An Incentive for Drafting RFP’s Full of Holes?

by | March 18, 2004 | Articles, Finance, Technology strategy | 1 comment

Back in 2000 the Department of the Navy awarded EDS a nearly-$7-billion,
7-year contract to provide all the Navy’s IT data, voice,
and video services, plus all desktop and laptop PC’s, for 400,000
or so Navy and Marine Corps members. 

Now, I defer to no one as a fan of "privatization" on general principles, but this has evidently
been a disaster for both the Navy and EDS.  Some of the problems
are attributable to the peculiar delights of government contracting—for
example, that the roughly 40% of the work previously done by minority-,
women-owned, and otherwise protected subcontractors could not be diminished
regardless of productivity gains—but according to this
account, the root problem is the toxic mixture generated by the collision between
a sloppy RFP and the sales culture of IT service providers.

The "winner’s curse" in yet an other incarnation.

Print Version| Share on LinkedIn

Related Articles

Email Delivery

Get Our Latest Articles Delivered to your inbox +

1 Comment

  1. Malcolm Ryder
    Malcolm Ryder on March 30, 2004 at 9:44 am

    As they say, can’t win for losing.
    I can’t remember the seven deadly sins, but this story makes it clear that greed, arrogance and lying are enough characteristics to qualify someone as a Loser. I’m compelled to note that the only parties who develop those three qualities into gainful competencies are usually called “criminals” !!

X

Sign-up for the Insider’s Email

Be the first to learn of Adam Smith, Esq. invitation-only events, surveys, and reports.





X

Get Our Latest Articles Delivered to Your Inbox

Like having coffee with Adam Smith, Esq. in the morning (coffee not included).

Oops, we need this information
Oops, we need this information
Oops, we need this information

Thanks and a hearty virtual handshake from the team at Adam Smith, Esq.; we’re glad you opted to hear from us.

What you can expect from us:

  • an email whenever we publish a new article;
  • respect and affection for our loyal readers. This means we’ll exercise the strictest discretion with your contact info; we will never release it outside our firm under any circumstances, not for love and not for money. And we ourselves will email you about a new article and only about a new article.

Welcome onboard! If you like what you read, tell your friends, and if you don’t, tell us.

PS: You know where to find us so we invite you to make this a two-way conversation; if you have an idea or suggestion for something you’d like us to discuss, drop it in our inbox. No promises that we’ll write about it, but we will faithfully promise to read your thoughts carefully.

close window