CACI-led team wins $5.7B Air Force enterprise IT pact

A CACI International-led team has won a potential 10-year, $5.7 billion contract for enterprise IT support services to the Air Force amid the branch's push to outsource more of that function to industry.

That consortium of companies will take over the responsibility of IT service desk support and managing a catalog of offerings for 700,000 users around the world for Wave 1 of the Air Force's Enterprise IT as a Service initiative.

Also dubbed EITaaS, the effort aims to help Air Force and Space Force personnel have more time and energy for hunting down and mitigating issues with networks versus giving much attention to basic IT functions.

CACI and its team bested three other proposals for the Wave 1 blanket purchase agreement, the Pentagon said in its Tuesday awards digest.

Other members of the group are:

• Bowhead Logistics Management
• Cartridge Technologies
• Cask NX
• CDIT
• Enhanced Veterans Solutions
• Expansia Group
• InSequence
• Oneida Technical Solutions
• Vision Information Technology Consultants

Wave 1's focus areas include automated and non-invasive compliance checks on devices, integrated security management, improvements to troubleshooting, perpetual refreshes to devices and hardware updates.

One aspect of Wave 1 includes the standup of an IT store for users across the Department of the Air Force to purchase those services.

Venice Goodwine, the director of enterprise IT in the Air Force's office of the chief information officer, said during at the Aug. 26 Washington Technology EITaaS Power Breakfast that the branch intends to create a single enterprise configuration for personnel.

"That helps us with the defense of our network, but it also helps with the user experience that is very important for us as well, and the focus will also be on a seamless IT experience, as you know, with our help desk," Goodwine said.

Wave 2's focus will be on choosing a vendor to run the Air Force's on-campus networks, then Wave 3 will turn to wide-area networks. Goodwine said the award for Wave 2 is scheduled to happen in calendar year 2023.

A draft request for proposals regarding Wave 2 is still in-the-works, as is a tentative schedule for industry days.