ITES-3H protests reach 15
By
Nick Wakeman
The protests continue to roll in as companies cry foul over the Army's decision to exclude them from the $5 billion ITES-3H contract.
The number of protests involving the Army’s $5 billion ITES-3H contract continues to grow, and some big names have joined the fight.
To date, 15 companies have filed protests because they have been excluded from the final round of the competition.
The Army is running a two-phase procurement. It received 50 bids, and in phase one, it narrowed the field down, and now is running a second competition to pick the final winners. The Army has said it will make eight awards: four to large businesses and four to small.
Here are the protestors to date:
- Blue Tech Inc.
- Carahsoft Technology Corp.
- CounterTrade Products
- Dell Federal Systems
- FCN Inc.
- Hewlett-Packard Co.
- iGov
- Integration Technologies Group
- Mercom Corp.
- MicroTech
- Presidio Networked Solutions
- Red River Computer Co.
- Technica Corp.
- Technology Integration Group
- Telos Corp.
As I’ve already reported, Dell is an incumbent on ITES-2H, so it is surprising to see them on this list, but looking at some of the other protestors is equally surprising, particularly HP, Carahsoft, Red River, and Telos.
The Army tried to award ITES-3H last year and ran into troubles getting from phase 1 to phase 2. The protests that were filed then caused the Army to pull back and re-open bidding.
The big question now is whether the Army is headed for more trouble. And, if they are, shouldn’t they consider cancelling the contract in favor of another existing contract?
While ITES-2H has been extended for another year, customers surely are looking to shift work to other vehicles.
There are plenty of other vehicles out there that can be used to buy hardware, software and related services, so if they aren’t looking for another contract, they should be.