DISA uses OTA to pilot background-investigation platform

The Defense Information Systems Agency has awarded a $49 million other transaction agreement (OTA) to develop to prototype a shared service for federal background investigations. 

DISA announced on July 9 that Enterprise, LLC, a Herndon, Va.-based firm, received the award on June 22.  The planned system, called the National Background Investigation Services Investigation Management Shared Service, aims to be an "integrated case management solution that will bring together the core functions … and provide the interface for investigative users," DISA officials said.

National Background Investigation Services, or NBIS, is the DOD organization created to take over background-check responsibilities from the Office of Personnel Management's National Background Investigation Bureau.  DISA houses the new service, and it is pushing for more continuous monitoring to streamline the reinvestigation process for security clearance holders and reduce the current backlog of more than 700,000 cases.

OTAs elsewhere in DOD have drawn criticism, but DISA is defending the approach as the best way to "acquire leading-edge technologies by tapping into a non-traditional defense contractor base."

“We’re building a first-of-its-kind enterprise system that brings together the complex integration of a number of disparate systems on an unprecedented scale," NBIS Program Manager Raju Shah said.  "We needed to hear from as wide a selection of vendors as possible to understand what was possible and be able to narrow to what’s probable."

Other firms on the Enterprise team include Accenture Federal Services, Next Tier Concepts, Pegasystems and Torch Research.