The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) announced this week that it has awarded a contract to a Native Hawaiian small business to consolidate and centralize the management of all National Background Investigation Services (NBIS) software.
NBIS – the Federal government’s one-stop-shop IT system for background investigations that assist in security clearance decisions – currently buys software products on an as-needed basis using various contracting methods.
However, a new consolidated acquisition method was awarded on April 3 that will put all work under a single commercial contractor, according to a partially redacted consolidation memo.
NBIS officials awarded the software asset management contract to an 8(a) small business Native Hawaiian Organization “with extensive experience in the software asset management space,” according to a notice posted to SAM.gov.
The awardee company’s name was redacted from the consolidation decision memo.
NBIS officials want to centralize the program’s acquisition processes with a single contractor that will manage the program’s software purchases and asset management.
“Currently, there is a high probability of identical products being purchased by separate NBIS end users on different vehicles, there is likely a duplication of costs, economies of scale are not being realized by combining products into one purchase for volume discounts, and monitoring of use of licenses is not being conducted which is likely resulting in over-purchasing of products,” the agency said.
“Awarding a single contracting vehicle that can centralize software asset management under one vehicle will enable oversight to include the ability to manage, track, monitor, maintain, acquire, and re-allocate software licenses for the entire NBIS program,” it continued, adding, “It will also help to reduce duplicative purchases by separate NBIS entities and enable economies of scale by combining purchases of identical products into one purchase for volume discounts.”
“Additionally, the tracking and monitoring of license usage will identify areas where cost savings can be achieved due to over-purchasing of licenses,” DCSA said.
The memo cites “mission criticality” as the main mitigating factor for the new consolidated acquisition method.
Sixty-five agencies currently use the NBIS system to submit background investigation requests, along with industry contractors, according to the memo. It also notes that the program is on track to subsume seven additional legacy IT systems by the end of this year.
