Census Bureau lifts more curtains on $1B digital transformation pact

The Census Bureau has provided a more detailed outline of the anticipated structure for a potential 10-year, $1 billion blanket purchase agreement covering broad digital transformation services.

Also known as CenTAM, the Census Bureau Transformation & Application Modernization pact is intended to support the agency’s ongoing push toward greater use of secure cloud applications and more advanced data science techniques ahead of the 2030 Census.

CenTAM was first unveiled to the market in a November 2023 request for information, which announced the BPA as a small business set-aside procurement. The Census Bureau updated that notice on Friday to give industry a deeper look at the BPA and its scope.

The agency will make up to four awards across broad requirement sets involving enterprise and large-scale program support, the decennial census specifically, a geography support program, and systems and program support work focused on smaller-scale efforts.

Companies intending to submit quotes for either the Census or geography support portions must also turn in a bid for the enterprise track. Contractors who want to submit a quote for the systems and program support area may not pursue other portions.

The Census Bureau will use a two-phase advisory downselect process to evaluate proposals, where the agency will tell companies after phase one of their likelihood of advancement to a potential award. But these recommendations are non-binding, so offerors are free to take their chances in phase two.

Feedback in response to the the Census Bureau’s new notice is due Sept. 5. CenTAM is a new requirement.