CIO-SP4, standing for Chief Information Officer – Solutions and Partners IV, is an upcoming IT products and services contract vehicle with an estimated value of $20 billion. NITAAC (NIH Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center) has released their draft of the solicitation right on time. Given the size, we anticipate there will be much buzz as contractors review the evaluation criteria and start to determine both their bid and potential teaming arrangements.
CIO-SP4 has a 15-year period of performance. Technically it’s a 5-year IDIQ with a 5-year option period and 5-year awards can be given on its final day, extending its lifecycle to 15 years. Its purpose is to procure IT solutions and services which includes health and biomedical-related IT services to meet scientific, health, administrative, operational, managerial and information management requirements. The contract also contains general IT services as medical systems are increasingly integrated within a broader IT architecture. This requires a systems approach to their implementation and infrastructure for their operation.
For businesses with socio-economic status, you’ll be pleased to know that set-asides are strongly encouraged for this GWAC and will be prevalent according to the draft. There are ten different task areas that constitute the technical scope of this contract:
- Task Area 1: IT Services for Biomedical Research, Health Sciences, and Healthcare
- Task Area 2: Chief Information Officer (CIO) Support
- Task Area 3: Digital Media
- Task Area 4: Outsourcing
- Task Area 5: IT Operations and Maintenance Task Area 6: Integration Services
- Task Area 7: Cyber Security
- Task Area 8: Digital Government and Cloud Services
- Task Area 9: Enterprise Resource Planning
- Task Area 10: Software Development
Each task area is described in Article C.2 should you wish for additional details. Task Area 1 specifically provides examples of solutions and services pertaining to biomedical research, health sciences and healthcare. It is a mandatory task area so applicants must be able to demonstrate that they have a domain-specific capability in a health-related mission as well as several other task areas.
Requirements for unrestricted business include all 10 task areas, small businesses and 8(a) businesses must meet task area 1 plus 7 other task areas, and HUBZone, SDVOSB, and WOSB must meet task area 1 plus 4 other task areas. CIO-SP4 will require applicants self-evaluate based on several pre-defined categories including Highly Acceptable, Very Acceptable, Acceptable, or Unacceptable.
Now is a great time to start reviewing CIO-SP4 requirements as the final RFP is scheduled for release during the first quarter of FY2021 and proposals are expected to be due in the second quarter of FY2021.
To keep track of CIO-SP4 updates, future awardees, and more, please sign in to your EZGovOpps account and visit this page or sign up for a free trial today. If you’d like to see the top awardees on CIO-SP3, we have a previous article you may find of interest.