By Dick Stark

Now that the afterglow of our National Capital Business Ethics award is starting to dim, it’s more important than ever to continue down our path of sound principles based upon integrity and corporate citizenship.  And as an award winner we need the discipline to get even better.

How can we do this?  We are continually confronted with potential learning experiences. For example, just this week, a RightStar competitor and BMC partner filed a bid protest over an award made to RightStar by calling into question our bid and proposal ethics. This is a good case study of ethical behavior that I’d like to share.

In February, RightStar responded to a government bid calling for ITSM process improvements along with a Remedy upgrade.  We analyzed the bid and proposed a detailed assessment along with an out-of-the-box implementation of most BMC ITSM modules. We submitted a fixed price bid and included a detailed statement of work. The protestor acused us of grossly underbidding, or specifically,  “Excessive Defective Pricing that puts the government at risk due to impossibility to perform the required work at the award price cited in the debrief.”   The protestor went on to complain that our intention was to, “add additional funds subsequent to contract award which would only serve to circumvent the procurement process.”

The truth of the matter is that RightStar bid based upon our best knowledge of the customer environment and our experience installing other out-of-the box Remedy systems. We proposed a “rapid results” implmentation and RightStar will make every effort to come in under-budget. It is never our intention to under-bid and ask for a change-order to make up the difference.

As an Ethics Award winner, it’s critical that we continue to employ the highest standards of integrity and ethical conduct and everyone at RightStar must agree to follow our Ethics Policy and Code of Conduct.  The real opportunity for improvement, however, comes by doing the right thing when confronted with an ethical dilemma.