This briefing covers active market intelligence, regulatory guidelines, and tactical capture recommendations for federal and defense contractors pursuing opportunities in this procurement classification.
CYBERSECURITY ACQUISITION – Vendors of cybersecurity offerings are finding that the U.S. government is serious about improving the protection of federal IT assets. A steady stream of data protection contracts has been flowing to providers, including some notable high-value transactions during the last half of 2016.
One example is a Department of Homeland Security contract, with a potential value of US$395 million, for various cybersecurity protection services designed to prevent, detect, contain and eradicate cyberthreats. While DHS went through the process of selecting a vendor last year, a final award is pending due to a legal challenge. Still, the magnitude of the DHS project indicates the significant level of potential federal investments in cybersecurity.
Federal contracting is never easy, of course, and the providers who have received cybersecurity contracts have had to meet all the requirements of doing business with the government. While those requirements remain in force, federal agencies, especially the General Services Administration, are trying to improve the processing of cyberprotection acquisitions through expansions or enhancements to various federal procurement vehicles.
GSA’s recently selected Adobe as a provider of data protection capabilities for federal agencies. The administration last month revealed it had engaged Adobe for a “new, government-wide enterprise software acquisition agreement for best-in-class, data-centric security and electronic signature solutions.”
The agreement will help agencies “comply with current information security and electronic government policy recommendations and requirements,” including the Cybersecurity National Action Plan, the Cybersecurity Strategy and Implementation Plan, the Cybersecurity Act of 2015, the Government Paperwork Elimination Act, and the E-Sign Act of 2000, according to GSA.
Contract Vehicle Available to All Agencies
As part of a government-wide initiative, all federal agencies will be able to use the GSA vehicle to acquire the various cyberprotection capabilities offered by Adobe. GSA did not conduct a request for proposals to set up the acquisition. Instead, the administration used its existing IT contracting capability, known as “Schedule 70.”
The agreement “came as a result of vendor engagement and market research conducted by our IT software category, with the goal of identifying software publishers that would be interested in a GSA IT Schedule 70 modification of this nature,” said John Radziszewski, GSA IT software category manager.
Read more: US Pushes Cybersecurity Acquisition Tools as Contracts Flow
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