If you read people's comments here two things are obvious: (1) Few people have little if any understanding of federal government contracting. This solicitatio

If you read people's comments here two things are obvious: (1) Few people have little if any understanding of federal government contracting. This solicitation is the norm, get used to it if you want to earn big money in a market where few dare tread. The government is, for obvious reasons, highly risk averse - so fly by night untested products from day 1 startups usually aren't an option. As are products from companies and individuals who don't thoroughly understand the regulatory environment of dealing with health data and the ramifications of having to report directly to Congress because of an app that leaks sensitive data, no matter how inconsequential it may be. To create a winning product, you need to take the time to understand the environment of the VA. (2) The fact that so many people here choose to complain about the complexity of the challenge means that it is worth doing. They are already ruled out as competitors, and it is a worthwhile cause as many veterans, including myself, would greatly benefit from this type of functionality. (3) Yes, M is a horrid, horrid language, but there are available interfaces so that you don't have to really touch it (much). There is a fairly robust XML-RPC system in place and some other options for reading and writing data in and out of VistA.