“20 years from now there will still be hardware, but it could be totally different from what is now available and the FEA allows for that and the model is continually evolving,” GSA's Jim Ghiloni explained in a recent interview with 1105 Government Information Group Custom Media. “By linking our SOW to that model, it will grow over time and that linkage will help us remain up-to-date throughout the Alliant lifetime.”

“With a traditional SOW requirement, you go into a grocery store looking for specifics such as corn flakes, milk and bananas; they are your three requirements. But when you look for the products in the store, you don’t see signs for those specific products, but broader categories such as cereal, dairy and fruit.” That’s up a level according to Ghiloni.

Another analogy is the “Lego analogy”; one that’s good for many of the CIO components of agencies who are thinking about component-based architectures for their IT investments.

“You design your solution in a component oriented manner, like Legos,” explained Ghiloni. “How you piece those components together to create shapes, those shapes are your solution. If you need a different shape, you don’t redesign or obtain new components; you reconfigure how those components are attached.”

The Alliant contract essentially provides a big bag of Legos. Then customers and industry partners will configure them or stack them and put them together to fit that particular mission.

“We’re not trying to list every possible combination of a thousand different components. What we are saying is ‘these are the components of an IT solution; this is what makes up an IT solution; and that’s the scope of the contract’,” adds Ghiloni.

“We’re not going to try to pretend to understand the myriad of ways you could piece those things together for a particular requirement; that’s going to be specified at the Task Order level.”

Alliant Is Good For…

Alliant is suited for infrastructure services that meet critical business operations said Ghiloni. Under this umbrella are the technical framework components that make up integrated IT solutions such as:

Service Access and Delivery responsible for facilitating the end-to-end collection and distribution of data including all functions necessary to communicate in a client-server environment. Examples of these components services include web browsers and Section 508 compliance.

Service Platform and Infrastructure functions necessary for processing and storing data. Components provide and manage the resources available for application services. Examples of these components include desktops, laptops, servers, mainframes, routers, switches, printers, data storage and software development tools.

Component Framework components consist of the design of application or system software that incorporates interfaces for interacting with other programs and for future flexibility and expandability.

IT Security services to develop and implement management, operational and technical security controls required by agencies to assure desired levels of protection for IT systems as required by laws such as FISMA.

Customer Services including all aspects of the customer relationship management (CRM) process, including planning, scheduling, and control activities involved with service delivery.

Business Management including the development and implementation of standard methodologies and automated process management systems to facilitate agencies’ requirements for managing and monitoring activities surrounding their core business operations (e.g. capital planning, investment management, supply chain management, procurement).

Solutions also include Digital Asset Services focusing on content management, document management, knowledge management and records management.

Business Analytical Services including analysis and statistics, visualization, knowledge discovery and business intelligence.

Back Office Services including data management, human resources, financial management, and asset/materials management.

Support Services including security management, collaboration, communications, systems management and forms management. 

Source: GSA