BearingPoint to build Web apps on .Net

Officials at Microsoft Corp. and systems integration and consulting company BearingPoint Inc. have signed a multiyear agreement to develop repeatable enterprise information technology solutions for government. BearingPoint officials say the solutions will deliver results much faster and more cheaply than other approaches.

The process follows what Lawrence Herman, a managing director in BearingPoint's state and local government and education practice, called a 50-50 rule, in which half of the solution developed for a specific government client can be recycled and applied to projects for other customers.

"It reduces the amount of custom work we have to do and so reduces both the cost and enables a quicker and smoother deployment of a solution," he said. "Because it includes elements that have already been proven [in other projects] it also means there is less chance of bugs and breakdowns."

Given the expectation that the company will be able to use any given project in this way, it also allows BearingPoint officials to enter lower bids in initial proposals, Herman said.

The deal will allow BearingPoint to use the scalability and cost advantages Microsoft is building into its .Net architecture to develop Web-based solutions for particular government application areas such as retirement offices, port management and public safety, he said.

Two projects BearingPoint is touting as examples of how the agreement works are TexasOnline eFiling for Courts, an online system that enables Texas courts to exchange data with attorneys, and the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia.

BearingPoint and Microsoft officials have also developed a planning solution designed to help government agencies justify IT investments and manage projects and programs more effectively. Federal agencies are particularly open to these solutions because they have a mandated responsibility to file formal business case studies to show that planned IT investments align with such things as the federal enterprise architecture, said Brien Lorenze, a managing director in BearingPoint's federal services practice.

State agencies are also under increasing pressure to develop formal business cases for their investments, and the tool is configurable for their use, he said.

Brian Robinson is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Ore. He can be reached at hullite@mindspring.com.