Extra: Contractors assemble U.S. Visit teams

The U.S. Visit program has a fiscal 2004 budget of $364 million. <br>

Lockheed Martin announced last fall that its U.S. Visit team would include Booz Allen Hamilton, which has experience in border-crossing technology; Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., for communications technology; IBM Corp., because of its experience working for Customs and Border Protection.The team, known as the Secure Border partnership, also includes Science Applications International Corp., because of its experience in enterprise architecture and border technologies; SI International Inc., a State Department Consular Affairs Bureau contractor; and Unisys Corp., which holds a major contract with the Transportation Security Administration.The Accenture team, called the Smart Border Alliance, includes AT&T Corp., Datatrac Information Services Inc. of Richardson, Texas, a DHS contractor; Dell Inc.; Deloitte Consulting Global Technology Management Inc.; Raytheon Co.; Sandler and Travis Trade Advisory Services Inc. of Washington, a contractor on DHS' Automated Commercial Environment customs modernization program; Sprint Communications Co. LP; SRA International Inc.; and Titan Corp.

Computer Sciences Corp. took the wraps off its 50-company bidding team for the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator System integration contract, which the Homeland Security Department plans to award early this summer.

EDS Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. are CSC's biggest partners.

CSC, which submitted its bid Jan. 22, is competing with teams led by Accenture LLP and Lockheed Martin Corp. for the U.S. Visit contract.

Ben Gianni, CSC vice president for homeland security, said the team, known as the Freedom Alliance, has many members already working for DHS on U.S. Visit or other programs.

About $80 million to $100 million is at stake, CSC said. The U.S. Visit program as a whole has a fiscal 2004 budget of $364 million. The administration's budget request asked for $380 million in fiscal 2005.

Besides EDS and Northrop Grumman, major team members include:

  • Anteon International Corp. of Fairfax, Va., which has contracted with the State Department and DHS to support the federal Border Crossing Identification Card

  • Arinc Inc. of Annapolis, Md., a company Gianni said is familiar with airports where many U.S. Visit systems will be deployed

  • Bechtel Corp. of San Francisco, an engineering contractor with experience in international construction projects

  • Center for Naval Analysis of Chicago

  • Creative Information Technology Inc. of Arlington, Va., which contracts with State's consular arm

  • Cubic Defense Applications of San Diego, a manufacturer of public-transit tollbooth and fare systems that could be used to process passengers

  • General Dynamics Corp., which provides information analysis and systems support to DHS

  • Infoglide Software Corp. of Austin, Texas, which makes risk-assessment systems

  • Motorola Inc., which Gianni cited for its experience in wireless and law enforcement systems

  • Orkand Corp. of Falls Church, Va., a State systems contractor

  • TransCore Inc. of Hummelstown, Pa., which makes tollbooth systems for processing vehicles.