SHARP vendors eye D/SIDDOMS II

The three vendors who walked away this month with juicy Defense Department hardware contracts will be able to leverage their knowledge of DOD health care programs in fulfilling requirements for an estimated $600 million project and they may find themselves staring at even bigger opportunities.

All three contractors - Litton/PRC Inc. Cordant Inc. and Science Applications International Corp. - are expected to bid on parts of an estimated $3.5 billion DOD Health Affairs information technology services contract that will go hand-in-hand with the recently awarded hardware contract: Support Hardware and Automated Related Products-Generic or SHARP(G). SHARP(G) will weigh in at close to $600 million.

Like SHARP(G) the services contract - Defense Medical Information Management/Systems Integration Design Development Operations and Maintenance Services II (D/SIDDOMS II) - is part of a master plan to move all of DOD's medical operations toward more of a managed-care environment.

"The SHARP(G) awardees are well-positioned to capture a significant portion of market share in this military health care vertical market " said Joe Cooper president of the Federal Capture Group a Reston Va.-based IT procurement consulting firm. "A key market-positioning strategic factor will be how many of these firms also capture upcoming D/SIDDOMS II vehicles."

"We're pleased it adds an important hardware capability to our Defense health systems line " said Austin Yerks senior vice president for business development at Litton/PRC. "That coupled with the other Health Affairs contract we have - D/SIDDOMS - gives us the ability to not only provide software development and systems engineering support but now the full gamut of all systems integration and actually build new applications systems."

"We see the SHARP(G) contract as a vehicle to continue to support that very important customer base " said Chris Darling vice president at Cordant's parent company Tracor Information Systems Co. Inc.

In January Cordant along with SAIC was awarded the two-year $84 million contract for SHARP-Specific Products or SHARP (SP) under which the companies provide off-the-shelf hardware and software.

Randy Koran director of acquisition management for the Defense Medical Information Management Division of the DOD Health Affairs branch said the three winning bidders on SHARP(G) will compete for orders as they arise but that there will be "a lot of fair opportunity" in assigning work.