What’s the Future of NETCENTS-2 at Air Force?

By Stephanie Meloni, consultant

More details have begun to emerge about how the Air Force intends to fulfill procurement of products after NETCENTS-2 expires in November 2019. Recently, GSA blogged about the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Air Force and GSA. This MOU outlines a partnership between the two organizations that will allow the Air Force to establish a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) from GSA’s IT Schedule 70. This will entirely replace NETCENTS-2 for products.

The biggest change affecting potential bidders of this contract will be the requirement to be on GSA IT Schedule 70, which can take some time. However, teaming between companies is allowed, so subcontracting may be an option if that is the case. Many of the other details remain the same—the BPA will still be mandatory, as NETCENTS-2 is, and the competition type remains full and open. The ceiling value of the IT Products BPA is anticipated to be slightly lower than the current ceiling of $5.5B over five years. The number of awardees could marginally exceed the twenty-five NETCENTS-2 products category awardees.

The overall goals of the BPA will remain the same as NETCENTS-2, and it will be aimed at reducing the Air Force’s overall IT costs, as well as reducing risk in the supply chain. More details of the contract are expected to shape up after an industry day, tentatively planned for late October. A draft RFP is due to be released the same month.

The government is still in the process of accepting feedback on an initial RFI released earlier this summer. The final solicitation is not expected until winter of 2019, so there is still plenty of time for interested vendors to meet with customers to provide feedback on their current plans and team up with other interested vendors.

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