Veteran-owned business protests Army’s $5.5B sole-source Salesforce contract

A small veteran-owned business is pushing back on the Defense Department’s decision to award Salesforce a $5.5 billion sole-source contract.

The new potential 10-year contract is structured to expand upon an existing enterprise agreement between Salesforce and the Army.

The new agreement would convert the EA into an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract vehicle that is open to all of DOD, as well as incorporate professional services.

The Army signed its initial agreement with Salesforce’s subsidiary Computable Insights in June and other parts of DOD started asking about it quickly thereafter. That interest led the Army to negotiate a new agreement with Computable Insights, which both entities finalized on Jan. 22.

The contract has a $5.5 billion ceiling across its initial five-year base period and the single five-year option period.

In a justification and approval document, the Army said that Salesforce is the only company capable of delivering the software and services it needs.

Enter TurboVets, a small business located in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas.

TurboVets has gone to the Government Accountability Office to challenge the Army's finding that Salesforce is the only responsible source that can meet the requirements.

TurboVets is arguing that it can provide software platforms, software-as-a-service solutions, systems integration and professional services that are comparable to what the Army is buying from Salesforce.

In other words, TurboVets claims should have been a competition to see who could offer the best value to the Army and DOD.

The justification document lays out how DOD wants support for workflow automation, business process management and enterprise application development functions.

The biggest user of Salesforce under the current agreement is the Army’s Accessions Information Environment. This organization wants to modernize how the Army does recruitment, onboarding and future service member management.

The new agreement also consolidates a raft of fragmented Salesforce contracts into one vehicle.

DOD argues that Salesforce is also the only source of its proprietary low-code automation platform. The department wants both the platform and outcome-based professional services tied together.

Salesforce is also deeply embedded across the Army and other parts of DOD. Switching platforms would take years of migration work and would require operating two separate systems during the transition, the justification document claims. The cost and disruption would impact recruitment and readiness, according to the document.

The document acknowledges that there are resellers of Salesforce products, but says they do not offer the services and the low-code platform in a bundle.

The document also talks about alternatives to Salesforce, which is what TurboVets appears to be arguing. But DOD dismissed these alternatives because of the impact on operations, military readiness, and the risk of delays and higher costs.

Attempts to reach officials at TurboVets were unsuccessful. TurboVets filed its protest Feb. 4 with GAO's decision expected by May 15.