Jacobs clears protest hurdle on $480M DISA win

Jacobs Technology has cleared the last hurdle on a $480 million contract to support Defense Department customers.

The win in September was a takeaway from several incumbents but has been delayed by a bid protest, which has now been resolved in Jacobs' favor.

The Defense Information Systems Agency consolidated several contracts for test and evaluation services into a single award.

American Systems Corp. was one of the incumbents and the only one to protest.

The Government Accountability Office’s decision has not been released yet because it still needs to go through a vetting process before a public version is available.

American Systems apparently claimed there was an unequal evaluation. They also raised questions about organizational conflicts-of-interest. GAO rejected all of the claims.

The contract received three bids from Jacobs, American Systems and another incumbent in Engility.

Engility declined to protest, however.

“We’ve done a thorough post mortem on that program and are taking the lessons learned to heart,” Engility CEO Lynn Dugle said in their third quarter earnings call with investors Nov. 6.

The company does not expect the loss to have a long-range impact on growth, but Dugle said “it does make near term growth more challenging."

The DISA contract is for test, evaluation and certification services. It is used on a wide range of items with a goal of improving interoperability.

One of the requirements is to conduct tests that match against joint doctrines and objectives. There also are field and operational tests.

The contract has a two-year base and three one-year options. There also is a three-month phase in and a three-month phase out period.