“After nearly a year of delays and growing industry frustrations, the NIH IT Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) will receive best and final offers [for CIO-SP4] from contractors on Friday…”
“’We’re always trying to be responsive to industry. If you based it on the number of protests that we’ve had and the outcome of those protests, there’s some validity [to those feelings of frustrations] to how the solicitation was put together,’ [Ricky Clark, NITAAC’s deputy director] said in an exclusive interview with Federal News Network. ‘My message to industry would be to be patient, I am confident that the final product that we’ve received will be one that we’ll be very proud of. I think that some of the consternation is not unwarranted. But I think that because of the scope of this requirement, it is a work in progress and there are some things that we have to work through to get to the final product. I am very, very confident that the final product will be something that’s notable and something we can all look back on and be very proud of.’…”
“While Clark said he couldn’t offer too many comments about the portal situation, he said NITAAC decided to abandon it after listening to vendors.
‘I think the purpose of the proposal tools was visibility, transparency and obviously, to ensure that all offers were treated equitably. We wanted it to be a fast and efficient and process that was traceable and allow us an opportunity to go back take a look some things to make sure that they were fair across the board,’ Clark said. ‘The decision to stop using it was us being responsive to industry. We received firsthand some of the feedback from the on the offers via email. We read the press. We got a feel for what industry is going through. Our entire purpose was to be responsive to industry.’…”
“Clark said NITAAC plans to make awards by CIO-SP4 by November. NITAAC also plans to extend the current CIO-SP3 contracts until November as well, but has left the door open to extend those contracts a full year if necessary…”
“As for NITAAC’s message to industry, Clark said, ‘NITAAC is not taking them for granted, and what we’re doing everything we can to be responsive to the customer. After every protest that we received, we did a 360 degree review of it, and we tried to be as responsive as we could be to the needs of the customer. So that is why we’re here, again, to extend our apologies to some of the inconveniences that our offers have been subjected to for this solicitation, but we’re very encouraged and we will have an award in place by Nov. 1. I’m certain that the contract holders as well as industry in general will be very receptive to the next iteration of CIO-SP4.’…” Read the full article here.
Source: Will CIO-SP4 finally reach the end of the beginning phase? – By Jason Miller, February 11, 2022. Federal News Network.
