Trademark Office Revamps Plan for $1B Software Contract: Top 20

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is making changes to an upcoming $1 billion contract for software purchases that has been fraught with delays since acquisition planning first began in July 2015.

USPTO is rebranding the contract with a new name, Business Oriented Software Solutions, or BOSS. The contract was formerly known as Software Development and Integration–Next Generation 2 (SDI-NG2).

BOSS is the focus of this week’s Bloomberg Government Top 20 Opportunities. Just as SDI-NG2 was intended to do, BOSS will deliver software development, software applications, database applications, and other solutions. Those software purchases are likely to accelerate in future fiscal years as USPTO, the agency responsible for processing thousands of patents and trademark applications each year, more aggressively transitions to technology that automates and speeds up business operations.

Acquisition planning for SDI-NG2 first kicked off with release of a request for information in May 2015 and a draft performance work statement in June 2016. Two industry days were held in July 2015 and in June 2016. USPTO had planned to release a final RFP by the end of fiscal 2018, but delayed the contract because of scope and complexity problems, according to reports in January 2018.

SDI-NG Incumbent Spending

The predecessor contracts have generated a combined $579 million in obligations since fiscal 2012. The 10 contracts for SDI-NG have accounted for approximately $533 million since fiscal 2012. A bridge contract worth $480 million was awarded to CGI Inc. to provide services until BOSS is ready, and accounts for $46 million since fiscal 2017.

Salient CRGT Holdings Inc. ($108 million in obligations), CGI Inc. ($99 million), Science Applications International Corp. ($70 million), General Dynamics Corp. ($63 million), and MAXIMUS Inc. ($61 million) account for about $400 million of the $579 million that has been obligated to date. Click here to review spending by all companies.

What’s Ahead

The USPTO will use the agency’s little known acquisition clause, Alternative Competition Method, to evaluate upcoming BOSS contracts. For the evaluation, USPTO intends to do market research to identify a pool of eligible bidders that are deemed likely to successfully meet the agency’s requirements for BOSS. That means not all companies will be able to bid on BOSS.

Only the companies considered eligible will be invited to participate in a competitive solicitation process. Any companies that do not respond to the RFI will be excluded from competing as prime contractors.

The government hasn’t set a date for issuing the RFI but is estimating its release by September.

Using BGOV

Companies interested in competing for BOSS can set an alert on “Business Oriented Software Solutions” by clicking here to be notified when the RFI is released.

Or click here to analyze the 491 orders totaling $579 million under existing contracts, which allows you to identify the order-level purchases USPTO made under the predecessors.

To contact the analyst: Daniel Snyder at dsnyder@bgov.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jodie Morris at jmorris@bgov.com