Fed Circuit approves bundling

The Federal Circuit rejected a bid protest by a challenger seeking to perform only the hardware aspect of a hardware/software maintenance contract.

Holding that "[p]rocurement officials have substantial discretion to determine which proposal represents the best value for the government," the Federal Circuit found that the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office had a rational basis for having both the hardware and software on its supercomputers maintained by the same company.

The case is CHE Consulting, Inc. v. United States.