The Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office hosted an industry day Wednesday to discuss its plans for a recompete contract as part of efforts to scale Advana — DOD’s big data platform for advanced analytics — and work with additional vendors, particularly small businesses and nontraditional contractors.
DOD said Wednesday CDAO expects the recompete to integrate new industry tools into the Advana ecosystem, drive interoperability and bolster vendor competition.
Advana provides DOD users with data derived from the department’s over 400 business systems to facilitate data-driven decision-making.
“The Advana Industry Day is an unprecedented opportunity for industry to get involved in the largest acquisition of digital and AI enabling capabilities in the history of the Department of Defense. This acquisition will support development and scaling of cutting-edge software and AI capabilities from the boardroom to the battlefield,” said CDAO Radha Plumb.
Breaking Defense reported the Advana recompete will be a 10-year, $15 billion multivendor contract.
“One thing we want people to take away is you don’t have to do everything,” Bonnie Evangelista, the deputy CDAO for acquisition, told reporters Wednesday. “You don’t have to do every part of the tech stack … if you do a single piece and you do it really well, you can have a contract.”
“We are planning for on-ramping and off-ramping [vendors] over the ten years, because technology change,” Evangelista added.