The General Services Administration (GSA) is offering agencies access to new and improved tools to accelerate the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) implementation, especially as agencies fall behind and the new deadline approaches.
According to GSA, by March 31, Federal agencies must have at least 90 percent of their telecommunications inventory to the EIS contract. However, as of Jan. 31, only 50 percent of agencies have reached this goal.
Larger agencies have struggled more to reach this goal. Only nine of the 17 larger agencies have been able to move between 50 and 90 percent of their telecommunications inventory to the EIS contract – a goal that was scheduled for last year, but took longer than intended to accomplish.
Due to the delay in the EIS transition, GSA has set forth a new transition deadline. By Sept. 30, 100 percent of an agency’s telecom inventory must be moved to EIS. In addition, telecom contracts were extended until May 2023—including Networx, WITS3, and Local Service telecom contracts.
To help accelerate this transition, GSA is expanding its risk assessment for transition (RAFT) analysis process. The framework helps agencies make a realistic assessment of how long their transition will take, and if agencies run the risk of not meeting the deadline, GSA helps them explore contingency options.
“GSA is helping agencies use their RAFT framework, developed specifically for EIS transition, to help agencies address contingency planning and mitigation strategies as their transition to EIS takes longer than expected,” Amy Haseltine, the deputy assistant commissioner for acquisitions in the Office of the IT Category in the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA, said during a Federal News Network event on March 25.
In a RAFT analysis, GSA leverages data analytics to help agencies understand where they are at a point in time, and what it’s going to take to get where they need to go.
Agencies can schedule a RAFT consultation, free of charge, with GSA’s technical team and the agency’s acquisition and technology teams to take a deep dive into their current EIS transition activities. Since 2021, GSA has conducted more than a dozen RAFT consultations.
