EDS to capture $26M DEIS II task order

Electronic Data Systems Corp. is on the brink of capturing the largest task order to be awarded under the Defense Enterprise Integration Services II pact: an estimated $26 million job to develop an ammunition inventory system for all the services.

The Defense Information Systems Agency which manages DEIS II notified EDS late last month of the agency's intent to award the task to EDS pending final negotiations. EDS Computer Sciences Corp. Lockheed Martin Corp. and Unisys Corp. submitted proposals for the task. DISA is expected to award the task formally to EDS on June 30.

EDS will work on behalf of the Ammunition Management Standard System (AMSS) Joint Program Office which is located at the Defense Department's Joint Logistics Systems Center (JLSC) Dayton Ohio. EDS will be tasked with the development installation and maintenance of AMSS a wholesale logistics management system for conventional ammunition. AMSS will span the Air Force the Army the Marines and the Navy and will replace legacy systems the services currently use for ammunition inventory management.

A key benefit of AMSS will be "joint ammunition asset visibility " according to Air Force Col. (sel.) Mike Miller program manager for AMSS. He said such visibility across the services will play a role in mission planning particularly in joint-force operations.

In its pursuit of AMSS EDS bid a technical approach based on client/server and graphical user interface technology said Doug Wagoner EDS' business development director for DEIS II. "It's user-centric computing " he said.

Specifically EDS bid Western Pacific Data Systems' Government On Line Data material management system for the AMSS task. Oracle Corp. will provide the database management system. Microsoft Corp. will provide its Project project management software and operating systems software. AMSS will run on Pentium Pro-class servers.

With AMSS EDS is taking a commercial off-the-shelf approach which Miller said potentially offers the advantages of speedier implementation lower cost and easier support. "No COTS package does everything but COTS is an alternative that needs to be looked at " he said.

EDS bid the AMSS task with several partners including Lockheed Martin Federal Systems INRI Arca Logtec and Arrowhead Space and Telecommunications.EDS has performed other projects for JLSC under DEIS II and the General Services Administration schedule including integration work between materials management and depot maintenance systems Wagoner said.

Through last Wednesday DEIS II awarded last summer had logged 156 task orders worth $185 million. The contract has a $3 billion ceiling.