CDW-G poised to pick up Navy IT-21 BPA

The Navy this week plans to award a $20 million blanket purchase agreement covering desktop and notebook systems to Chantilly, Va.-based CDW-G Inc., Navy officials confirmed.

Jim Swizewski, contracting officer with the Navy's Fleet Industrial Supply Center, Norfolk, Va., last week said a deal with CDW-G is "imminent" and will cover the full line of products from Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. According to Swizewski, the BPA will run through 2002.

The BPA is part of the Navy's Information Technology for the 21st Century initiative (IT-21), a program to connect Navy ships and onshore bases with commercial desktop systems for administrative and tactical uses. The project will provide the underpinnings for the Navy's movement to "network-centric warfare," in which tactical intelligence and logistics information becomes as much a weapon for the warfighter as light arms or heavy armor.

"This BPA will augment the existing BPAs that we have in place for IT-21 and will offer customers another source of supply for Toshiba products," Swizewski said.

The impending deal follows CDW-G's recent $83 million contract win under the Air Force's Information Technology Tools program (IT2). Under the IT2 deal, CDW-G will provide desktops and servers from Compaq Computer Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. and laptop systems from Toshiba.

CDW-G officials declined comment last week.