US Awards ENCORE-II: $12.3 Billion I.T. Support Contract

Air strike… priceless
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Back in August 2005, we noted that “ENCORE I.T. Contracts Raise Ceiling to $2.5B Until ENCORE II Arrives.” Services under ENCORE II will include high level enterprise IT policy, integration management, communications engineering, and asset management. According to the Encore II RFP, DISA intends to use the contract to support users in the military services and agencies as they transition from legacy systems to Net-Centric Enterprise Services (NCES), which embodies the new techno-organizational opportunities described above. Encore II will help them effectively use core NCES product lines, including collaboration and discovery tools, and a planned joint services knowledge portal. That’s the vision, anyway. In January 2006, we followed that up with “Pentagon’s $13 Bn “Encore II” RFP Gets Revised, Extended,” explaining the ENCORE vision, its origins, and its likely obstacles.

That wait ended on Jan 31/07, when 6 companies received indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity multiple-awards contracts. They include provisions for Firm, Fixed-Price, Time-and-Materials or Labor-Hour and Cost-Reimbursement (CPFF, CPAF, etc), and will run from March 12/07 through March 11/17. The maximum not-to-exceed value for the ENCORE II contract over a 5-year period, plus its 5 one-year option periods, is $12.225 billion. This is slightly less than the $13 billion projected. Performance will be at various locations within the Continental United States (CONUS), and also outside the CONUS (OCONUS), and each task order issued will be opened to competition among the ENCORE-II winners.

The solicitation was issued as a full and open competitive action with 16 large firm proposals received – but the Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization DITCO) at Scott AFB, IL picked just 6 large firm winners with small business awards to follow. Whereupon, the protests began. Now, the small business roster has been added, and the large business roster has been expanded…

Initial winners, announced Jan 31/07:

• Booz Allen Hamilton (HC1013-07-D-2016)
  
• CACI (HC1013-07-D-2018)
  
• EDS, Electronic Data Systems Corporation (HC1013-07-D-2019)
  
• Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems (HC1013-07-D-2020)
  
• SAIC, Science Applications International Corporation (HC1013-07-D-2021)
  
• SRA, Systems Research and Applications Corporation (HC1013-07-D-2022)

And Now, the Rest of the Story…

May 2/08: The list of large company winners now stands at 14. All 4 protesters have been added, and so have BAE Systems, Jacobs Technology, L-3 Communications, and Raytheon. FCW | National Examiner | CACI | Raytheon | SAIC. A FedBizOpps announcement identifies the list of large company winners along with revised contract numbers:

• BAE Systems Information Technology (HC1028-08-D-2014)
  
• Booz Allen Hamilton (HC1028-08-D-2015)
  
• CACI (HC1028-08-D-2016)
  
• CSC Federal Sector, Computer Sciences Corp. (HC1028-08-D-2017)
  
• EDS, now a Hewlett-Packard company (HC1028-08-D-2018)
  
• IBM Business Consulting Services (HC1028-08-D-2019)
  
• Jacobs Technology (HC1028-08-D-2020)
  
• L-3 Services (HC1028-08-D-2021)
  
• Lockheed Martin Information Services (HC1028-08-D-2022)
  
• Northrop Grumman Information Technology (HC1028-08-D-2023)
  
• Raytheon (HC1028-08-D-2024)
  
• SAIC, Science Applications International Corporation (HC1028-08-D-2025)
  
• SRA, Systems Research and Applications Corporation (HC1028-08-D-2026)
  
• Unisys (HC1028-08-D-2027)

April 24/08: ENCORE-II’s small business winners are announced. Also see FCW article. The winners are:

• 3H Technology’s Federal Group (HC1028-08-D-2001)
  
• AnviCom (HC1028-08-D-2002)
  
• Analytical Services (HC1028-08-D-2003)
  
• Computing Technologies (HC1028-08-D-2005)
  
• Data Systems Analysts (HC1028-08-D-2006)
  
• FemmeComp (HC1028-08-D-2007)
  
• NetConn Solutions (HC1028-08-D-2008)
  
• Oberon Associates (HC1028-08-D-2009)
  
• Pragmatics (HC1028-08-D-2010)
  
• Professional Software Engineering (HC1028-08-D-2011)
  
• Solers (HC1028-08-D-2012)
  
• TranTech (HC1028-08-D-2013)

May 10/07: The US Government Accountability Office sustains the ENCORE-II bid protests of Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), IBM, Northrop Grumman, and Unisys. GAO decision.

In brief, the losing bids lost points for items that included failing to have a small business subcontracting plan that met DISA’s stated requirements. Some of the higher-rated bidders had exchanges with DISA about this aspect, and revised their small business plans to become acceptable. The GAO’s ruling revolved around the fact that these plans were set out as a material decision criterion in the RFP, which meant DISA was obligated to discuss this issue with all contractors once one had raised it, identifying weaknesses in each bid and giving all bidders an opportunity to revise their plans.

“We recommend that the agency establish a competitive range and conduct meaningful discussions with offerors whose proposals are found to be within the competitive range, obtain and evaluate revised proposals, and make a new source selection decision. We also recommend that the agency reimburse the protesters for their reasonable costs of filing and pursuing the protests. Bid Protest Regulations, 4 C.F.R. sect. 21.8(d)(1) (2007). The protesters’ certified claims for costs, detailing time expended and costs incurred, must be submitted directly to the agency within 60 days of receiving this decision. 4 C.F.R. sect. 21.8(f)(1).”