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Harris IT Services received a 5-year, $26 million contract to provide managed IT services to the US Air National Guard (ANG) Network and Regional Operations and Security Centers (ROSCs).

The Air National Guard is consolidating its IT infrastructure from 11 ROSCs across the United States into a centrally managed hub. Harris team members include TechTeam Government Solutions and NetApp.

The 1-year base-period contract with 4 one-year options includes Tier III technical support for enterprise IT systems such as applications, infrastructure, vulnerability assessment, directory services, boundary protection and messaging. Tier III technical support, also known as back-end or high-end support, involves handling advanced IT problems and using expert-level troubleshooting and analytic methods.

This award was issued under the US Air Force Network-Centric Solutions (NetCents) contract.

The 5-year, $9 billion NetCents contract created a single vehicle for the US Air Force, other services, and US federal agencies to buy IT products and services in order to increase the standardization and interoperability of IT hardware and software.

The prime contractors for the NetCents contract vehicle are Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, The Centech Group, Multimax, NCI Information Systems, and Telos Corps. Harris is partnered with General Dynamics and The Centech Group on NetCents.

The follow-up contract, NetCents-2, expands the scope of the 1st contract. However, the RFP process for NetCents-2 has been delayed. Meanwhile, the NetCents-1, which expired in September 2009, has been extended for 1 year.

In an Aug 11/09 interview with Federal Computer Week, Gregory Garcia, director of the 754th Electronic Systems Group at the Maxwell Air Force Base-Gunter Annex, AL, which manages the NetCents program, explained the NetCents-2 changes.

“The NetCents-2 contract strategy represents the next step in the evolution of the Air Force’s enterprisewide IT acquisition strategy. Lessons learned resulted in a strategy that will match the evolution of the Air Force’s vision about how to manage its IT portfolio in the face of rapidly changing network technologies and increased threats to the security of Air Force systems as well as address the concerns raised by some about the structure of the contracting vehicle.

Indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts will be awarded in six different and more focused functional areas – products, network operations, application services, telephony, IT professional support and engineering services, and enterprise integration and management services – one of which will be set aside for service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses. Two of the functional areas will also have separate companion contracts set aside for small businesses.”