Army has $5B IT equipment contract start date lined up

While somewhat under the radar, the Army appears to perhaps finally have a finish line in front of it for getting a nearly $5 billion IT equipment contract off the ground.

Orders for this once much-protested contract will begin to be taken in October of this year from the 10 selected vendors, the Army said in April after a kickoff meeting with those companies.

Eight companies were selected in July 2019 via the most recent attempt at awards for the Army Desktop and Mobile Computing 3 contract, while two more firms were added in March to make 10 total.

Those 10 are:

• Blue Tech
• Dell Technologies
• HP Inc.
• Iron Bow Technologies
• JC Technology
• NCS Technologies
• Sterling Computers
• Strategic Communications LLC
• Better Direct LLC (added in March)
• FedBiz IT Solutions (added in March)

ADMC is the Army's main contract vehicle for acquiring desktop computers, integrated desktop computers, workstations, notebooks, tablets, slates, electronic displays, thin clients, printers and multi-function devices.

This iteration of the contract has been fraught with multiple protests and some litigation in court since the branch first tried making awards in February 2017.

That round saw nine awards made out of 56 bids, which then led to a dozen protests from disappointed competitors including some large incumbents like HP Inc. and CDW.

Eventually the protest fight made its way to Court of Federal Claims and then the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the latter of which signed off in October 2018 on the Army’s plan for a corrective action to reopen and address protestors’ complains with how the branch made awards.

Attempt number two at awards came in July 2019 when the Army chose the first eight companies in the previously-mentioned bullet list. Predictably, more protests followed from some of those not selected as the Army received 58 bids for that round.

Better Direct and FedBiz IT Solutions apparently convinced the Army they had a point about their issues with the source selection, hence the additions in March. The other post-award protests for this round either were dismissed or withdrawn.

The Army meanwhile extended the current ADMC-2 contract in March for another 12 months to gain more time for both the transition and complete awards.