Navy bumps NGEN award again

The Navy says it needs more time to make its pick between HP and a team led by CSC and Harris for the $5 billion Next Generation Enterprise Network contract.

The Navy has pushed back the award for the $5 billion Next Generation Enterprise Network contract back another month.

Earlier this year, the Navy moved the award date from February to May. Now they are moving it to June 30.

A team led by incumbent Hewlett-Packard Co. and a team led by Computer Sciences Corp. and Harris Corp. are locked in a battle for the replace to the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet contract that HP has held since 2000 when it was won by EDS.

The Navy said that it has re-entered discussions with the bidders. It also said that it could award the contract or contracts ahead of the June 30 date.

The request for proposals for NGEN was released in May 2012 with proposals due in July. The Navy has estimated the value of the contract to be between $4.5 billion and $5.4 billion over five years.

NGEN has two parts, one for enterprise services – everything that touches the end user – and one for transport services – the infrastructure portion. The bids are being evaluated on a lowest price, technically acceptable criteria.

HP’s team includes IBM, AT&T and Northrop Grumman. The CSC-Harris team includes General Dynamics, Cisco and Verizon.