Groundswell's legal fight for $1B Army ERP contract moves to records access
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By
Nick Wakeman
Groundswell wants a former SAP executive to look at competition documents, but the winner Accenture Federal Services is pushing back.
An argument over who should get access to seal court filings has slowed down Groundswell’s lawsuit over the Army's handling of a potential $1 billion enterprise resource planning contract that went to Accenture's U.S. federal arm.
Groundswell now has until Dec. 24 to file a motion for judgment based on the administrative record.
In addition to a dispute over who can access that record, there are “ongoing discussions” between the Army and Groundswell over the contents of the record and its length.
This dispute started because Groundswell wants Uli Werner, CEO of EDC Consulting and a former SAP executive, to look at the record before filing a response.
One of the law firms representing Groundswell, Boies Schiller & Flexner LLC, wants him to support their case.
Accenture Federal Services apparently is objecting to Werner gaining access to the record. The Army has also filed a response to the request, but it isn’t clear if the Army is objecting.
Both filings are sealed, but the Accenture response is marked “Objection.” That word does not appear with the Army’s filing in the court’s docket.
Groundswell has until Monday to respond to the objection.
SAP is the software that the Army is using to merge a variety of systems onto a single platform. The contract is known as the Army Enterprise Business Systems – Convergence, or EBS-C.
Werner's bio on the EDC website says he was an SAP executive for 16 years and helped bring the software giant into the public sector market. He was responsible for software sales, strategic alliances and product management.
As part of the EBS-C competition, the Army stipulated that bidders use SAP in their proposed solutions.
In its lawsuit, Groundswell is arguing the Army said it wanted to try something new with the EBS-C contract but favored Accenture Federal throughout much of the competition.
Accenture has been the dominant SAP provider to the Army and the entire Defense Department for 25 years. Werner will likely bring insights into how that relationship has evolved and how it operates if the judge allows him to participate.