The Homeland Security Department wants to replace its current identity management system with a more modern system that supports both logical and physical access.

DHS issued a draft performance work statement and functional requirements document late last month detailing its plans and needs.

“Under this PWS, the contractor shall provide the core infrastructure that will be installed at DHS data center locations, in addition to enrollment and issuance workstations (EIWS) and light activation stations,” DHS wrote in the draft documents. “The scope of this PWS includes the support and management of the transition from the existing solution and provider, and the solution integration with relevant authoritative data sources.”

The new system would support up to 400 workstations at no less than 300 locations across the country. DHS expects at least 300,000 employees and contractors would need personal identification verification (PIV) cards under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12. The vendor also would support up to 16,000 light activation stations at each DHS component location.

DHS is asking the vendor to establish an end-to-end identity and credential management system, to enable card usage for both computer network access and building access and to integrate with the agency’s existing identity proofing systems.

“The present Identity Management System was designed in 2008 and has remained basically unchanged since its inception,” DHS wrote in the functional requirements document. “New more capable methods are now available that must be evaluated and implemented to move the IDMS process into compliance with HSPD-12; Office of Management and Budget Memorandum M-11-11, Continued Implementation of Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)-12 – Policy for a Common Identification Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors, February 3, 2011 (“M-11-11″); and Federal Identity, Credential and Access Management (FICAM) Roadmap and Implementation Guidance, Version 1.0, November, 2009.”

Comments on the draft performance work statement are due May 15.

DHS has implemented HSPD-12 slowly, following the path many other agencies have by issuing cards to employees and contractors first.

Now that nearly everyone has cards, DHS wants to make them more than just “glorified ID cards,” which is what the Government Accountability Office called them for most agencies in a 2011 report.

DHS and the Office of Management and Budget put the identity management initiative through a PortfolioStat process last year to improve the management and set forth a plan to begin using the cards.

The draft PWS is a major step toward that goal.

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