DISA's ENCORE III IT services suite is now available

The Defense Information Systems Agency announced this week that 20 contracts have been awarded for its multibillion-dollar ENCORE III information technology suite.

"The long-awaited follow-on vehicle to ENCORE II provides services ranging from engineering development to full sustainment under a suite of not-to-exceed multiple award indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contracts," DISA said in a statement.

The contract holds a current ceiling of $17.5 billion.

The ENCORE III contract was originally awarded on Nov. 2, 2017. The following Nov. 14, however, saw DISA issue a stop-work order due to a receipt of protests against the award. The stop-work order was rescinded effective Feb. 28, and the contract's base period was changed from Nov. 2, 2017 through Nov. 1, 2022 to March 12, 2018 through March 11, 2023 with five option years through March 11, 2028.

The multiple-award ENCORE III IT services contract is intended to help the Pentagon and other government agencies migrate to a new joint information network. Defense contractors, however, in 2016 opposed the program's lowest-price, technically acceptable approach, which remained a feature of ENCORE III, despite pre-award protests sustained by the Government Accountability Office in August 2016.

The 20 contractors include 22nd Century Technologies, Inc.; AASKI Technology, Inc.; Ace Info Solutions, Inc.; ActioNet, Inc.; AECOM XNet, LLC; Booz Allen Hamilton; CACI; CSRA; ECS Federal; General Dynamics; IAP C4ISR; IndraSoft; Leidos; ManTech; NES Associates; NetCentrics Corp.; Next Tier Concepts; Phacil; Qbase; and Solers.