Feds give $50B IT services deal a second try

The U.S. federal government has chosen 59 IT services firms including AT&T Government Solutions, Nortel Government Solutions, IBM and Verizon Business for a government-wide IT services program that could be worth $50 billion over the next 10 years.

The U.S. General Services Administration announced the Alliant winners on Friday. Alliant is an umbrella program open to all federal government agencies for purchasing systems integration, technical support and other IT management services.

The Alliant awards are a re-compete for GSA, which originally awarded contracts in 2007 that were later thrown out by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

"Alliant has been held up in court for problems with the source selection processes," explained Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president of Federal Sources, a McLean, Va. consulting firm. "The court offered GSA a variety of options, and GSA chose to do the procurement over again."

Bjorklund said Alliant has taken an unusually long amount of time to get awarded, with the program originally conceived in 2003. He says some federal customers may have chosen other contracting vehicles to acquire systems design, engineering or software development chores rather than wait for the re-compete of Alliant.

"Alliant is big, and it’s complex," Bjorklund says. "The problem is that when industry and government drag out some of these acquisition contracts, it’s a two-edge sword because you’re taking a risk that customers will find somewhere else to get the job done."

GSA more than doubled the number of contractors on Alliant this time around, presumably to avoid protests. In 2007, GSA awarded 29 Alliant contracts; last week, GSA made 59 awards.

"To avoid any kind of conflict like a protest, it may be more simple and easier to award to many more contractors than to be very narrow in your selection criteria," Bjorklund says. "It ends up adding an administrative burden to the federal government, and you’re causing industry to have to put out more energy to compete for task orders. But arguably, the more players that you have, that’s good for the customers because there are more to choose from and there is competition, which keeps prices in check and improves overall service."

GSA officials said the Alliant contractors will help federal agencies deploy the IT funds they receive through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"GSA is now better positioned to assist our federal customers to meet their IT requirements in a streamlined and efficient manner while meeting the administration’s goals for transparency and oversight in federal contracting," said GSA Acting Administrator Paul Prouty in a statement.

The latest Alliant contract winners include IT services firms such as Computer Sciences Corp., Electronic Data Systems, Perot Systems Government Services and Unisys Corp. Management consulting firms including Accenture National Security Services, Booz Allen Hamilton and BearingPoint were selected for the megadeal, as were military contractors BAE, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Science Applications International Corp.