Agility Loop

Saw this article over at NextGov this morning stating that the Army wants to outsource the creation of one email service for the Army.  BUT, once you read this article it becomes clear that they actually mean one Exchange based email system for the entire Army.

The Army has wanted to do this for years, and in some ways had it with an antiquated email system in AKO.  I just wonder if other vendors out there will argue that there systems should be up to the task?  Seems like the Army has already made the decision on vendor without a fair competition…or at least that is an easy argument for  a vendor.

What’s also interesting is that the Army is “inviting companies to partner with the Defense Information Systems Agency” to house the email system.  Not sure how that contractual relationship would even work?  DISA’s DECCs are not typically vendor facing, and unless something is changed, I am not sure they are designed to work directly with industry.  When working on other enterprise level acquisitions, this same kind of thing was encouraged, and the only offers that were really considered were those that housed the system at DISA “inside the firewall”.