GSA’s existing FTS2001 program is the successor to a line of programs that have provided long-distance telecommunications to the federal government. Made up of two large governmentwide contracts—one awarded to Sprint in December 1998 and one awarded to MCI in January 1999—the program is designed to meet agency needs for various telecommunication services. It also includes contractors that had been awarded local telecommunications contracts for selected metropolitan areas. GSA allowed these contractors to also offer long-distance services on the FTS2001 contracts—termed “crossover contracts.” The original terms of the two FTS2001 contracts were set to expire in December 2006 and January 2007. However, to give itself time to finalize the contracts intended to succeed the FTS2001 contracts and to provide its customer agencies additional time to complete their transitions once the Networx contracts were awarded, GSA negotiated sole-source contracts (termed FTS2001 bridge contracts) with Sprint and MCI to provide continuity of service for agencies. These bridge contracts, which extend the terms of the FTS2001 contracts for no more than 42 months, began in December 2006 and January 2007 and are to expire at the end of May and June 2010, respectively. In October 2003, GSA announced its plans for the Networx program. In conjunction with a group of senior federal information resource officials known as the Interagency Management Council (IMC), GSA identified eight strategic goals for the program: Service continuity—Contracts should include all services currently available under FTS2001 to facilitate a smooth transition. Competitive prices—Prices should be better than those available elsewhere in the telecommunications marketplace. High-quality service—Contracts should ensure a high quality of service throughout the life of the contracts using enforceable agreements. Full service vendors—Vendors should be capable of providing a broad array of services and provide follow-on services to avoid duplication of administrative and contracting costs. Alternative services—Agencies should be able to choose from a greater number of competing vendors that provide new, enhanced services and emerging technologies. Transition support—Contracts should include provisions that facilitate transition coordination and support. Performance-based contracts—Contracts should be performance based and include service-level agreements where possible. Operations support—GSA should provide fully integrated ordering, billing, and inventory management. In addition, GSA identified goals specific to the Networx transition and indicated that the ability of GSA and the Networx contractors to deliver against these goals is essential to the overall success of the transition effort. These goals include transitioning telecommunications services before the FTS2001 contracts expire, expediting the availability of new services, and minimizing transition expenses. Under the Networx program, GSA awarded two multiple-award task and delivery order contracts—Networx Universal and Networx Enterprise— having a combined estimated value of $20 billion. The contracts were awarded in March and May 2007, respectively. GSA awarded Networx Universal contracts to AT&T, Verizon Business Services, and Qwest Government Services. Networx Universal offers voice and data services, wireless services, and management and application services, including video and audio conferencing, as well as mobile and fixed satellite services, with national and international coverage. GSA awarded Networx Enterprise contracts to AT&T, Verizon Business Services, Qwest Government Services, Level 3 Communications, and Sprint Nextel. Networx Enterprise offers services similar to those of Networx Universal, with a focus on those that are Internet-based, and does not require coverage of as large a geographic area as does Networx Universal. Central to the successful transition from FTS2001 to Networx are transition planning and execution activities that involve GSA, the agencies, and FTS2001 and Networx contractors. GSA serves as a facilitator for all transition management activities and is using contracted support to assist in tracking transition activities in order to avoid delays and other problems that can arise throughout the process. GSA’s primary responsibility is program management of both the FTS2001 and Networx programs. As part of this, GSA is responsible for providing guidance and assistance to agencies for the transition to Networx to ensure that unnecessary delays in agency transitions are avoided; developing an overall Networx transition strategy, minimizing agency transition costs, and ensuring that all telecommunications services are transitioned in a timely manner; and tracking daily progress of transition efforts, performing program-level analysis to support transition goals and objectives, and resolving transition issues. The GSA organization carrying out these responsibilities is the Federal Acquisition Service, an organization formed in 2006 from the merger of GSA’s Federal Technology Service, which had managed the FTS2001 program, and GSA’s Federal Supply Service. To assist agencies with their transitions from the FTS2001 contracts, GSA is working with representatives of federal agencies, both directly and through the IMC. A subgroup of the IMC, the Transition Working