State embarks on search for new content management software platform
Gettyimages.com / Namthip Muanthongthae
By
Ross Wilkers
The State Department is succinct with this line its request for information: “Custom-built or unproven solutions will not be considered.”
The State Department has embarked on its search for a secure software platform to manage digital content that employees can share with each other from anywhere in the world.
State’s global mission of diplomacy and business processes require it to use a cloud-based offering that helps personnel create, collaborate, share store and manage digital content at the physical and digital edges.
One sentence in State’s sources sought notice issued Tuesday on this requirement makes clear what the department does not want: “Custom-built or unproven solutions will not be considered.”
Third-party overlays or separate add-on functions to the platform are also not welcome, a theme in keeping with this Trump administration’s push to prioritize commercial tech acquisitions.
State is instead requiring the solution to be an enterprise grade, commercial-off-the-shelf cloud platform that provides “substantial out-of-the-box functionality” in a no-code configuration to enable workflow automation, document processing and content portal features.
In fact, the department is requiring the solution to support a large catalog of at least 1,500 pre‑built integrations with other cloud-based products to minimize custom integration development. State cites Salesforce, ServiceNow, Microsoft Office and Google Workspace as examples of what the content platform should work with.
All core capabilities should be delivered through the native configuration of the platform, which must possess a FedRAMP High authorization and be certified at the Defense Department’s Impact Level 4 for controlled unclassified information.
Examples of capabilities State wants in the platform include elastic scalability across users without storage limits, archival tiers or incremental storage costs. The provider cannot impose per-external-user or per-licensing prices that State believes would hinder mission operations.
State is also asking interested parties to detail their track record in the federal space by listing successful deployments at agencies within the last three years.
For either two or three of those example projects, companies must also explain how those efforts relate to State’s requirements for a content management solution with a global footprint.
Responses to the request for information are due by 12 p.m. Eastern time on April 24.