Brian Hermann, chief of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s enterprise-wide service development division, has said the Defense Department needs to reform its processes to leverage commercial off-the-shelf products and services, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.
Hermann noted during a FedInsider-hosted event that changing DoD’s procurement process for commercial products is critical for the Defense Enterprise Operations Solutions contract, which remains in limbo because of a pending final request for proposal for a universal communications platform.
“DEOS has to remain non-developmental, and focused on actual existing commercial offerings,†he explained.
The DISA official recommended DoD to relax its requirements, expand its networks for new capabilities and assess privately-made systems for cyber resilience and their capability to adapt to defense networks.
Under the DEOS contract, DISA intends consolidate all communication tools in an single system to help different government agencies work with each other and save costs.
The contract will be awarded to a single vendor to enable interoperability between government departments.