Group (TWG), was established in May 2004 to assist with developing a consensus on common transition issues that affect multiple agencies. The TWG coordinates with GSA, agencies, and industry partners to ensure thorough advance planning and preparation efforts for the transition to Networx. The TWG also serves as a conduit for communications among GSA and its customer agencies. GSA’s customer agencies—those federal agencies acquiring services through the FTS2001 program—have principal responsibility for the transition. These agencies are responsible for coordinating transition efforts with the incumbent and Networx contractors to ensure that existing services under FTS2001 are disconnected and that new services are ordered. GSA and the IMC have requested each of the customer agencies to appoint a transition manager and establish a transition team that will manage the agency’s internal transition planning, preparation, and be responsible for interfacing with GSA, the IMC, and officials within the agency. Both the Networx contractors and incumbent FTS2001 contractors are responsible for supporting agencies in their transition planning and execution efforts: Networx contractors will be responsible for delivering services ordered, developing program-level and agency-level transition plans, and communicating the status of transition activities with scheduled notices and reports. Incumbent FTS2001 contractors are expected to complete all FTS2001 service disconnect orders requested by agencies and assist agency efforts to prepare for the transition by, for example, helping to identify inventory information and system requirements. The previous transition of federal telecommunications services was a large and complex task that underscored the importance of proper transition management practices. In 2001, we reported that the transition to the current FTS2001 federal telecommunications contracts encountered delays and took more than 24 months, which hindered the timely achievement of program goals. We also reported that transition delays resulted in raised telecommunications costs. In total, an estimated $74 million in savings was lost due to delays in completing the transition to FTS2001. Subsequently, the TWG, in conjunction with GSA, identified 27 lessons learned from the previous transition. For example, lessons learned include (1) the need for GSA and agencies to identify funding for the transition early to ensure that resources are available and (2) the need to ensure that local agency sites are not responsible for delays due to access issues. Of the 27 lessons learned, 13 related to transition planning, 11 to transition execution, and 3 to transition monitoring. Together, the lessons learned affirmed that applying adequate transition practices—including planning, executing, and monitoring the transition—increases the likelihood of a successful transition from FTS2001 contracts to Networx. GSA and representatives of its customer agencies have taken actions to address these lessons learned. For example, to address funding for the transition, GSA and the TWG developed a Taxonomy and Allocation of Transition Costs document, which the IMC approved, that describes each type of transition cost and whether GSA or the agency would be responsible. And to help ensure that local agency sites are not responsible for delays, GSA has provided guidance to agencies on creating staffing and training plans to better ensure that those involved are prepared for the transition effort. GSA has also developed numerous guidance documents and presentations related to the transition, as well as several tools. Much of this information is maintained by GSA in two locations on the Internet—its public Web site at www.gsa.gov/networx and a Web site accessible only to agency transition managers and TWG members. Documentation developed includes, for example, a guide to assist agencies in selecting the vendor best suited to provide required services while giving all vendors fair opportunity to be considered for each order—known as the fair opportunity process. GSA has also developed numerous presentations on the transition from FTS2001 and briefings presented to agency transition managers. Further, GSA has developed tools specifically designed to aid agencies as they transition to Networx, such as a transition inventory application to help agencies identify and validate their transition inventories and a tool that agencies can use to price their services against the various Networx contract offerings. With GSA’s FTS2001 contracts set to expire by June 2010—within the next 2 years—agencies have a limited time frame within which to complete their transitions (see fig. 1). As mentioned earlier, the FTS2001 bridge contracts expire in May and June 2010. In addition, GSA’s FTS2001 crossover contracts with Qwest, Verizon, AT&T, Winstar Communications, and SBC will expire between January 2008 and May 2010. Therefore, agencies have approximately 2 years to transition all FTS2001 services before all FTS2001 contracts expire. Figure 1 depicts these expiration dates. To address the approaching expirations, GSA is taking several actions. First, to provide an incentive to transition early, GSA and the IMC agreed upon milestones and associated criteria that, if met, would allow agencies to be reimbursed by GSA for certain transition-related costs.