Dear CBE Community:

Since 2008, the District has worked with OST, Inc. to provide professional IT resources to the Government of the District of Columbia. The IT Staff Augmentation program, commonly referred to as ITSA, is critical to the operations of dozens of District agencies who depend on ITSA resources for their IT needs, and has a requirement to subcontract 95% to Certified Business Enterprises (CBEs).  When the initial long-term contract expired in 2013, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) and the Office of Contracting and Procurement (OCP) agreed that the program needed to be modernized to fit the current needs of the District. While the District worked to develop the requirements, the contract with OST, Inc. was extended twice through September 30, 2015. OCTO, with support from OCP, developed new requirements and on October 1, 2015, the District extended the contract again and notified OST, Inc. that the ITSA contract would expire on October 1, 2016.

Beginning in March 2016, OCP partnered with OCTO and the Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD) to host a series of outreach events during which the pending expiration of the ITSA contract was discussed in detail, because we understood the broad reach of the ITSA contract. The events, held in March, April, June, and August, were public and targeted to the CBE community through DSLBD’s outreach efforts. At these events, OCTO and OCP stated that OST’s contract was set to expire, and the District’s intent was to issue a new solicitation for Temporary IT staffing. OCTO and OCP notified CBEs to apply to the DC Supply Schedule prior to the expiration of the ITSA contract to meet the District’s short-term staff augmentation requirements. Further, DSLBD sent out multiple updates to the CBE community regarding ITSA and the new Temporary IT staffing solicitation. 

The solicitation for the new program, Pipeline, was issued in May 9, 2016 and closed on June 16, 2016. The Pipeline program also sets aside 95% of the augmented resources for fulfillment by CBEs.  During the evaluation of proposals, a protest was filed at the District’s Contract Appeals Board (CAB), delaying the award of the new contract. The District continues to have IT staff augmentation needs, and will fulfill them in the future through the new Pipeline program.  In an effort to avoid an interruption in critical services while the protest was pending at the CAB, the District extended the contract with OST, Inc. for six months with limited usage. The District is also awarding short-term contracts to multiple CBE firms to cover the gaps between the ITSA contract and the award of the Pipeline contract.

With continuity of government operations in mind, OCP compiled a list of the CBE firms that currently provide resources as subcontractors to OST through the ITSA program.  Starting with the CBE firms with the greatest number of ITSA resources, the list was compared to the list of CBE firms that have DCSS contracts for staffing.  Mr. White, with support from stakeholder agencies, reviewed each DCSS category to determine that schedule’s capacity to meet the District’s requirements.   The CBE firms with current DCSS contracts and that met the District’s requirements were solicited to submit a proposal for the short-term District requirements.  Multiple task orders were awarded to firms that passed a basic compliance check, had a history of quality past performance, and submitted a proposal with the price and technical specifications (i.e., recruiting, background check, time submittal) that could meet requirements for multiple District agencies. Some firms’ DCSS contracts had limited ceiling capacity and those CBE firms offered their GSA schedules instead. Many of those GSA schedules met the District’s requirement and had more capacity without contract ceiling restrictions.   All task order awards, with one exception, were made to CBE firms. In total, the District awarded task orders to 24 CBE firms via the DC Supply Schedules and six CBE firms via their GSA Schedules.  The CBE firms awarded task orders are:

 

No	Contract Type	Agency	Contract Number	Vendor
1	GSA	OCTO	CW46348	Networking for Future
2	GSA	OCTO	CW46358	Avid Systems
3	GSA	OCTO	CW46380	ANC
4	GSA	OCTO	CW47015	IUI  (DOES)
5	GSA	DHS	CW46512	Avid Systems, Inc.
6	GSA	DHS	CW46568	ANC
7	DCSS	OCTO	CW47163	KLSL
8	DCSS	OCTO	CW45897	Ross Professional Services
9	DCSS	OCTO	CW45928	PTS
10	DCSS	OCTO	CW46980	CSZNet
11	DCSS	OCTO	CW47160	Datapillars
12	DCSS	OCTO	CW47166	Datanet Systems Corporation
13	DCSS	OCTO	CW45924	Midtown Personnel, Inc.
14	DCSS	OCTO	CW47099	Synergetic Information Systems
15	DCSS	OCTO	CW47038	PC Net
16	DCSS	OCTO	CW47017	PMC
17	DCSS	OCTO	CW47105	Tandem
18	DCSS	OCTO	CW47219	PTS, Inc.
19	DCSS	OCTO	CW47094	Razavi Application Developers
20	DCSS	OUC	CW47125	The Triage Group, LLC
21	DCSS	OCTO	CW47103	Telecommunications Development Corporation
22	DCSS	OCTO	CW47100	Tecknomic LLC
23	DCSS	DHS	CW46953	ANC
24	DCSS	DCPS	CW47129	Corporate System Resources, Inc.
25	DCSS	OCTO	CW46728	InCapsulate, LLC
26	DCSS	OCTO	CW46957	ANC
27	DCSS	OCTO	CW46721	The Triage Group, LLC
28	DCSS	DCRA	CW47285	Limbic
29	DCSS	OCTO	CW47253	Software Information Resource Corporation
30	DCSS	OCFO		Maru

 

The awards fulfill all of the District’s requirements and OCP does not have indication that additional awards are required at this time.

The District is fully committed to a transparent procurement process that follows the rules and regulations of contracting in the District, specifically those that ensure proper utilization of CBE resources. We recognize that there are some concerns that the District is engaged in steering resources previously supplied under ITSA. The District is not directing any resources to leave their current employers, nor is the District directing them to any particular contractor. Some of the CBE firms that were awarded task orders are aggressively recruiting existing ITSA resources. Those discussions are between the ITSA resources and the companies seeking IT staff. 

Should you have any questions or need further information on the procurement process, please contact Derrick White, Chief Contracting Officer at the Office of the Chief Technology Officer at 202-724-5278.

Thank you,

Ana Harvey, Director
Department of Small and Local Business Development

George A. Schutter, III
Chief Procurement Officer
District of Columbia