Industry gets another chance to fine-tune Navy's NGEN

The Navy has released another draft solicitation for its $10 billion Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN), giving industry one final shot to comment on the huge contract.

The draft request for proposals was released March 16 and comments are due March 30.

“Industry has played such a vital role in the development of the NGEN RFP that the program office is releasing an updated draft RFP for industry to review and comment on changes since the initial draft was released Sept. 30, 2011,” said Capt. Shawn Hendricks, program manager at the Naval Enterprise Networks Program Office.

The newest draft reflects industry comments, he said in a statement.

The NGEN contract is a follow-on to the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet contract that was awarded in 2000 to EDS, a company which was later acquired by Hewlett-Packard Co.

HP is leading one the teams pursuing the recompete. Other teams are being led by Computer Sciences Corp., Harris Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp.

The draft does not have a new schedule for the final RFP. At one time the Navy said the final RFP would be out in December 2011 with an award by December 2012. The Navy announced in December 2011 that the final draft would be delayed but a new timetable has not been announced.

With the release of new draft, the Navy is asking for comments from industry on three specific items:

1. Whether there is anything in the solicitation that would drive the price up beyond what the company would charge the majority of its customers.
2. If there are any areas where meeting the terms of the performance work statement would risk continuous network operation or network security.
3. If there is any area that was highlighted in previous comments that the program office did not adequately address.

NGEN will replace NMCI, which provides IT services to 700,000 users in the Navy and Marine Corps. It represents about 70 percent of the Navy’s IT operations and is considered the government largest IT infrastructure contract.

The contract is expected to have a base period of five years.