Three firms vie for ASSIST2 work

DOJ's ASSIST Maintenance and Technical Services Program

The Justice Department has opened for competition work on roughly $300 million in information technology support services.

Justice selected three companies — Compaq Computer Corp., Unisys Corp. and DynCorp — to vie for the work over six years as part of ASSIST2, a follow-up to the department's ASSIST maintenance and technical services program.

The companies will compete for federal agency task orders for computer hardware maintenance, help-desk services, asset and configuration management, equipment installations and operational support — including security and training.

A Justice official familiar with the program called it innovative for its flexibility. Its pricing provisions are born out of frustrations over the costs of similar services offered through contracts on the GSA schedule, which offers one-size-fits-all pricing regardless of an agency or department's specific needs, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

ASSIST2 doesn't put agencies into the mindset of "This is the price list; if you don't like it, too bad," he said.

The pricing shouldn't be the same for maintaining "no-name, 3-year-old PCs...spread around the country" as they do for "all-new, identical PCs almost all located in Washington," he said.

ASSIST2 also includes a performance incentive, meaning a vendor will have to eat some costs if its work is consistently slower than the contract dictates. But it also includes bonuses if the vendor consistently exceeds expectations, the Justice official said.

So far, only a single task order has been awarded: to Compaq for computer equipment maintenance in Justice's U.S. Parole Commission, said James Adams, program manager of Compaq.

The three companies are also vying for work in the Tax Division, he said.