Perspecta seeks second shot at $7.6B DOD cloud email contract
By
Nick Wakeman
Perspecta is protesting DISA's decision to award General Dynamics IT the $7.6 billion DEOS contract for cloud based email and collaboration tools.
A $7.6 billion, single-award contract that comes down to a battle between two large systems integrators makes it no surprise when the losing bidder files a protest.
Such is the case with the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions contract, won by General Dynamics Information Technology at the end of August.
Perspecta, the only other bidder for DEOS, filed a protest Monday objecting to the Defense Information Systems Agency and General Services Administration picking GDIT for the potential 10-year contract.
DISA and GSA competed the contract through the latter's IT Schedule 70.
Perspecta has not responded to a request for comment on the protest. But post-award protests generally revolve on claims of unequal treatment or accusations that agency didn’t follow the evaluation criteria set forth in the solicitation. In other words, the protestor is saying that if the agency had conducted a proper evaluation, they would have been picked instead.
For now, the protest puts work under the contract on hold through at least Dec. 18 -- the deadline for a Government Accountability Office decision on the protest.
DEOS has been a relevantly quiet procurement for DOD when compared to its infrastructure as a service counterpart known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative. Also known as JEDI, that has been mired in months of protests and delays.
GDIT is partnered with Dell and Minburn Technology Group to deliver the Microsoft Office 365 platform across DOD. This includes email, word processing, spreadsheets, file sharing and storage.