Northrop wins DIMHRS contract

Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System Web site

The Defense Department today announced that Northrop Grumman Information Technology has won a contract worth $281 million for development and implementation of the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System.

DIMHRS will be a defensewide human resources pay and personnel system for the department's uniformed members. It is designed to replace all of the existing human resource systems being used by the services. Northrop Grumman's contract for the new system's development and implementation is expected to last through 2013.

The contract was originally meant to be awarded earlier this summer, but has been repeatedly delayed.

DIMHRS is expected to cost at least $500 million, which includes not only the implementation contract, but also software and integration services, according to Federal Sources Inc., a market research firm. All military services are supposed to end their own systems and cut over to DIMHRS by 2005.

The development and implementation contractor has a huge task ahead of it, said Bruce Triner, the director of defense special programs for PeopleSoft Inc., which was awarded the software contract for DIMHRS.

"This is going to be the largest personnel and pay system in the world," Triner said. "The contractor is going to be chartered with taking the information the government has assembled, looking at the number of applications involved, and bringing it all together."

Northrop Grumman will likely take between three and four months become up to speed as to where the program currently stands and what has to be done next, Triner said.

A spokesperson for Northrop Grumman said the company cannot comment on the contract until the Defense Department first gives approval.

Other vendors bidding on the contract were Computer Sciences Corp., Falls Church, Va.; IBM Corp., Bethesda, Md.; Lockheed Martin Systems Integration, Owego, N.Y.; and PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, Fairfax, Va.