The time for a transformative Networx transition appears over, at least in the near term, according to testimony given during a May 20 House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing.   

"We should first focus on a like-for-like transition," said Sanjeev Bhagowalia, chief information officer at the Interior Department and chairman of the Interagency Management Council's executive steering committee. Most federal agencies' current telecom contract, the General Services Administration-run FTS 2001, expires in June 2011 but their transition to GSA's successor Networx vehicles is only half complete, according to Bhagowalia.

Networx offers considerably more telecom services that FTS 2001 and the GSA officials behind its design openly expected agencies to use Networx to converge voice, video and  data network services and not simply duplicate their existing network architecture.

But the very complexity of the contract makes it hard for agencies--some of them lacking personnel with sufficient technical knowledge--to accomplish the transition, said Stephen Kempf, acting commissioner of GSA's Federal Acquisition Services. In his written testimony, Kempf said most agencies will transition by the time FTS 2001 expires, but that "large data networks that are still awaiting Fair Opportunity decisions may not be transitioned for two years or more, necessitating follow-on sole source contracts to FTS2001 contractors."

Another big reason for agency tardiness is that GSA extended FTS 2001 for 42 months in 2006, said Diana Gowen, general manager of Qwest Government Services. "The legacy contracts marched full speed ahead, with not fixed date for stopping the orders," she testified.

The government also uses the wrong metric to measure agency progress, she said. It counts the number of FTS 2001 services disconnected "rather than dollar moved from the old contract to the new. This creates an illusion of progress," she said.

However, given the imminent expiration of FTS 2001, agencies should also simply make a like-for-like transition for now, Gowen said.

Many of transition issues, including those of costs, have been ignored by federal oversight agencies, Gowen said. "OMB, the GAO, the CIO Council, GSA, should not feel good about where we are today," she added.

For more:
- go to the hearing webpage, complete with video and prepared testimonies

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