Navy streamlines NMCI contract

Officials at the Navy and contractor EDS said they have reached an agreement to revise performance measurements on the Navy Marine Corps Intranet contract, which EDS called a critical step toward billing NMCI seats on a 100 percent basis.

Navy officials said the agreement reduces the number of NMCI service-level agreements (SLAs) from 44 to seven and the number of associated performance categories from 192 to 27. The agreements cover performance criteria such as network uptime and the time it takes EDS' help-desk staff to answer a call. They are crucial measures of performance and help identify areas for improvement.

Company officials said the change in SLAs "reflect best commercial practices" and are designed to improve overall service and efficiency. The revision "establishes more clearly defined, measurable and realistic service levels," said Mike Koehler, NMCI enterprise client executive for EDS.

Navy officials said the new SLAs and performance categories will reduce NMCI's administrative complexity by eliminating categories that have served their purpose and no longer required, provide uniform monthly computation for all the ones that remain, and better align SLAs and performance categories with NMCI's business processes. "This is a great step going forward," said Rear Adm. James Godwin, NMCI director.

EDS officials said they would provide additional information on their progress with NMCI when they release the company's third-quarter earnings report Oct. 25. In its earnings report for the first half of this year, company officials made it clear that an agreement on new SLAs was necessary to improve EDS' financial performance on NMCI. At the time of the first half report, they said the company had committed to NMCI about $775 million in assets, which could be significantly impaired if connections to NMCI fall below expectations, the system fails a Navy operational evaluation or EDS cannot satisfactorily resolve cost reimbursement and service-level issues with the Navy.