An enterprise center within the Veterans Affairs Department is starting a franchise program to provide IT acquisition services to other agencies.

BuyIT.gov is a new federal acquisition service that the VA’s Austin Automation Center in Austin, Texas, is offering to federal agencies. It will provide end-to-end procurement and contract management services on a fee-for-service basis, said David Peterson, program manager for BuyIT.gov. Peterson is also acquisition management section chief for the automation center, which also is VA’s core data center.

The service’s first indefinite-delivery, indefinite quantity contract, dubbed Global IT Support Services, is an eight-year, $3 billion contract with 10 vendors to provide IT support services, Peterson said.

Services covered under GITSS include networking and telecommunications, systems administration, security, help desk and call center support, Web site deployment, and application development. GITSS will also cover incidental hardware and software required for those services.

The 10 GITSS contractors are:

BuyIT.gov will charge agencies a fee of 2 percent of the task order value, Peterson said.

Although the Austin center is considering opportunities on a case-by-case basis, it plans to declare itself formally open for business in mid-January, Peterson said. Further information is online at www.aac.va.gov/gitss.

Patricia Daukantas writes for Government Computer News magazine.