GSA Issues Phase II Awards for USDA’s IT Modernization Centers of Excellence

October 01, 2018

Announcement marks major milestone as CoE initiative continues to grow

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. General Services Administration today announced the issuance of awards to implement critical work for each of the five GSA-led IT modernization Centers of Excellence at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. An integral part of the administration’s government-wide IT modernization plan, the CoEs provide agencies with consulting, acquisition, and IT engineering services to radically improve the way agencies design services and interact with their customers.

“I am proud of the Federal Acquisition Service, especially the Technology Transformation Services team, for making these Phase II awards and hitting this major milestone so quickly,” said GSA Administrator Emily Murphy. “USDA has been a passionate and engaged partner, and I am excited for the work about to take place. This effort will result in a better customer experience for citizens and a suite of best practices and lessons learned that can be applied across the government to ensure agencies have the tools and knowledge they need to better serve the American people.”

“USDA is extremely excited about transitioning to Phase II of our Centers of Excellence initiatives with GSA,” said USDA’s Chief Information Officer Gary Washington. “Since beginning in March of 2018, USDA has benefited from its engagement with GSA. The CoEs have helped USDA accelerate its modernization efforts across our mission areas during the first six months of our partnership.”

Partnering with industry to quickly scale up capabilities is a key part of the CoE strategy. Earlier this year, GSA previously issued awards to begin Phase I assessment and planning in March. Through the research, analysis, and customer feedback conducted during Phase I, the CoEs were able to define the scope of work necessary to accomplish key modernization goals as part of the upcoming Phase II work. GSA then issued seven Requests for Quotations in August.

From those RFQs, GSA is today announcing the award recipients, these include:

• OneUSDA Contact Center awarded to Accenture Federal Services LLC
• Voice of the Customer Tool awarded to NIC Federal LLC
• Data Analytics Capacity Building and Data Visualization and Analytics awarded to SAIC
• Customer Experience Digital Support Services awarded to Booz Allen Hamilton
• Business Modernization Office Support Services awarded to Summit Consulting LLC
• Infrastructure Optimization Cloud Adoption Multiple Award Blanket Purchase Agreements awarded to:
  • Booz Allen Hamilton
  • TechFlow, Inc.
  • Smartronix
  • SAIC
  • TechTrend, Incorporated
  • OM Group, Inc.
  • Ace Info Solutions, Inc.
  • Accenture Federal Services LLC
  • Deloitte Consulting LLP
  • T-Rex Solutions LLC

Background: The CoE initiative was formally introduced through a Request for Information issued on October 20, 2017. Additional information was released at an industry day held at the White House on December 14, 2017.

Beginning with the first lighthouse agency, USDA, each CoE tackles distinct tasks, beginning with an assessment and planning phase that results in the development of a roadmap for the successful implementation of managing centralized, function-specific talent, solutions, and acquisition vehicles. They also provide for documented and scalable best-practices that can be rapidly spread to, and adopted by, other agencies throughout the government.

Last week, GSA announced a sprint-based discovery phase with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of the CoE initiative.

About GSA: The mission of the U.S. General Services Administration is to deliver value and savings in real estate, acquisition, technology, and other mission-support services across government.

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