GSA awards $2.5 billion contract for contact center services

The General Services Administration is offering agencies another way to quickly set up contact centers during emergencies. GSA’s USA Contact contract, awarded today, is good for 10 years and worth about $2.5 billion. The contract provides a range of contact center services for agencies and helps them get official government information to the public on a daily basis and in times of crises. The contract lets agencies establish emergency centers in a short time, according to GSA. “Every second matters during a crisis,” said Lurita Doan, GSA administrator. GSA awarded spots on the contract to Convergys, CSC-Datatrac, EDS, ICT Group, Lockheed Martin Services, L3 Communications, TechTeam Government Solutions, Teletech Government Solutions and Vangent. USA Contact replaces FirstContact, which aimed to streamline and simplify the process of buying contact center services for government agencies. Between 2004 and 2007, FirstContact completed 15 task orders, which included setting up contact centers for the Federal Emergency Management Agency after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005 and for the Veterans Affairs Department following the theft of a laptop containing sensitive personnel data. Like FirstContact, USA Contact also remains part of GSA’s USA Services, an e-government initiative. “GSA is helping citizens get the information they want and need from government by assisting agencies with the delivery process,” said Martha Dorris, deputy associate administrator of GSA’s Office of Citizen Services, which manages USA Contact.