storage of spares, configuration, testing, integration, installation, operation, and maintenance of the military’s unclassified NIPRNet and Secret-level SIPRNet EUHW.
The competition for NGEN-R is between teams led by Leidos [LDOS] and incumbent Perspecta. (Defense Daily, Feb. 5).
In early September the Navy awarded Perspecta a $787 million contract to extend the existing NGEN award through September 2019 (Defense Daily, Sept. 6).
Perspecta, a merger of DXC Technology’s [DXC] U.S. public sector business, Vencore and Keypoint Government Solutions, provides the existing NGEN services via inheriting the former DXC business. The contract was originally awarded to Hewlett Packard’s [HP] Enterprise Services business, which later moved to DXC and now is under Perspecta.
That NGEN extension came with an expected eight-month option period.
These RFPs were delayed from the original schedule, which called for awards by June. In September 2017 the Navy announced it was pushing the award schedule for NGEN-R to late 2018, expecting to award the EUHW contract by November and SMIT by December (Defense Daily, Sept. 20, 2017).
Last year Navy officials said the NGEN extension extended the original SMIT portion 23 months and EUHW by up to 39 months (Defense Daily, Sept. 27, 2017).