Accenture wins $200M NASA deal

NASA has awarded a contract worth as much as $200 million to Reston, Va.-based Accenture to provide services for NASA's Integrated Financial Management Program (IFMP).

The Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Ala., said the five-year contract has a minimum value of $12 million and could reach $200 million if all options are exercised. Accenture will provide services to implement administrative systems for the Integrated Asset Management module of the IFMP at NASA Headquarters and all 10 agency field centers.

In April 2000, NASA began its Integrated Financial Management Program -- its third attempt at developing a modern financial management and business process system.

The program has faced sharp criticism over the years from the General Accounting Office, which last May said the agency was in danger of creating a third failed financial management system. A follow-up report, issued in late December, reiterated many of the GAO's concerns.

GAO officials in December released four reports outlining concerns and recommendations for the implementation of the financial management system. At the heart of the GAO's concerns was the fact that NASA has been buying system components without an enterprise architecture blueprint to guide the program.

NASA officials expect to complete the $500 million financial management project in 2006.

In late December, NASA announced it had awarded a contract worth up to $826.1 million over five years to Science Applications International Corp. for information technology management services, including supporting the IFMP.