GTSI, IBM win MMAD deal

The U.S. Army has awarded an $857 million contract to GTSI Corp. and a $617 million contract to IBM Global Services-Federal to provide a wide range of hardware and software in the hotly contested Mini, Maxi and Database-1 (MMAD-1) program.

The fierce competition reportedly also included Litton/PRC Inc. and Federal

Data Corp.

The lucrative contract involves providing products and services to the Army,

Navy and Treasury Department. The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command,

Fort Monmouth, N.J., is the contracting agency, and the Army's small computers

program manager oversees MMAD.

The two companies will provide commercial, high-end 64-bit servers; Unix

workstations; operating systems; compilers; software applications; peripherals;

local- and wide-area networking hardware and software; engineering and support

services; managed environment support; equipment maintenance; system upgrades

(to maintain the managed environment); training; leasing; associated documentation;

and consumables to meet worldwide requirements of the government.

Each company received an initial task order value of $75,000, and work is

scheduled for completion in August of 2002. The dual award offers the Army

several advantages, including continuing competition and a continuing supply

line should one contractor run into trouble.

In addition, the Army has significantly reduced the amount of time needed

for awarding contracts, according to one industry source.

"This program really fits the model [the small computer program office]

has developed. It's a real credit to their creativity and focus that they've

taken programs that used to take two or three years to award and turned

them into a much more rapid procurements to get customers much more current

technology," said Joel Lipkin, senior vice president of sales and customer

support for GTSI.