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1 1 (October 19, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govdcii0001 and id is 1 raw text is: F ~ Oc$S~l rES rh$e October 19, 2020 Federal Telecommunications Modernization: Transitioning from Networx to Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions Periodically, the General Services Administration (GSA) negotiates new contracts through which federal agencies can acquire their telecommunications services. Current contracts known as Networx, Washington Interagency Telecommunications System 3, and Regional Local Service Agreements are scheduled to end on May 31, 2023. Each of these contracts has been extended twice. In FY2019, agencies spent about $2.5 billion on services acquired through these contracts, with about $2 billion going to Networx. The new GSA telecommunications services acquisition contract vehicle is Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS). On August 1, 2017, the GSA announced that it had awarded EIS contracts to 10 vendors. These contracts have a combined value of up to $50 billion and are for a possible period of up to 15 years-one 5-year base period and two 5-year option periods. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), more than 135 agencies will transition 32 types of services and millions of voice and data lines to the new contract. EIS is intended to deliver cost savings resulting from increased supplier competition and price transparency; qualified industry suppliers who can deliver a complete portfolio of cyber-security solutions; an ability to incorporate emerging technologies as they become available; and flexibility to address unique agency requirements. In 2017, GSA identified several critical milestones (Figure 1) that agencies should meet to ensure they will have completely transitioned to EIS before their current contracts expire. These dates were set in an effort to avoid the costly delays associated with previous transitions. Agencies have principal responsibility for the transition. According to GSA, agencies must identify key personnel for the transition; engage expertise from agency leadership to build a transition team of telecommunications managers, acquisition experts, and financial staff; conduct an inventory of services to be transitioned; develop a transition plan and schedule that includes GSA's major transition milestones; prepare solicitations for task orders; place task and service orders; and develop a process to review, accept/reject, and pay for services. GSA is providing assistance through a Transition Coordination Center to provide assistance with inventory validation, transition planning, and solicitation development; and Transition Ordering Assistance for requirements development, source selection, and proposal evaluation. The Transition Coordination Center was put in place in January 2016. Transition Ordering Assistance was finalized in March 2017. Figure I. Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions Timeline _1 N 'A em - u WM no k ti irl} -adt32mo - .2fh5 3mm 0- feera agence thdstde ao met te wo 01 fieeona andies not had stread tot met the fiwa (20229 milestone (Table 1). \n\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\ \\\ \\\\\ \ L \N \ I \N,\ \\ \ \ Q\\ \\\ \\\

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