CBP awards software company $45M to manage IT changes

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency has awarded a San Mateo, Calif.-based software company two blanket purchase agreements (BPAs) potentially worth about $45 million over five years to help the agency manage changes throughout its information technology environment.

Mark Woodward, president and chief executive officer of Serena Software, said the company would administer the change management software under one BPA worth about $35 million. Under the second agreement, the company could provide more than $9 million worth of additional product licenses and maintenance.

He said CBP is significantly expanding its use of Serena’s software products and services for managing all digital assets in the mainframe and distributed platforms.

“But a lot of it is not just around managing physical assets but also very process-focused functions…to meet federal audit and compliance requirements,” Woodward said. “This technology enables them to force process across their organization and put in controls.”

The software enables the agency to update applications with new functions that essentially automate work previously done by people, removing human error. He said the software lets organizations define, develop, implement and deploy changes that need to be made to the IT environment while maintaining a strict level of security.

The software ensures “compliance to specific processes, some of which may be mandated, and also [tries] to ensure a certain level of quality that’s inherent in the development and deployment of the technology,” Woodward said.

By automating that functionality and eliminating the human error, he said, organizations can make better use of staff time for other duties and initiatives. Woodward said the software also tracks and audits who made what changes and when.

He said the federal sector was the fastest growing sector last year for his company, which has about 750 employees and $300 million in revenues, and expects the same this year. CBP was a longtime customer of Merant before Serena acquired the company early last year.