DISA’s current efforts focus on acquiring and implementing DISN CONUS services. Defense’s Analysis of DISN Acquisition Alternatives

In developing its DISN acquisition approach, Defense considered several acquisition alternatives in April and May 1995 including one—using a single contractor to furnish a comprehensive set of services to the government—that is similar to the integrated approach that AT&T had advocated. Defense also evaluated the costs and benefits of separately acquiring component services with the government integrating those components itself, and other alternative approaches as well. In reviewing Defense’s analyses of alternatives, we found that Defense evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of each acquisition alternative in terms of relative cost and how it (1) met DISN requirements, (2) facilitated technology insertion and enhancement, (3) could be implemented within schedule constraints, and (4) supported Defense’s control of the network. DISA selected an acquisition strategy that divided the acquisition into four components with four separately awarded contracts. Ability of DISN Acquisition Strategy To Yield Best Value

Defense believes that it has selected the acquisition strategy that will yield the best value to the government over the course of DISN’s life cycle. Defense Lacks Performance Measures Critical to DISN’s Success

By better establishing its operational requirements and life cycle costs for DISN, Defense would lay the groundwork for assessing whether the system is meeting its cost and performance goals. The next step would be to develop effective measures for tracking DISN’s progress against this baseline cost and performance information. At present, Defense is far from meeting any of these requirements. At a minimum, these measures should include the concerns of DISN customers and should correspond to the five factors—requirements, technology enhancement, schedule, management, and cost—that DISA used to select its acquisition strategy. As stated in our report, these actions are critical in order for Defense to have an objective cost and performance baseline for measuring the success of this acquisition.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to congressional request, GAO reviewed the steps taken by the Department of Defense (DOD) in selecting and implementing its acquisition strategy for the Defense Information System Network (DISN) Continental United States (CONUS), focusing on whether: (1) DOD considered alternative approaches, such as use of an integrated bid, in its selection of an acquisition strategy; and (2) the selected acquisition strategy will yield the best value to the government over DISN's life-cycle.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) DOD considered several options prior to selecting an acquisition strategy for DISN, including an approach that would have involved using a single comprehensive service provider to furnish an integrated set of services to the government and another one that involved separately acquiring component services with the government integrating those components itself; (2) DOD considered the advantages and disadvantages of each option in terms of five factors: requirements; technology enhancement; schedule; management; and cost; (3) after evaluating its options and receiving industry comments on its draft request for proposals, DOD ultimately decided on an approach that calls for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to separately acquire and integrate component services itself, using contracts awarded on a staggered schedule; (4) DOD believes that this strategy will best meet national security needs at a reasonable cost; (5) in reviewing DOD's DISN efforts in 1995, GAO reported that DOD had yet to define the program's minimal acceptable requirements; (6) GAO also reported that DOD had not yet developed an estimate of what it would cost to acquire, operate, and sustain the DISN infrastructure; (7) without this information, DOD has no objective cost and performance baseline for measuring DISN's success; (8) without this baseline, GAO cannot determine whether the selected acquisition strategy will yield the best value to the government over the course of DISN's life cycle, which is estimated to be over 10 years; (9) once this baseline is developed, DOD must also establish effective measures for tracking DISN's progress; (10) at present, DOD is far from meeting federal requirements for establishing performance measures; and (11) by developing measures that focus on benefits, costs, and risks, DOD management can target problem areas, highlight successes, and ensure DISN meets its cost and performance goals.