VA awards $480 million in technology contracts to improve access to benefits

The Veterans Affairs Department has awarded contracts with a total ceiling value of $480 million to five companies for technologies designed to improve service to veterans with a one-stop-shopping project known as the Veterans Relationship Management System.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told a hearing of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee in February 2010 that he viewed the system as a way to "employ technology to dramatically improve service and outreach to veterans."

Shinseki said the system will "allow veterans to access comprehensive, online information anytime and anywhere via a single, consistent entry point."

VA said in the solicitation for the project that contractors would help modernize voice telephone systems veterans use to contact VA, develop a unified desktop for benefits specialists, create veteran identity and access management systems, and design integrated websites.

VA budgeted $156.3 million for the Veterans Relationship Management System this year and requested a budget of $108 million for 2012. Last week the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee approved a budget of $99.2 million for the system in its version of the 2012 bill.

The five companies will compete for task orders VA will issue over the five-year life of the indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity contract.

Winners of the Veterans Relationship Management System contracts and their initial task orders, as detailed on the FedBizOpps website last Friday, are:

-- HP Enterprise Services LLC: Benefit Registration, enrollment common management system, $10.9 million

-- Insignia Technology Services: Software improvements for veteran identification card program, $2 million

-- Systems Research and Applications Corp.: Develop benefits eligibility and records service systems, $4.6 million

-- VetsAmerica Business Consulting Inc.: Enhance and support identity and access management system, $11.5 million

-- Veterans Enterprise Technology Solutions Inc.: Enhance health eligibility and enrollment system, $10.9 million