FBI awards Trilogy, part 2

The FBI has awarded the second half of the Trilogy program — its massive, three-year modernization plan — to Science Applications International Corp.

The award comes as the FBI has been under scrutiny for its antiquated technology infrastructure, which was blamed for the loss of thousands of documents in connection with convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who was executed on Monday.

Trilogy is the foundation of the FBI's efforts to fix the problems with its infrastructure. The bureau awarded the first half of the Trilogy project to DynCorp last month.

SAIC's component of the Trilogy project covers user applications, FBI officials said. It has a first-year value of at least $10 million.

"Trilogy will give agents and support personnel enhanced capabilities in their efforts to efficiently conduct investigations," FBI director Louis Freeh said.

SAIC officials said that Trilogy will improve the ability of FBI agents to manage and access investigative information. It will provide agents with a single sign-on to access multiple applications from any PC within the FBI and move to more user-friendly Web-based applications that are consistent across the bureau.

"We will deliver immediate improvements in user-friendliness for FBI agents by making high-use legacy application functions Web-enabled while we work to build the final enterprise solution," Brad Macaleer, SAIC's vice president for corporate development, said in a statement.

The contract is valued at more than $51 million in the first year. About $100 million has been collected for the program from previous funding approvals, and the Bush administration has requested a $75 million increase for the program — to $95 million — for fiscal 2002.

The FBI says it will save the time, money and manpower through the use of enterprise management systems. It will also improve security of data.

Trilogy previously has been called the Information Sharing Initiative and, most recently, was known as eFBI.

The contract was awarded by the FBI and the General Services Administration's Federal Systems Information and Management Center.