Industry Execs Offer Advice to Agencies in Preparation for EIS Telecom Contract Adoption

Executives from nine companies that secured spots on the General Services Administration’s potential 15-year, $50B Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract vehicle for telecommunications services called on potential agency clients to have a holistic view of their requirements and provide a space for industry innovation, FCW reported Monday.

Andrea Cohen, vice president of civilian sector at Verizon, said at a GSA EIS event in November an agency should come up with a description of what it wants to help companies map relevant services under EIS.

MicroTech CEO Tony Jimenez said federal agencies planning to transition to a managed services model through the contract vehicle should “be inventive” and consider a “pain threshold” to better adjust to the model.

Industry leaders cited the importance of post-contract meetings between agency staff and vendors. Matthew Scelza, EIS program director at CenturyLink, said such meetings should address plans for the contract, timeframe changes, logistics of billings and other details.

Jason Tolbert, assistant vice president solutions and operations at AT&T; Nicholas Matich, EIS program director at BT Federal; David Roberts, chief technology officer at Core Technologies; and Tim Heaps, general manager at Granite Telecommunications; also shared their views on EIS at the event.