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GSA rescinds all awards made on $15 billion Alliant 2 Small Business contract

April 4, 2019 By Nancy Cleveland

The government rescinded all awards made in the $15B Alliant 2 Small Business governmentwide acquisition contract for IT services procurement last week.

The move follows an order from the Court of Federal Claims that the General Services Administration must rescore every submission it received to address errors raised in protest from Virginia-based technology company, Citizant Inc.

The Alliant 2 SB is part of one of the largest federal IT opportunities of the decade. In February 2018, GSA announced its award to 81 small business, which federal agencies would be able to access for integrated IT solutions around their “current and evolving needs.” After the announcement, protests from dissatisfied bidders ensued.

In March 2018, Citizant, Inc. protested the bid to the Government Accountability Office. GAO dismissed the file in May 2018, but Citizant took complaints to court and won this week, resulting in the rescission.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2019/03/gsa-rescinds-all-awards-made-15b-alliant-2-small-business-contract/155869/

Filed Under: Contracting News Tagged With: Alliant, award protest, CFC, contract protests, cost accounting system, Court of Federal Claims, evaluation criteria, GAO, GSA, protest, recompete, selection criteria, small business, source selection

Protest lessons learned: When to challenge corrective action

August 21, 2015 By Nancy Cleveland

For Government contractors, it can be a frustrating experience to have your hard-earned contract award sidetracked by a protest – particularly if that protest includes a mandatory performance stay.  More frustrating still is when the agency pulls the award altogether by deciding to take corrective action and re-open the competition.

FY 13 Bid Protest Stats - GAOThis is no time to be passive!  If your contract award is under attack, contractors should get involved and intervene in the protest.  This advice takes on particular importance when corrective action is proposed – the window to challenge a renewed competition closes on the date when revised proposals are due.

Government contractor NVE Inc. learned this lesson the hard way on a recent $70 million janitorial contract for the Navy.  After its initial award was the subject of multiple rounds of protests, the agency made the decision to reopen the competition by engaging in discussions with all offerors.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=420284

See frequently asked questions about bid protests at: http://www.gao.gov/legal/bid-protests/faqs 

Filed Under: Contracting Tips Tagged With: award protest, bid protest, competition, contract protests, corrective action, Court of Federal Claims, GAO, protests, recompete

President’s budget request yields clues for contractors to follow

May 14, 2014 By ei2admin

Analysis of the president’s budget request typically yields some interesting clues for anyone willing to go deep enough into the data to reveal them. The numbers reveal shifting agency priorities as well as hints to the sea changes that could affect the potential $608 billion in fiscal 2015 contract spending.

There are a number of areas that contractors should consider as they navigate the remainder of fiscal 2014 and plan for 2015:

1. Put on your game face for recompetes.

2. Keep an eye on the shelf life on IT funding.

3. Take advantage of 2014 to gain footing for 2015.

4. Expect more contractor scrutiny.

5. Follow the (Defense) money.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/deltek-budget-request-yields-clues-for-contractors-to-follow/2014/05/09/e249e1a0-d479-11e3-95d3-3bcd77cd4e11_story.html

Filed Under: Contracting Tips Tagged With: budget, contract funding, funding, IT, recompete, spending

How to be a contract loser, guaranteed

December 26, 2010 By ei2admin

Here’s what to avoid if you want to succeed in the government market.

The acquisition storm is coming, and it’s bringing with it an onslaught of new competitors fleeing the sagging private-sector economy, shrunken federal budgets, mounting award protests and new technologies demanding new investment. You could go emulate an ostrich — no one would blame you for the impulse — or you could read what four of the top IT consultants in Washington tell their clients.

Washington Technology talked with Ray Bjorklund: senior vice president and chief knowledge officer, FedSources Inc.; Philip Kiviat: partner, Guerra Kiviat Inc.; Kevin Plexico: senior vice president of research and analysis services, Input Inc.; and Warren Suss: president, Suss Consulting Inc., and asked each one this question:

How would a company in the federal market best keep its existing customers and add new ones in the coming year?

Some of their answers surprised us, but before we get into that, let’s back up a tick. Although the members of our ad hoc panel offered different strategies for achieving success, they spoke with one voice when describing the fastest route to disaster: Failure to take care of your customer.

You think that’s obvious? So did we, but listen to this: “I have so many clients — companies large, midsize and small — whose senior management (and some midlevel management) never talks with the customers — I see it all the time,” Kiviat said.

It doesn’t take long before those customers think their business is being taken for granted and start considering their options.

“You have to keep them happy,” Kiviat said, “and the only way you can do that is by knowing what they need and what they want, by continually asking: ‘How are we doing?’ ”

Don’t confuse the IT business with information technology itself. Technology is not the issue, Kiviat said. “We have so much technology today that, unless you’re on the bleeding edge, you can do many [kinds of IT implementations] quickly and in different ways, depending on the customer. The question they don’t necessarily ask but that you have to answer is: “What do they really want to do?”

If you’re not tending your customer, others stand ready and willing to take on the job. Even the most well-placed incumbents have their vulnerabilities.

For example, Bjorklund said, “I heard about this incumbent that was delivering a high level of service. The agency loved the incumbent contractor; they had a great working relationship. Then it came time to recompete the contract. The agency said: ‘We like you guys a lot, but your competitor came in with a bid that was 25 percent better than yours.’ And they were out.”

Your reaction to technology changes can make you appear either eager and able to take on new business or inflexible and mired in the past. Take, for example, the shift to cloud-based services, which typically requires an investment in infrastructure and technology networks in anticipation of returns.

“Federal contractors are not used to investing upfront,” Suss said. “They’re used to investing in the proposal-and-capture process but generally are reluctant, before an award has been made, to make these kinds of sometimes significant infrastructure investments and establish supplemental capabilities before they know it’s going to generate revenue.”

Not only is that a great way to sour a relationship, he said, but also “inattention to such changes in the competitive landscape may create openings for newcomers.”

And believe it — word of any real or perceived failure to perform well on contracts you have now will travel fast.

“If your past performance is not strong, you become a nonstarter, not only from the agencies’ point of view but also in the view of prime contractors,” Plexico said. “You’ll be digging a big hole for yourself.”

But getting your own house is in order is only the beginning of your to-do list to achieve success, because, Bjorklund said, “no single initiative or strategy will ensure a win. You must pay attention to all the subtleties.”

 — Sami Lais is a special contributor to Washington Technology – 12/7/2010.

Filed Under: Contracting Tips Tagged With: contractor performance, government contracting, incumbent, IT, recompete, small business, technology

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