Award a software contract in 30 days. Here’s how.

Most federal software contracts take between 8 and 18 months to award. That timeline includes market research, the RFP, source selection, Justification and Approval documentation, and the protest window that follows. By the time a contract is signed, the program has already lost a year or more before anyone writes a line of code. The technology has moved on. The original requirement no longer reflects reality.

For Program Managers and Contracting Officers, none of this is new. You live it. What may be new is that there is a contract vehicle, available now to any federal agency, that compresses the entire procurement process to roughly 30 days. Not by cutting corners, but by using statutory authority that already exists.

The vehicle is Rise8’s AFWERX Software Delivery Organization (SDO) IDIQ. It has a $499 million ceiling, supports modern software delivery end to end, and is open to every U.S. federal agency. The SDO IDIQ is awarded under SBIR Phase III authority, which is the single reason it moves as fast as it does.

The scope covers software development, DevSecOps, platform engineering, cybersecurity, continuous ATO (cATO), cloud migration, legacy system modernization, user-centered design, and leadership workshops.

Under 15 U.S.C. Section 638, Phase III contracts inherit the competition satisfied during the original Phase I and Phase II SBIR awards. In practice, a Task Order issued under this IDIQ does not require a new competition; there is no Justification and Approval document. No market research. No public notice. No fair opportunity determination. No protest risk at the Task Order level. The statutory requirements that normally add 6 to 12 months to a procurement timeline have already been met.

On the practical side, the vehicle accepts RDT&E, O&M, and Procurement funding. The SDO IDIQ does not have government fees and AFWERX does not require a memorandum of understanding or fund transfer.

The procurement process itself has seven steps. A program office defines their objectives and validates scope directly with Rise8, which takes a day or two. They draft a Performance Work Statement and submit it to AFWERX for a scope determination, typically returned within two to three business days. Once approved, the local contracting office issues the PWS to Rise8, negotiates the award, and signs the Task Order. The total elapsed time from the first conversation to signed contract is about 30 days.

Speed to contract only matters if what follows produces real outcomes. Rise8 doesn’t just accelerate procurement. We integrate with teams from day one and deliver production-ready capability that drives mission impact. We bring secure release pipelines, continuous ATO (cATO), and compliant platforms already in place so programs don’t spend their first year assembling infrastructure.

The results are measurable. The Department of Veterans Affairs used Rise8 to become the first non-DoD agency to achieve continuous ATO, cutting authorization time by 84 percent, —from 568 days to 90 days—and accelerating security fixes by 75 percent. The Space Force increased scheduling throughput by 20 percent, saved over 34,000 hours of manual work, and generated an estimated $5 million in annual revenue impact. The Air Force brought 12 applications into full CYBERCOM compliance, eliminated 12 security findings, and recovered more than 1,000 developer hours.

Rise8 published a free IDIQ Acquisition Handbook that walks through the statutory authority, data rights protections, the step-by-step award process, and the questions your contracting office will ask. You can download it or explore the full IDIQ overview and request a call here.