EdgeMark inks BPA with NIH

The National Institutes of Health has awarded EdgeMark Systems Inc. Silver Spring Md. a blanket purchase agreement for high-performance workstations servers and scientific visualization software.

Julia Kiraly a business development analyst with EdgeMark said the company will supply hardware from Silicon Graphics Inc. and software from a variety of vendors. She said NIH already buys most of its SGI equipment - worth $4 million annually - from EdgeMark the BPA will continue this relationship.

Cole Stathes an NIH contracting officer said having a BPA would make it easier for customers to obtain equipment because they could do it over the telephone without having to do the paperwork required for single orders from EdgeMark's General Services Administration schedule contract.

The BPA lasts as long as EdgeMark's schedule contract and there is no ceiling on how much NIH customers can purchase Kiraly said. She said NIH is currently the firm's largest customer. EdgeMark however also holds BPAs and other contracts with the Navy and NASA according to information provided by the company.EdgeMark is also part of GSA's Federal Acquisition of Services for Technology program a set of 8(a) set-aside contracts.* * * * *At A Glance

EdgeMark Systems Inc.

Headquarters: Silver Spring Md.

1996 revenue: $64 million (Projecting in excess of $100 million for 1997.)Top executives: Raymond Tuchman chief executive officer and chairman Lee Raesly president.

Contracts: GSA schedule (carries Silicon Graphics Inc. and Oracle Corp. products among others) the Navy's Tactical Advanced Computer-Joint Workstation (with SGI) the GSA Heartland Region's Federal Acquisition Services for Technology contract the National Institutes of Health's blanket purchase agreement (with SGI).