Has HP taken a pass on an OASIS protest?

When the General Services Administration announced the winners of the large business portion of the $60 billion OASIS contract, one of the first things we did after seeing who all the winners were was look for missing names.

Hewlett-Packard Co. was one of the first ones we noticed that wasn’t on the list, and the company quickly confirmed with me that they had bid and lost.

Not surprisingly, they didn’t have much else to say about it other than they were reviewing the agency’s award announcement.

That was May 20. Since then, I’ve been monitoring the Government Accountability Office’s bid protest docket to track the protest filings, and so far, nothing from HP.

And the company isn’t commenting at all now.

Usually, companies have a 10-day window from the time of their debrief to file a protest. In the case of OASIS, the debriefs were provided in writing as part of the notice to companies that didn’t win.

But GSA also said that companies should talk to them before filing a protest.

So, I’m not sure whether the clock started ticking on May 19 when the notices went out, or if the clock started again if a company went in to talk to GSA.

GSA isn’t commenting on who came to talk to them or how many companies requested a meeting. They also declined to tell me when the last company came in to talk, which would have given me an idea of the window for a protest would close.

But because the last protest was filed on June 2, I can’t help but think all of the protests that will be filed have been filed.

Right now, the active protests stand at six, with ones of those being a protest filed by Ajucar, Anvil-Incus & Co., which has been fighting for more small-business inclusion in the full-and-open portion of the contract. They filed several pre-award protests which were rejected. They quickly filed a protest after the awards, which GAO dismissed. They are now asking GAO to reconsider, which is doubtful.

So, that only leaves five companies with active protests:

• Phacil Inc.
• Smartronix Inc.
• VSE Corp.
• American Systems Corp.
• Logistics Management Institute

The due dates for a decision from GAO range from Sept. 4 to Sept. 10.

As I said, HP isn’t talking, but I would have to think they are either looking at their existing contracts and their customer base that need the kind of high-end professional services offered under OASIS. They are figuring out how to serve those customers through their existing vehicles.

They also could be looking to get on the team of one of the winners, either on the unrestricted portion where 74 companies won positions, or the small business portion where there are 124 primes.

Or possibly, there is some other way for HP to get on the OASIS contract. Only time will tell.