The Navy’s delay of the release of the final request for proposals (RFP) for the successor to the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) shouldn’t disrupt the timeframe for transitioning to the new system, the service said.
Space and Naval Warfare Command (SPAWAR) said recently it was delaying the release until at least after January to give industry time to review and comment on revisions to the RFP for the Next Generational Enterprise Network (NGEN).
“At this time, there is no anticipated change to the overall program schedule for contract award and transition of the network,” SPAWAR spokesman Steven Davis said recently. “With respect to the release of the NGEN RFP, any changes will be made public when they are approved and finalized.”
Two sections of the document were revised to refine requirements and the postponement was needed because they play a significant role in detailing instructions to potential bidders over how to construct their proposals, Davis said.
As the schedule currently stands, SPAWAR is to announce a winner for competition by the end of 2012 and complete the transition from NMCI to NGEN no later than April 2014.
Hewlett Packard [HP] is competing to hold on to the services it provided under NMCI. Harris Corp. [HRS] and Computer Sciences Corp. [CSC] have assembled a team seeking to unseat the incumbent bidder.
The total value of the contracts over the five-year period is expected to be $10 billion if all four options are exercised annually.