Army awards first ITES contracts

Four vendors won hardware contracts Sept. 12 for the Army's $500 million Information Technology Enterprise Solutions program.

The Army on Friday said it awarded ITES enterprise hardware deals to Dell Computer Corp., GTSI Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Integrated Systems division. Enterprise hardware includes managed platforms, network equipment, servers, storage systems and workstations.

"The purpose of ITES is to support the Army's enterprise infrastructure and infostructure goals with IT equipment and services," an Army document said.

Army officials issued a request for proposals for ITES May 2, and they evaluated contractor submissions using performance contracting guidelines. The service wants ITES to meet eight criteria including supporting asset and data management and e-commerce.

The ITES enterprise hardware solutions' contracts start Oct. 1, and they cover three years with two, two-year options. The four companies' contracts cannot exceed $500 million.

ITES support services contracts will be awarded in mid-October — the second part of the $500 million project to overhaul the Army's IT infrastructure. ITES services include asset tracking, data migration, equipment maintenance, image loading, installation, legacy equipment maintenance, site survey and system configuration and integration.

Companies believed to have submitted ITES proposals include Computer Sciences Corp., EDS., General Dynamics Corp., IBM Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp., Science Applications International Corp. and Unisys Corp.