The General Services Administration (GSA) is conducting market research as it considers a potential successor to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract vehicle, which is scheduled to sunset in July 2032.
EIS is a contract vehicle for enterprise telecommunications and networking services. It is the Federal government’s recommended contract to support everything from secure voice communications to complex, multi-site data networks, and cloud integrations.
For several years, Federal agencies have been slowly migrating to the EIS contract – which is a successor to the legacy Networx contract and regional local service agreements for government telecommunications and infrastructure solutions.
Federal agency progress in transitioning to EIS is something that is typically measured on the FITARA Scorecard.
In a July 8 blog post, GSA said it is conducting broad market research to understand Federal agencies’ needs when it comes to EIS, how the industry is changing, and what the next generation of network infrastructure acquisition should look like.
“This market research is exploratory. GSA said its interest in an EIS successor does not represent a commitment to a new contract, but a “strategic effort to optimize federal telecommunications procurement,” wrote Lawrence Hale, the acting assistant commissioner of the Office of Information Technology Category (ITC) in GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS).
Specifically, GSA is asking stakeholders questions including:
- “What are your future telecommunications and networking needs?
- What products and services will you likely be buying in the future and how are they different from what you bought in the past?
- What challenges do you face in acquisition, security, and integration?
- Can telecommunications services and equipment individually or in combination satisfy the government’s enterprise needs?
- Where are customized solutions still necessary due to mission-specific constraints?
- How can the federal acquisition community minimize reliance on custom builds while preserving service quality and security?
- What improvements in vendor engagement, transition planning, and pricing transparency are needed?”
Additionally, GSA said it is examining whether a future contract would need to include “seamless integration” between cloud, local area network (LAN), and wide area network (WAN) services. It also wants to know whether it should include support for scalable edge, cellular, and satellite technologies.
GSA is also exploring whether it should include embedded cybersecurity in line with zero trust and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) 3.0 initiative.
Finally, the agency said it wants feedback on whether a future contract should include “simplified acquisition and ordering structures to reduce agency burden.”
GSA wants to hear from Federal employees who work in telecommunications, network services, or IT acquisition, or those who run programs with high or specific data requirements. GSA did not provide a specific deadline for responses but said interested stakeholders can reach them at EISfollowon@gsa.gov.
Notably, GSA issued a formal request for information (RFI) in February 2024 to help gather market research on the telecommunications and IT market “for future planning purposes.” GSA said the RFI would help the agency “determine the Next Generation Network Infrastructure (NGNI) strategy and GSA’s next acquisition initiative” before EIS expires.