NATO Business Opportunity: Provision of Network Managed Services L1/L2 Operations & Obsolescence Management

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) intends to issue an Invitation for Bid (IFB) for the Provision of Network Managed Services L1/L2 Operations & Obsolescence Management

Potential U.S. prime contractors must 1) maintain a professionally active facility (office, factory, laboratory, etc.) within the United States, 2) be pre-approved for participation in NATO Competitive Procurement (NCP), 3) be issued a Declaration of Eligibility (DOE) by the Department of Commerce (DOC), and 4) register with NCIA’s eProcurement tool, Neo: https://www.ncia.nato.int/business/procurement/neo-eprocurement 

The reference for the IFB is IFB-CO-424240-OBS and all correspondence concerning the IFB should include this reference.

SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENT

Obsolescence Management: NaaS is searching for an industry partner who will be able have security cleared, on-site staff who can manage the obsolescence of our network hardware/software estate. This would include inventory, end of support and end of life management. Developing a yearly project roadmap for devices that require upgrade or replacement, providing the necessary project manager(s), process manager(s) and engineers to fully manage the schedules, the change and SRTS processes and the on-site hardware and configuration replacements of devices. The partner would need to keep NaaS on a stable path with repeatable and measurable KPIs/OKRs (to be defined), provide weekly, monthly and quarterly reporting on project progress and status as well as executive level business reviews and forecasting. The expectation is the first 2 years will have a significant bubble of obsolete network equipment that will need to be planned for replacement after which the project would enter a “business as usual” state with forecasted replacement activities planned throughout the year. The partner would need to fully manage the Change process and coordination of delivery of hardware to sites, on-site technicians, coordination of access with local entities and disposal of obsolete hardware following NATO guidelines and policy. 

Network Operations Level 1 & 2 support: NaaS is searching for an industry partner who will be able have security cleared, on-site staff who can manage the day-to-day operations of LAN, WAN and Transmission activities using NATO supplied laptops, network management tooling, ITSM tooling, processes and procedures. Level 1 support includes 24x7 monitoring and triage of network incidents and cooperation with ESOC staff. Level 2 support includes 8x5 resolution of incidents (KPI of 80% of incidents resolved at Level 1 & 2 combined), on-call support for nights and weekends. Level 2 will escalate to NCIA Level 3 networking staff who will be available on-call for assistance of complex or high priority incidents. The partner will need to fully integrate into NATO ESOC operations, including staffing the positions locally at SHAPE. The partner will need to follow NATO guidelines, processes and procedures as a part of their work as well as make recommendations for improvements to the network and processes. The partner will need to provide weekly, monthly and quarterly reporting on incident resolution and adherence to NATO SLAs for incidents; show year over year improvements to MTTR (Mean Time to Repair) and reduction in incidents via continual improvement/defect prevention methodologies.

The Period of Performance is anticipated to start in Q4 2026 and end in Q4 2029. This timeline represents the anticipated duration of the Project, and adjustments may be made as per the requirements of the solicitation process and subsequent contractual agreement.

The provider will be required to use NATO supplied tooling. The option to connect/ebond/API to external provider tools is not an available option at this juncture.

BECOMING ELIGIBLE TO BID

If you have a NCIA DOE that can be used on other NCIA NCP opportunities, please submit the DOE to Ms. Lise Vieux-Rochat, Senior Contracting Officer, at the following: CO-424240-OBS@ncia.nato.int   

If you do not have a DOE that can be used on other NCIA NCP opportunities, you will need a DOE from the Department of Commerce (DOC). Please follow the guidance below:   

NCP requires that the U.S. Government issue a DOE for potential U.S. prime contractors interested in this project. Before the U.S. Government can do so, however, the U.S. Government must approve the U.S. firm for participation in NCP.  U.S. firms are approved for NCP on a facility-by-facility basis. 

The U.S. NCP application is a one-time application.  The application requires supporting documentation in the form of 1) a company resume or capability statement indicating contracts completed as a prime contractor and 2) an annual report or set of financial documents indicating compilation, review, or audit by an independent CPA.

The U.S. Government continues to accept the legacy NATO International Competitive Bidding (ICB) application for participation in NCP. U.S. firms can download a copy of the legacy ICB application from the following website:

https://www.bis.gov/about-bis/bis-leadership-and-offices/SIES/business-opportunities-nato 
DOC is the U.S. Government agency that approves NCP applications. Please submit to the email address provided your application and supporting documentation (as attachments). If your firm is interested in a specific NCP project at this time, please also include the following in the TEXT of your email:

- the title and/or solicitation number of the project
- the name/phone/email of the company employee who should receive the bid documents

After approval of your one-time NCP application, DOC will then know to follow up by issuing a DOE for the project.  DOC will transmit the DOE to the NATO contracting agency.  

IMPORTANT DATES:

Request a DOE (and, for firms new to NCP, submit the completed one-time NCP application): 30 January 2026

NCIA distributes the IFB (planned): February 2026

Bid closing (anticipated): April 2026

Contract Award (estimated): August 2026