Alluviam Applauds Court's Affirmation Requiring Agencies Leverage Commercial Technology

A recent US Court of Federal Claims decision resulted in a permanent injunction against the US Army for attempting to develop technology that to a large part already exists in Palantir's existing commercial off the shelf technology.  The decision regarding Palantir, Inc. vs. the US Army can be found here:  http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/Palantir_17-1465.Opinion.9-13-18.pdf

We applaud the court's decision.  As with Palantir's good faith interactions with the Army, Alluviam has had similar experiences with the Counter Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO), which either by design or ignorance, on multiple occasions has blindly spent taxpayer dollars on 'R&D' efforts on the trailing edge of techology that at best, attempted to copy commericial capabilities already fielded in counter-terrorism missions by Alluviam's COTS technology.  In some instances, CTTSO and the Technical Support Working Group (TSWG) funded R&D initiatives to duplicate in whole or in part, technology invented by Alluviam nearly a decade prior to CTTSO/TSWG, and other government agencies misguided fake R&D efforts.  This decision should curtail fake R&D/S&T efforts for technologies that already exist in the commericial market.

Siphoning scarce R&D funds from the war on terror to duplicate commercial technology that already exists, robs those on the front lines in the war on terror of true innovations that R&D funds were meant to develop.  Or, as stated by Technet's CEO Linda Moore "The federal government should be using the latest technology products that have been rigorously tested and improved by market competition, not spending taxpayer dollars on trying to recreate something that is already available.  This decision is an important win for promoting innovation in government technology and a win for American taxpayers.  Government agencies should take note and work to ensure they are leveraging the most modern, efficient, and secure technologies in serving the American people.”

The National Law Review, in a December 24, 2018 article provides a good summary of the decision here, and goes on to state "FASA’s legislative history reflects Congress’s understanding that purchasing commercial and nondevelopmental items can eliminate the need for research and development, minimize acquisition lead time, and reduce costs. FASA requires that agencies, “to the maximum extent practicable,” acquire commercial items or nondevelopmental items to meet their needs. To that end, agencies must first conduct market research before developing new specifications and before soliciting proposals. See 10 U.S.C. § 2377(c)(1). And they must use that market research to determine whether there are commercial items that: (1) meet the agency’s requirements; (2) could be modified to meet the agency’s requirements; or (3) could meet the agency’s requirements if those requirements were modified to a reasonable extent. Id. § 2377(c)(2)."

About Alluviam LLC

Founded in 2002, Alluviam challenges the status quo of what’s expected from a decision support system, delivering unique actionable insights unavailable on any other platform.  Adopted by the US Military, NATO, coalition partners and other civilian, intelligence and military agencies, HazMasterG3 puts state-of-the-art decision support in the hands of those that need it most.  Only HazMasterG3 provides full capabilities on MS-Windows, or as an app on Android and iOS smartphones and tablets.  HazMasterG3®, our flagship product, is the only mobile counter-terrorism technology of its kind.