NTT Data wins some and loses some in Education IT protest battle

NTT Data has lost a different bid protest to keep part of an incumbent Education Department IT support program just days after they won a decision to keep another part.

NTT Data, through its acquisition of Dell Services, is the incumbent on a contract called EDUCATE for end-to-end IT services to the Education Department. The department has broken up EDUCATE into several recompete contracts under the name of PIVOT.

It was only last week that NTT Data prevailed in the protest of PIVOT-I contract that went to General Dynamics through its acquisition of CSRA. NTT Data successfully argued that there was a conflict of interest on GD's part because a subcontractor shared a copy of NTT Data's proposal for EDUCATE.

So now NTT Data will have another opportunity to win that $260 million contract.

But the company wasn’t as fortunate in the $75.7 million PIVOT-H contract that went to IBM.

NTT Data protested the award to the Government Accountability Office, arguing that the evaluation process was flawed and that there were unequal discussions.

The company said that its proposal was given several weaknesses that were not appropriate. They also argued that the scores for IBM’s proposal were too high. But GAO said that even if that was the case, there were other bidders in-line for the award ahead of NTT Data.

NTT Data also said that Education engaged in additional rounds of discussions with IBM and another competitor. GAO dismissed this allegation because NTT Data had already been eliminated from the competitive range when discussions began.

GAO’s decision clears the way for IBM to begin work under PIVOT-H. The "H" indicates that the contract covers hosting of applications, data and IT systems services. PIVOT-I covers integrator and end-user experiences services.

Still to come from the Education Department are PIVOT-M for mobile services, PIVOT-N for IT network services, PIVOT-O for IT oversight functions, and PIVOT-P for printing services.

The entire portfolio of PIVOT contracts has an estimated value of about $546.2 million, according to Deltek.