GTSI storms Army PC sales

As the Army gets set to award follow-on contracts for purchasing PCs, one reseller is dominating the service's existing contracts.

GTSI Corp. holds a nearly 3-to-1 sales advantage on the Army's Personal Computer-3 contract and is outselling its competitor more than 9-to-1 on Army Portable-3, according to Steve Miller, an Army Small Computer Program team leader at Fort Monmouth, N.J.

GTSI sold $91.4 million on PC-3 through March 30, while ITC/PlanetGov.com sold $31 million, Miller said. Intelligent Decisions Inc. has sold $4.7 million on Portable-3, compared with GTSI's $48.7 million, he said. Army PC-3 opened for ordering in March 1998, and Portable-3 started in July 1999.

Army officials plan to award at least two Army Desktop and Mobile Computing-1 blanket purchase agreements — as a follow-on procurement to PC-3 and Portable-3 — by April 23, Miller said.

GTSI is primarily selling Panasonic notebook systems through Portable-3, and Hewlett-Packard Co. is its major supplier on PC-3. Because GTSI sold Panasonic and HP systems through Portable-2 and PC-2, it helped the company make a smooth transition between the contracts in 1999, said Dave Dougherty, senior director of GTSI sales programs.

ITC is selling Compaq Computer Corp. and Gateway Inc. desktop PCs through its contract, while Intelligent Decisions offers Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. notebook PCs through its Portable-3 contract. GTSI has sold PCs through Small Computer Program contracts for more than six years, but Intelligent Decisions and ITC have just started during the past two years.

The Army is GTSI's No. 1 buyer, according to Fern Krauss, a company spokeswoman.

Dougherty said that GTSI considers a number of vendors to be competitors for Army orders, but Dell may be the most successful. Thomas Buchsbaum, Dell's vice president and general manager for the Defense Department and intelligence agencies, said that the Army is one of his company's "five or six" largest federal buyers.