EDS takes HITS

HITS Web site

The Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded EDS a technology services contract potentially worth up to $860 million.

HUD awarded the HUD Information Technology Services (HITS) contract to EDS, the company said today. The deal includes a one-year base period and 10 option years. EDS will get $860 million if all options are exercised on the contract, which calls for service-level agreements and performance-based metrics. EDS will provide tech services to 18,000 HUD users in more than 80 locations. Work covered by the contract includes:

* Data processing and management.* Information security.* Help desk and user support.* Disaster recovery.* Printing and distribution.* Local area network and wide area network services.* Wireless and video conferencing.* Web services.

Originally scheduled to be awarded in March 2002, the new HITS contract was delayed for more than a year because of a large volume of industry comments. EDS takes over HITS — which was called the HUD Integrated Information Processing Services until March, 2001 — from Lockheed Martin Corp., whose contract was extended until November, 2003, while HUD prepared the new contract.