Army prepares ADMC-2 for prime time

The Army is preparing for business on the $5 billion Army Desktop and Mobile Computing-2 (ADMC-2), but is encouraging buyers to look for deals on ADMC-1 in the short term.

The Army Program Office for Enterprise Information Systems (PEO-EIS) conducted briefings Thursday with companies that had won contracts under ADMC-2, which had been delayed for several months because of a protest, according to a PEO-EIS spokesman.

Gateway had filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office in May but withdrew it in August, clearing the way for the Army to proceed with the contract, the spokesman said.

CDW Government, Dell and Hewlett-Packard won the large-business awards under ADMC-2. Integration Technologies Group, MPC-G, NCS Technologies, Telos, Transource Computer and Westwood Computer won the small-business portions of the ADMC-2 contract designed to provide the service with desktop and mobile computers in the next decade.

PEO-EIS plans a consolidated buy program – through which the commands place orders to get the best prices – for ADMC-2 in February and March 2007, the PEO-EIS spokesman said.

Meanwhile, as the end of the fiscal year approaches, the PEO-EIS spokesman urged Army computer buyers to take advantage of deals available on the ADMC-1 contract through the service’s consolidated buy program.

Dell, for example, is selling a small form factor desktop computer through the consolidated buy program for $647, down sharply from the standard ADMC-1 price.

CDW-G discounted its consolidated buy price for a similar HP desktop computer to $641, reduced from the regular ADMC-1 price of $1,341, a spokesman said. Apptis, iGOV, GTSI, Insight Public Sector, Intelligent Decisions and MPC-G also hold ADMC-1 contracts.