6 contracting opportunities to jump on in 2020

Here are six of the biggest contracts of the coming year, according to a Jan. 15 Bloomberg Government webinar, as well as a few notable opportunities for small ...

This story has been updated to reflect OPM’s estimate of the value of the USA Hire contract, which conflicts with estimates from Bloomberg Government.

With nearly 20,000 contracting opportunities scheduled or estimated for 2020, vendors have a lot to sort through in determining their priorities for the upcoming year. Many of those contracts are for IT systems or services. The vast majority, around 17,000, come from the civilian side, but tend to be somewhat smaller. On the other hand, there are only around 3,000 on the defense side, but they trend larger.

Here are six of the biggest contracts of the coming year, according to a Jan. 15 Bloomberg Government webinar, as well as a few notable opportunities for small businesses as well. Time frames and values are estimates of either federal agencies or Bloomberg Government.

Army IT Enterprise Solutions – 4 Hardware

Unlike most of the other contracts listed here, this one has already kicked off. The Army Contracting Command posted a request for information on Jan. 13. The Army is looking for a vendor to provide commercial-off-the-shelf IT hardware and services. Desktops, servers, workstations and storage, among other things.

This contract is worth around $10 billion, and the request-for-proposals is expected around March, 2020. This is a recompete.

Naval Information Warfare Systems Command

The Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS) Joint Tactical Radio System was awarded back in 2015, and will be up for recompete this year. The goal is a radio system that allows real-time sharing of tactical information among sea, land and air military assets.

Its estimated value is more than $1 billion, but it has multiple awards that could be distributed to more than one company.

Pacific Transport Services

The Defense Information Systems Agency, essentially the Pentagon’s IT shop, is looking for transmission services for its enterprise-level telecommunications infrastructure in the Pacific region. This recompete is estimated to go to $2.5 billion by 2024.

Defense Research and Engineering (DREN-4)

DISA has already put this contract, seeking wide area network capability for Defense Department research and development, out in RFP. Vendors have until Jan. 27 to respond. This recompete is valued anywhere between $250 million and $1 billion.

MC4 Logistics and Engineering Support

The Army is also turning to the General Services Administration to administer its contract for medical communications for combat casualty care (MC4) logistics and engineering support. This recompete is expected to release in June 2020 and is estimated to be worth $500 million.

USA Hire

On the civilian side, GSA is also administering a contract for the Office of Personnel Management, which is looking for vendors for the operation and maintenance of its USA Hire website. The RFP for this recompete is expected to be released in March. BGOV estimated this contract to be worth $500 million, although OPM told Federal News Network that estimate is high.

“We are estimating an absolute max of $200 million for a five-year period for the operation and maintenance of USA Hire’s website,” Anthony Marruci, director of communications at OPM, said in an email.

Small business Opportunities

Though many of the above contracts will likely go to major vendors, BGOV also pointed out a few opportunities for small businesses to carve out some space for themselves. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has 13 IT opportunities coming up for grabs in 2020, with a total value of around $1.1 billion. But much of their work is classified, so that’s likely not the whole picture. BGOV said this could be a chance for small businesses to break into intelligence work.

There are also 10 small business incumbents on the Army Enterprise Resource Planning Services contract, which will be up for recompete in June. That implies that the $846 million business systems contract will be awarded to small businesses again.

The Coast Guard is also recompeting its cybersecurity services contract in September. The contract, valued at more than $100 million, has a small business set-aside through the GSA contract vehicle.

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