SAP loses appeal on Air Force deal

$88.5M contract was awarded to Oracle

By Marc L. Songini

February 14, 2006 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - The U.S. government has denied an appeal filed by SAP AG that protested an $88.5 million contract awarded to Oracle Corp.
Last fall, Oracle won the contract for the Air Force Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS) project, which is intended to retire hundreds of aging systems in favor of a single supply chain management application. SAP also competed for the contract and filed a complaint with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) when the contract was awarded to Oracle. SAP claimed that Oracle's proposal did not reflect the best value or the lowest-risk option. (See "SAP protests Oracle win of Air Force contract.")
On Friday, SAP was notified by the GAO that its appeal had been denied, said a spokeswoman for the Germany-based software vendor. It's unclear what move the company will make next.
"Obviously, we're disappointed," said the SAP spokeswoman. "Our team felt we had strong grounds for the appeal, and we still feel we're the best option for the Air Force. We're not alone in losing protests."
She said SAP is awaiting a copy of the decision for review, and will then look at its options.
"SAP enjoys strong relationships with more than 110 defense and security customers around the world," she said. "We are committed to continuing our excellent support to these organizations and to pursue additional contracts."
"We are very pleased with the GAO ruling," said Oracle spokesman Bob Wynne. "We are excited to be the product platform selected for ECSS after the Air Force's exhaustive evaluation. We're looking forward to working successfully with the Air Force and their implementation partners to achieve the program's vision."

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Additional Resources

POLL RESULTS

Leading IT Pros Weigh In on Top IT Issues

Accelerate your knowledge of the IT world you inhabit by viewing the results of a series of polls taken by your IT peers. These polls of 100+ IT professionals each are available for full viewing. They cover key topics such as virtualization, processor performance, green IT, cloud computing and many others. Be a part of the buzz.

WHITE PAPER

For Best Results, Think Beyond the Box

Technology is complex. Keeping it running productively shouldn't be. To that end, you want to minimize the number of solutions needed in-house to simplify operations, maintenance, and support. Kodak offers a best-practices model. One company provides support for both scanner and software, for fast problem resolution without vendor finger-pointing. Download now!

WHITE PAPER

Accelerating the Path to Demand Intelligence with a Demand Signal Repository

Utilizing demand intelligence improves the precision of pricing, product assortments, channel/store placement, and promotion, which are all essential for sustainable revenue management performance. Learn more, download this free whitepaper today.

White Papers & Webcasts

Differentiating With Technical Support: JBoss Customer Support Study
JBoss' expert technical support services is clearly acknowledged by its client base. The comprehensive nature by which their service is unsurpassed. Every category...

Managing And Protecting Your Ever Increasing Mobile Assets
(Source: Absolute Software) Your users are becoming more mobile each day. This is great for productivity - yet challenging for IT control. Natalie...

The JBoss SOA Assessment Tool: Spend Less, Do More
SOA does not have to be overly complex or expensive. The JBoss SOA Assessment Tool can help you chart a course to a...

IDC Webcast: Linux Adoption in a Global Recession
Join Al Gillen from IDC and Michael Applebaum from Novell in this on-demand webcast to see how Linux has emerged as an even...

The CIO's New Guide to Design of Global IT Infrastructure
Is it possible to eliminate the impact of distance? This paper explores the 5 key principles successful CIOs are using to redesign IT...

Novell Opens PR Video
Is the Linux desktop for me? Customers are looking for ways to be more flexible and save money. Using Linux offers a great...

IBM Lotus Notes Performance Brief
This is a Performance Brief that illustrates how Riverbed Steelhead appliances accelerate Lotus Notes R7....

2 Minutes to IT workload automation
Take just 2 minutes to watch this short CONTROL-M flash video. Well show you how BMC CONTROL-M can put money back into your...

Business Value of Performance IDC Whitepaper
Are you looking for a comprehensive solution that addresses insufficient or congested bandwidth, impaired application performance, slow remote backup and replication or obstacles...

Security Configuration Management
In this web video, follow along with Jim Hansen, Senior Product Manager with Big Fix, as he explains why Security Configuration Management is...

All White Papers | All Webcasts