Navy exchange attracts 21 bidders

Twenty-one professional services companies selected last week by the Navy will compete for delivery orders through the first federal buying exchange.

The companies will provide engineering, financial management, logistics and program management services through SeaPort, the portal that Commerce One Inc. is building for the Naval Sea Systems Command, command spokesman David Caskey said. Navsea awarded multiple-award contracts to all the companies that bid, according to the April 2 Pentagon contract award announcement.

According to Navsea, memos posted on the SeaPort Web site (www.seaport.navy.mil) show the contracts will save the command money because it won't have to pay the General Services Administration's fees of 3 percent to 5 percent to use GSA's professional services contracts. The contracts have a $14.5 billion cumulative ordering limit, and they each have a five-year base period with two five-year options.

Contracting officers can make SeaPort delivery orders performance-based, and the buying exchange will help them avoid common problems in professional services procurements, such as "cost overruns, schedule delays [and] failure to achieve specified results," according to the SeaPort site. Officers also can convert existing firm, fixed-priced contracts to performance-based ones through the buying exchange.

Contracting officers can post statements of work, submit requests for funding, review proposals, and award and administer contracts through SeaPort, according to the Web site. The buying exchange also will make it easier for Navsea comptrollers and contracting officers to respond to budget requests from Congress, the General Accounting Office and the Defense Department Inspector General, according to SeaPort.

SeaPort also will enable bidders to find out what their pre-award status is and save contracting officers time because they won't have to field as many calls from vendors.

Navsea, a $20 billion organization, engineers, builds and supports the Navy's ships and combat systems.

Buying exchanges use intranets to connect multiple buyers with multiple, prequalified sellers. The multiple buyers in this case are Navsea headquarters and its field organizations; the 21 vendors are the prequalified sellers.

The companies that won contracts include:

• ADI Technology Corp., Alexandria, Va.
• Advanced Engineering and Research Associates Inc., Alexandria, Va.
• ANADEC Inc., Arlington, Va.
• Anteon Corp., Fairfax, Va.
• BAE Systems, Rockville, Md.
• CACI Technologies Inc., Chantilly, Va.
• Columbia Research Corp., Arlington, Va.
• Computer Sciences Corp., Arlington, Va.
• DTI Associates Inc., Arlington, Va.
• EG&G Technical Services Inc., Gaithersburg, Md.
• Gray Hawk Systems Inc., Alexandria, Va.
• GRC International, Vienna, Va.
• Grayphon Technologies, L.C., Washington, D.C.
• John J. McMullen Associates Inc., Alexandria, Va.
• Litton PRC Inc., McLean, Va.
• Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems Inc., Bethesda, Md.
• Logicon Inc., Falls Church, Va.
• Planning Consultants Inc., Virginia Beach, Va.
• TMASC Joint Venture, Chantilly, Va.
• Unified-ZAI Joint Venture, Springfield, Va.
• Vredenburg, Reston, Va.