Army readies PC pacts

The Army continues to push for the latest PC technology at the best prices, with slightly more than $800 million worth of contracts for advanced PC-based servers, desktops and notebook computers up for grabs between now and January.

The Army Communications-Electronics Command's (Cecom) Systems Management Center plans to award its $355 million server contract, Infrastructure Architecture Solutions-1 (IAS-1), next month to a single bidder.

Bidders on IAS-1 include Federal Data Corp., Government Technology Services Inc., Litton/PRC Inc. teamed with Dell Computer Corp., Telos Corp. teamed with Electronic Data Systems Corp. Other possible bidders are Unisys Corp. and Vanstar Government Systems. IAS-1 is a follow-on to the Small Multiuser Computer II contact, valued at $907 million, which was awarded to Telos in 1995. That contract was due to expire last month, but it was recently extended to January 1999.

RFP for PC-3

Last week Cecom issued a request for proposals for its fast-track PC-3 contract, with a value of $300 million. Bids on PC-3 are due Nov. 16, with award of two contracts due before the end of January 1999, when the PC-2 contract held by GTSI and Vanstar will expire.

The Army plans to buy 50,000 PCs a year through the PC-3 contract, according to Alan Bechara, vice president and chief operating officer for Comark Federal Systems, Chantilly, Va. Bechara predicted that GTSI and Vanstar will join the PC-3 bidding fray as well as manufactures such as Dell and Micron Electronics Inc.

George Fuster, president of Dunn/IDP Computer Corp., Dulles, Va., said his company definitely intends to bid on PC-3.

Cecom also released the statement of work for its Portable-3 procurement last week, with the formal RFP due for release by January. Vendors predict that many of the same companies that plan to bid on PC-3 also will submit bids on Portable-3.