State Department Issues Draft RFP for ‘Access’ Small Business IT Hardware, Software Support BPA

The State Department released a draft solicitation for a potential 10-year, $5 billion multiple-award blanket purchase agreement dubbed Access for information technology software and hardware upgrade support services, Bloomberg Government reported Thursday.

The department’s office of information resource management plans to compete the Access BPA on the General Services Administration’s Multiple Award Schedule as a set-aside program for small businesses.

The BPA will support a range of specialized and commodity IT products and services, including networking equipment, servers and storage; commercial off-the-shelf software; hyperconverged infrastructure; identity management and biometric software and hardware; smartphones and tablets; and laptop and desktop computers.

Access will enable the State Department’s Global IT Modernization and other programs to invest in hybrid cloud computing, continuous modernization, edge computing, infrastructure monitoring tools and systems automation areas and will support the agency’s next-generation IT infrastructure acquisition effort.

Comments on the draft request for proposals are due May 26.

Sponsor