Protests hit $6B DIA IT contract

The Defense Intelligence Agency made 50 awards for its $6 billion IT contract known as E-SITE and so far two of the 27 losing bidders have filed protests.

My guess – more are on the way.

The two protests filed to date are from Sev1Tech Inc. and VariQ Corp., both small businesses.

DIA made 25 large business awards for the Enhanced Solutions for the IT Enterprise or E-SITE contract, and 25 small business awards. See our earlier story for the list of winners. DIA also said they received 77 bids, so with that many disappointed bidders, more protests are likely.

The contract is for a wide-range of IT requirements and technical support services for global intelligence and command and control assets. In addition to DIA, the contract also will be used by the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and other defense agencies and allies.

Some of the services to be acquired under the contract include program management, systems engineering, network operations, storage, web services, security management and testing and verification services.

The number of prime contracts awarded under this contract is a significant jump from the predecessor contract, known as Solutions for the IT Enterprise, which had six large business winners and five small businesses. While all of the large business incumbents made the cut for E-SITE, only one small business, Red Arch Solutions, appears to have won a spot on the new contract.

Again, my guess is that as DIA works through its debriefings, we’ll likely see some more protests. A $6 billion contract is not one that many are going to let get by them without a fight.