Air Force finds its NetCents 2 resolution
By
Nick Wakeman
The Air Force has officially added the nine companies who had protested its latest NetCents 2 Products awards. With the additional companies, all 25 bidders have been added to the contract, effectively clearing the way for the IT hardware and software contract to finally open for business.
It looks like the Air Force has officially resolved the protests involving the $6.9 billion NetCents 2 Products contract, and has added all the losing bidders onto the contract.
We reported in late September that protests of the nine losing bidders on the contract had been dismissed by the Government Accountability Office because the Air Force had promised to take a corrective action.
Several sources told me that the corrective action would be the Air Force adding the nine losing bidders to the contract.
But then the government closed 16 days, and the Air Force remained silent -- until last night, when the DefenseLink website included an Air Force announcement adding nine more companies to the contract, bringing the total to 25 winners.
The new companies being added are:
- Federal Networked Systems LLC., Ashburn, Va.
- Dell Federal Systems L.P., Round Rock, Texas
- Harris IT Services Corp., Dulles,Va.
- Sterling Computers Corp., Norfolk Neb.
- Force 3 Inc., Denver, Colo.
- PCMG, Chantilly, Va.
- Insight Public Sector Inc., Chantilly Va.
- Presidio Networked Solutions Inc., Greenbelt Md.
- FCN Inc., Rockville Md.
These join the following companies as prime contractors on the program:
- Ace Technology Partners LLC, Arlington Heights, Ill.
- Blue Tech, Inc., San Diego
- CDW Government LLC, Vernon Hills, Ill.
- CounterTrade Products Inc., Arvada, Colo.
- FedStore Corp., Rockville, Md.
- General Dynamics Corp., Falls Church, Va.
- Global Technology Resources Inc., Denver
- immix Technology Inc., McLean, Va.
- Integration Technologies Group, Falls Church, Va.
- Intelligent Decisions Inc., Ashburn, Va.
- Iron Bow Technologies LLC, Chantilly, Va.
- M2 Technology, San Antonio
- MicroTech, Vienna, Va.
- Red River Computer Co., Claremont, N.H.
- Unicom Government Inc., Herndon, Va. (formerly GTSI)
- World Wide Technology, Inc., Maryland Heights, Mo.
The Air Force has struggled mightily to get to this point; they have gone through three rounds of awards, and each time they announce winners, a flood of protests forced them to back off.
Except for the third round, when they added the winning companies in round one to the winning companies in round two.
The Air Force made statements that it was satisfied with its decision, and that it would stick to it, but that resolve only lasted a few weeks.
So now, NetCents 2 Products is open for business, but the overall NetCents program isn’t out of the woods yet.
There were protests filed after the awards of the NetCents 2 Applications contract. The Air Force said it would take a corrective action, but nothing has been announced yet.
Yet to be awarded are contracts for infrastructure and IT professional support and engineering services.
Given the Air Force’s track record and overall tendency for losing bidders to protest, I would expect objections to these awards when they come out.
Only part of the NetCents nightmare is over. Stay tuned.