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GCN Home > 08/07/06 issue

Millennia and Millennia Lite: The Zen of service contracting

As GSA plans its next big vehicle, agencies and contractors still find value in 1999 GWAC

By Caron Golden, Special to GCN

The General Services Administration’s Millennia contract vehicle may be winding down, but it just got a new user, GSA’s own FirstGov Technologies office. FirstGov.gov is the government’s official Web portal.

For years, the office had worked with AT&T Corp. under the Federal Supply Service’s IT schedule, or Schedule 70, but when a decision about the future had to be made as the IT Schedule task order was set to expire, FirstGov technologies director John Murphy realized that a different direction was needed.

“Schedule 70 is very good when you’re buying specific items, but what we run is a very complex portal,” he said. “It requires a significant amount of technology infrastructure and services to make it work properly. Schedule 70 didn’t offer a sophisticated-enough solution, and Millennia has available the services we need that can be customized through the task order to meet our particular solution needs.”

Through Millennia, GSA awarded the contract to Raytheon Co. on May 11, with the assistance of the Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM).

“They were excellent,” said FirstGov’s Murphy. “They understand large solutions and how to take customers like us through the process in an efficient and timely manner. We don’t have our own contracting officers, so they provided that and the support to take us through the process. They did a wonderful job for us.”

FirstGov’s decision to use Millennia epitomizes the benefit of this contract, awarded in April 1999 as the follow-on to FEDSIM’s $1.6 billion 9600 contract. Millennia has a $25 billion ceiling.

Over the past seven years, Millennia, and its medium-business counterpart Millennia Lite, have been popular among agencies wanting to buy technology and services.

The Homeland Security Department used it to build its Homeland Secure Data Network in 2004, and the Defense Department used it in 2003 to hire Science Applications International Corp. to plan and develop the Global Information Grid.

Millennia and Lite are indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ), governmentwide acquisition (GWAC) contracts for IT projects requiring large-system integration and development.

More news on related topics: Acquisition / Contracts, Management, IT Management



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