Are You Ready for the IPPS-A Increment II Bid?
Facts At-a-Glance
| Topic | Description |
| Name | Integrated Personnel and Pay System Army Capability Support (IPPS-A) Increment II |
| Agency | Department of the Army, Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS), IPPS-A Project Management Office (PMO) |
| Period of performance | 7 years |
| Request for Proposal (RFP) | December 2023 (estimate) |
| Value | $250M to $1B (as recorded in the PEO EIS Procurement Forecast) |
| Contract type | Task order contract using Alliant 2 Note: The Alliant 2 Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) has a period of performance from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2023, with one 5-year option from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2028, so the government may seek alternatives |
| NAICS | 541512 Computer Systems Design Services |
| Competition type | Full and Open/Unrestricted |
| Number of winners | Undetermined |
| Award date | June 2024 (estimate) |
| Incumbents | W15QKN15C0049, CACI International Inc. |
IPPS-A Overview
The IPPS-A Increment II mission is to develop and deliver a single, integrated, multi-component human resources (HR) and pay system that streamlines Army HR, enhances the efficiency and accuracy of Army personnel and pay procedures, and supports soldiers and their families. The Army is developing and deploying IPPS-A incrementally in a series of software releases. Significant development, modernization, and enhancement objectives of the IPPS-A program include:
- Create an integrated military personnel and pay system, subsume approximately 40 legacy systems, and eliminate 300 inbound and outbound interfaces.
- Execute HR transformation, Army military payroll transition, and business process reengineering (BPR) in conjunction with fielding IPPS-A to create a 21st-century human capital management (HCM) system and an HR data-rich environment.
- Release capability to users incrementally and frequently via a Development Security and Operations (DevSecOps) lifecycle that includes a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline.
- Adopt a zero-trust construct and application within system access and system processes.
- Provide complete visibility of the total force in one HCM system to over one million soldiers.
- Provide audit capability for pay, benefits, and HCM transactions; ensure the best use of Army dollars to employ human capital.
- Use modern data architecture best practices to improve accessibility, increase high data velocity, increase data throughput for low latency, and reduce reliance on any single technology or vendor.
Timeline
Table 2 contains the estimated timeline for the RFP release and award.
Table 2: Timeline
| Date | Activity |
| 04/25/2023 | Special Notice for Industry Day |
| 05/15/2023 | Registration Deadline |
| 05/22/2023 | Industry Day |
| 06/28/2023 | Questions and Answers |
| 07/11/2023 | Request for Information (RFI) |
| 07/18/2023 | Questions/Comments Due |
| 08/10/2023 | Responses |
| 12/2023 (estimate) | Solicitation Release |
| 06/2024 (estimate) | Award Date |
Cost and Challenges to Bid
Table 3 briefly describes the challenges associated with this bid.
Table 3: Challenges to Bidding IPPS-A
| Security and Compliance | Meeting stringent security requirements, including compliance with Federal Information System Controls Audit Manual (FISCAM) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines, is crucial. Ensuring data robustness, integrity, and confidentiality throughout the archive process can be challenging. |
| Zero Trust Architecture | Implementing a zero-trust construct for system access and processes necessitates cybersecurity measures, potentially increasing the complexity of the solution. |
| Agile Development | Adhering to Agile principles and maintaining a continuous delivery pipeline may necessitate new and significant changes to the development and deployment processes. |
| Complexity of the Current System | The IPPS-A Increment II system is both a defense business system (DBS) and a national security system (NSS) with specific operational requirements. Understanding and integrating with this complex system and aligning it with the Army’s numerous new objectives may pose a challenge. |
| Cost to Compete | The cost to compete on a $250M to $1B bid is high. Competitors spend .05%–2% to complete the bid on average. In addition, the Army has yet to release a draft RFP with their proposal instructions and evaluation criteria. |
| Data Management | Maintaining high data velocity and throughput while reducing reliance on existing technologies can be technically demanding. |
| Data-Centric Goals | Achieving the seven data-centric DOD Data Strategy VAULTIS goals, including visibility, accessibility, trustworthiness, and security, requires meticulous planning and execution. |
| Human-Centered Design | Applying human-centered design techniques to improve the user experience in a complex military system requires extensive user research and iterative design processes. |
| Integration with Legacy Systems | Subsuming approximately 40 legacy systems and eliminating 300 interfaces requires seamless integration, posing potential technical hurdles. |
| Open-Source Components | Incorporating supported and maintained open-source software and components while aligning with industry cost trends can be challenging in terms of licensing, compatibility, and ongoing support. |
| Schema Synchronization | Ensuring the correct synchronization of changes to the IPPS-A data schema with archive capability as the system evolves demands careful coordination and technical expertise. |
Conclusion
In conclusion, successfully bidding on this project will require a deep understanding of military HR and payroll systems, expertise in complex data management, a commitment to cybersecurity, and the ability to adapt to Agile development practices.
By Brenda Crist, Vice President at Lohfeld Consulting Group, MPA, CPP APMP Fellow
Lohfeld Consulting Group has proven results specializing in helping companies create winning captures and proposals. As the premier capture and proposal services consulting firm focused exclusively on government markets, we provide expert assistance to government contractors in Capture Planning and Strategy, Proposal Management and Writing, Capture and Proposal Process and Infrastructure, and Training. In the last 3 years, we’ve supported over 550 proposals winning more than $170B for our clients—including the Top 10 government contractors. Lohfeld Consulting Group is your “go-to” capture and proposal source! Start winning by contacting us at www.lohfeldconsulting.com and join us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
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