State taps IBM for IT products, services

The State Department this week awarded an $85 million contract to a team lead by IBM Corp. for information technology products and services to support the agency's data processing and communication centers.

The Mainframe Resources Acquisition (MRA) Program is a fixed-price, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract. Department officials expect to use the contract for eight years to purchase hardware, software and servers.

New, expanded mainframes are needed to support the growing workload of the Border Security Program, financial management and other administrative systems at State.

"This contract will provide the State Department with the computing infrastructure and integration services necessary to meet its future-generation computing needs through 2007," said John Nyland, vice president for federal marketing at IBM Global Government Industry.

Members of the IBM team include Computer Sciences Corp., Litton-PRC Inc., Statistica Inc., McDonald Bradley Inc. and Premier Technology Group Inc. IBM will be the prime contractor and will provide integration support.

State will have direct access to IBM's integration and services capabilities. In addition to integrating commercial off-the-shelf solutions, IBM will continue to provide products and services to State.