In the high stakes battle for positions on major government multiple award contracts, ALLIANT is headed down the same path as other similar procurements: losing vendors protest and are added subsequently to the contract vehicle.

According to a Washington Technology article, a U.S. Federal Claims Court judge ruled in favor of companies protesting the ALLIANT contract setting the stage for the protesting companies to be added to the contract.

While it has been commonplace for vendors to protest such awards, a relatively new development is the success such protestors are having in getting added to the contract vehicles.  With the addition of protesting vendors to the ALLIANT vehicle, it follows the path of other major task order contracts, such as the Army's ITES-2S.  DISA's ENCORE-II is in the midst of similar protest entanglements.

These types of contracts have become "must wins" for the bidding vendors; to lose such contracts can lock them out of certain customers.  From the government's perspective, however, one wonders if it would be better for them simply to include these vendors in the original awards rather than draw the protests which ultimately delay the awards.