Users should see no difference when the Navy Department finally switches off its massive Navy/Marine Corps Internet (currently incarnate as the Continuity-Of-Service Contract) and turns on its placement contract, Next Generation Enterprise Network, says NGEN Program Director Capt. Shawn Hendricks.

During an Aug. 18 NGEN industry day, consistency was a theme of Hendricks's presentation. "In the instant, nothing will change," he later told reporters in a media availability. "The processes that we expect to utilize on NGEN, we are incorporating now," he added.

That means no big push to Voice over Internet Protocol, Hendricks told contractors. It also means no sudden influx of new mobile devices tied to the shift from one contract to another, since "there's nothing preventing us from doing that now, other than you've got to make the business case that it makes sense to invest in something other than a RIM device," Hendricks said.

Nonetheless, it's possible that NGEN will help usher in a new era of thin- or zero- client end user devices, a move championed separately by Navy Department Chief Information Officer Terry Halvorsen. It's also possible that the Navy will look to the Defense Information Systems Agency for data warehousing, Hendricks added.

The NGEN procurement will consist solely of one or two requests for proposals--but even if the Navy decides to release just one RFP, there will be two performance of work statements, Hendricks said, one for enterprise services, the other for transport services. The Navy is set to release a draft RFP, or RFPs, on Sept. 30, with a final solicitation planned for issuance on Dec. 21.

Hendricks said that should the Navy issue one consolidated RFP, it would not herald a reversion to the NMCI construct, under which the prime contractor plays an outsize role. People assume that "he's trying to go back to NMCI, he's trying to go back to the monolith contract--that's not the case," Hendricks said. However, under a unified RFP, the contractor--or contractors, since there could also be more than one - would assume the role of system integrator between transport and enterprise services. Earlier plans for other RFPs, such as one for independent security operations oversight and assurance, have been shelved. In the case of ISOOA, Navy officials decided that the Navy 10^th Fleet and Defense Department Cyber Command provide sufficient in-house cybersecurity capability.

The evaluation criteria for the two RFPs will be lowest price, technically acceptable, Hendricks said, adding that would-be contractors will have to submit cost or pricing data with their proposal. He didn't say whether the cost or pricing data must be certified.

NGEN is a commercial item acquisition, Hendricks said. "It is made of the same stuff that makes up the networks that support USAA, and Proctor & Gamble and the Federal Bank and the Army and the Air Force, and there are companies out there that do it for a living, more than one."

The choice of a lowest price, technically acceptable procurement will give best value to the Navy, since once companies demonstrate their ability to meet technical requirements, it's hard to define distinguishing characteristics, Hendricks said.

Hendricks also disputed a Government Accountability Office finding that the Navy's chosen approach costs an estimated $4.7 billion more than possible alternatives. "I haven't seen anything that says we're going to be more expensive," he said.

For more:
- listen to audio of Hendricks' Aug. 18 press availability with reporters

Related Articles:
Navy embraces cloud computing 
More O&M than procurement for NGEN through fiscal 2014 
GAO urges NGEN pause