The industry team led by Computer Sciences Corporation [CSC] and Harris Corporation [HRS] said July 5 they will request a debriefing on the Navy’s decision to award the next phase of its intranet program to a rival team led by Hewlett Packard [HP] before considering whether to protest.
“We’ll have a debrief and then consider our options from there,” said Jaime O’Keefe, a spokeswoman for Harris. “As with all contract awards, CSC will receive a debrief and evaluate our options,” spokeswoman Heather Williams said.
The Navy awarded HP an initial $320-million contract for the Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN), with options that could raise its value to $3.5 billion through June 2018. NGEN is the next phase in the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI), which has been controlled by HP since it acquired Electronic Data Systems in 2008.
The CSC-Harris team would have 10 days to file a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) after being briefed by the Pentagon.
Speaking to reporters after the award, Navy acquisition chief Sean Stackley said both teams submitted highly competitive bids, but he was confident the service thoroughly defined the requirements and “strictly” adhered to the criteria for selecting the winner.
“There is no defense against a protest, but there is absolutely preparation to ensure that in the event of a protest that the government prevail, and we took every measured step to do that,” Stackley said.
The Navy used the lowest price, technically acceptable (LPTA) acquisition model for NGEN, which awards the winner to the team that met the minimum technical requirements while offering the lowest price.
Stackley said both teams met the technical requirements but HP offered the best price.
NGEN is intended to provide secure, net-centric data and services to 800,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel and connects to 400,000 workstations. NMCI is largest intranet in the U.S. government and began in 2000 under a contract with Electronic Data Systems, which HP acquired in 2008.
The transition to NGEN is expected to take 13 months, about half a year later than the expected April 2014 timeframe.
The HP team includes
Northrop Grumman [NOC], IBM [IBM], AT&T [T] and Lockheed Martin [LMT]. The Harris-CSC team also consisted of General Dynamics [GD] and Verizon Communications [VZ].