Tool transfers PC 'personality'

Federal agencies facing large-scale PC migration projects have a new option,

thanks to Tuesday's announcement that Tranxition Corp.'s PT Pro tool has

been added to Beyond.com's GSA schedule.

Personality Tranxport Professional 2.0 can help offices that are changing

or upgrading computers. The product transfers computer "personality" — the

personalized desktop interface, application settings, network connectivity,

Internet settings and documents — from PC to PC.

The company recently announced a deal for more than 130,000 seats of

PT Pro to the Internal Revenue Service. Over the next several months, the

IRS will upgrade every PC running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT and Office

97 to a newer version of Windows NT and Office 2000. The PCs are in service

centers, district offices, regional offices, computing centers and support

labs nationwide.

"We're definitely making a push to address the migration needs of the

federal government," said Ken Mackin, president and chief executive officer

at Tranxition. He said that in addition to the IRS, Tranxition already has

several customers within the Defense Department.

The government customers of Beyond.com, an e-commerce services provider,

include the Defense Logistics Agency, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency

and the Patent and Trademark Office.

"Beyond.com has a great business model for doing business with the federal

government," Mackin said. "Their people know how to sell, and they know

how to effectively present our technology to the federal government."

The partnership, which has been in the works since June, enables Beyond.com

to offer PT Pro to all federal agencies through its GSA schedule and other

procurement vehicles.