The Homeland Security Department’s new platform for acquiring information technology services will help the department get its IT programs up to speed, the department’s deputy chief information officer said today.

DHS awarded indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts to 25 companies for the Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading Edge (EAGLE) solutions program today.

EAGLE will serve as a departmentwide platform for acquiring IT service solutions in five functional categories:

• Engineering design, development, implementation and integration.
• Operations and maintenance.
• Independent test, evaluation, validation and verification.
• Software development.
• Management support services.

DHS hopes to save $40 million in fees it pays other departments to administer its IT contracts, said Charlie Armstrong, DHS’ deputy CIO.

EAGLE will help DHS inject interoperability, standardization and regulatory compliance into its enterprise architecture, Armstrong said. Designated employees will ensure that the program complies with Office of Management and Budget regulations, he said.

DHS has weathered a lot of criticism to get IT solutions in place, Armstrong said. Through EAGLE, the department aims to reduce the time it takes to identify program requirements and get task orders operating, he said. “We think this will really get us to solve problems quickly” and get new programs up and running, he added.

EAGLE will have a centralized contract with decentralized ordering, said Soraya Correa, director of DHS’ procurement operations. Components of the department will order through their own procurement offices, which a central office will coordinate. The central office will also handle purchasing for the Office of the CIO, she said.

DHS is adding electronic processing of purchase orders to its procurement systems, Correa said.

The department will split parts of EAGLE into separate procurements, she said. For example, EAGLE’s small-business portion is on track for the end of July.

EAGLE is “just another IDIQ,” said Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer at Federal Sources Inc. “It’s special in that DHS finally got its act together to consolidate its activities and programs.”