SBA takes next step in modernization

The Small Business Administration has selected SRA International Inc. to

head the second phase of a three-phase systems modernization program.

Under a potential $6 million task order through the General Services

Administration's Millennia Lite contract, SRA and its partners will provide

systems integration services to automate SBA's financial management systems.

The SRA team will help define requirements for commercial off-the-shelf

software products and test and implement them, according to the company.

The first phase of the modernization effort focused on the agency's

loan application and lender monitoring systems, which support a core SBA

activity, namely lending money to small businesses. SBA Chief Operating

Officer Kristine Marcy estimated that the agency ultimately will spend $28

million on the first phase.

The recently awarded second phase will upgrade accounting, human resources,

procurement and disaster assistance systems. Marcy said the agency intends

to have the accounting and other core financial systems up and running by

the beginning of fiscal 2002 (October 2001). Planning for the human resources

and procurement systems will begin around March of next year, she said.

The final phase will involve SBA's business development activities and

contracting programs, including the 8(a) and small, disadvantaged business

programs, Marcy said.

SRA competed against 14 other bidders, said Len Morris, the company's

director of enterprise resource planning application services. The company

has teamed with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, which will serve as the main

subcontractor, as well as several small; small, disadvantaged; and woman-owned firms.

Marcy said she's pleased that SRA has included small, disadvantaged

businesses on its team because those are the companies SBA works to support.

"One of the best things about SRA [is that] they have teamed up with

a collection of smaller businesses and 8(a)s so that you have this whole

framework of different contracts," she said. "And that makes us feel good,

that we're meeting our own responsibilities."