Treasury to extend TCS

The Treasury Department plans to extend the Treasury Communications System contract with Northrop Grumman Information Technology for two one-year option periods pending a competitive award of a follow-on contract under Networx. The extension would ensure operations during the transition to Networx.The current TCS contract is set to expire Sept. 27. Treasury does not anticipate the complete transition of all sites to Networx before TCS expires.Treasury originally awarded the follow-on $1 billion Treasury Communications Enterprise to AT&T. Following vendor protests of that award and Government Accountability Office rulings, Treasury succumbed to pressure from the Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration to join other agencies that will use the recently awarded Networx contract.Meanwhile, Treasury has a continuing need for wide-area network communications capabilities. The TCS extension provides uninterrupted WAN communications for the department.“This extension enables Treasury to mitigate risks to the nation’s financial infrastructure and allows for successful transition to the follow-on contract,” said the Internal Revenue Service’s National Office Procurement in its posting June 7 on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site.In a separate procurement announcement, the IRS said it also seeks information about industry capabilities and alternative approaches for some contact-center services that support the automatic call distributor, interactive voice response, workforce management and contact recording technology components of the agency’s contact-center infrastructure.The winning contractor would ensure interoperability with other contact-center elements.The infrastructure is the single point of contact for all internal customers who use the IRS’ contact-center technology. It ensures that designs and schedules integrate across IT products, services and ongoing commitments, including modernization and changes to the installed base systems and services.The IRS aims to streamline the service-ordering process, improve incident response and troubleshooting, enhance operational quality, establish a business-focused approach, and incorporate security as an integral component. The IRS will require that the contractor work with the applicable internal and external security organizations to ensure that all vulnerabilities are addressed in a timely manner.