This wholly-owned subsidiary of Argentys Informatics has been awarded a 3-year task order to provide Operations and Maintenance (O&M) support services for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Business Support Systems Program (BSSP).
Awardee Name: AEEC-ARGENTYS, LLC
Unique Entity ID: HMLMDNW88ND7
Total Contract Value: $14,173,436.25
Action Obligation: $0.00
Department Name: HOMELAND SECURITY, DEPARTMENT OF
Funding Agency: U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT
Funding Office: CIO BUSINESS RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Number of Bidders: 1
Award ID: 70CTD026FR0000012
Referenced IDV ID: HHSN316201200112W
Contract Vehicle: CIO-SP3 SB
DHS requires continued operations and maintenance (including Tier 2/3 support), security and compliance, release and deployment, performance/database management, documentation, and incremental development enhancement support services for Business Support System Program II (BSSP) applications on the current task order—ESP, TOPS, and HITS. The follow-on task order will also provide new development support and services to transition to a new HRSuite as the HR Engine, enable new data flows to the selected ICE HR-CORE – Capital Operations and Resource Enablement (CORE) system, and plan and execute the orderly decommissioning of ESP, TOPS, and HITS and associated interconnections to systems deemed no longer required. The incumbent will serve as the technology integrator for the transition to an entirely new human resources solution.
OAQ intends to procure, on a sole-source basis, continued operations and maintenance and closely related new development and migration services to enable ICE to transition to a newly established ICE HR-CORE – Capital Operations and Resource Enablement (CORE) system. The incumbent contractor is uniquely positioned to perform this logical follow-on work efficiently by leveraging existing proprietary knowledge, codebases, integrations, security artifacts, and documentation, ensuring continuity and minimizing mission risk during the transition.
On July 27, 2021, ICE awarded Task Order No. 70CTD021FR0000137 to AEEC-Argentys, LLC. The current order was awarded as a competitive acquisition under the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Information Technology and Assessment Center (NITAAC) Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 3 (CIO-SP3) Small Business Government-wide acquisition contract (GWAC). It was a fair opportunity competition under Task Area 5, Information Technology Operations and Maintenance.
ICE is now transitioning its human resources systems to a new enterprise solution ICE HR-CORE – Capital Operations and Resource Enablement (CORE) to align with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and federal mandates, including Executive Order 14271, which prioritizes the use of commercially available products and services to reduce unnecessary expenditure and improve efficiency. Based on this and, in the interest of economy and efficiency, ICE requires continued operations and maintenance (including Tier 2/3 support), security and compliance, release and deployment, performance/database management, documentation, and incremental development enhancement support services for Business Support System Program II (BSSP) applications on the current task order—ESP, TOPS, and HITS. The follow-on task order will also provide new development support and services to transition to a new HRSuite as the HR Engine, enable new data flows to the selected ICE HR-CORE – Capital Operations and Resource Enablement (CORE) system, and plan and execute the orderly decommissioning of ESP, TOPS, and HITS and associated interconnections to systems deemed no longer required. The incumbent will serve as the technology integrator for the transition to an entirely new human resources solution.
The incumbent’s continued involvement is in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is essential for maintaining mission-critical HR operations and supporting the migration and decommissioning of legacy systems. Additionally, it will also ensure a smooth migration, maintain uninterrupted operations, and facilitate effective knowledge transfer, but because AEEC-Argentys, LLC, as the system technology integrator will be able to manage the transition from the current task order to the new ICE HR-CORE – Capital Operations and Resource Enablement (CORE) system and continue to provide operations, maintenance, and enhancement of existing Human Resources (HR) systems until the new solution is fully implemented in the new task order.
This follow-on task order will be of similar scope with additional development work required for the transition integration and shut down of the current system. The contractor’s institutional knowledge of system architecture, business processes, data models, and integrations is critical for the following, as summarized below:
• Supporting data cleanup and migration activities.
• Providing process and technical expertise to the new system implementer.
• Ensuring seamless transition and minimizing operational risk.
• Maintaining compliance, audit, and reporting requirements.
• Conducting data warehousing and containerization review and assessment, with specific focus on connectivity to the new environment for data migration.
• Supporting United States Customs & Immigration Services (USCIS) application decommissioning, exit strategy, and migration to their new strategic HR system.
• Transitioning to a new vendor at this stage would result in significant delays, increased costs, and operational risk due to duplicative discovery, knowledge transfer, and reestablishment of security and integration protocols. The incumbent vendor holds the proper security and technology expertise and experience. Transitioning to a new vendor would cause undue costs to taxpayers and the time and resources are better spent migrating to the new environment. There is also the risk of system continuity and missing project deadlines.
