Integrator Insider

By Nick Wakeman

Federal Data Corp. of Bethesda, Md., and IPNet Solutions Inc. of Newport Beach, Calif., will work together in pursuing federal electronic commerce projects. IPNet develops e-commerce software for Fortune 500. The alliance will allow the company to increase market share by winning government business.

FDC, a government systems integrator, and IPNet will team on projects such as transaction systems and Web-based catalogue ordering.

"The alliance demonstrates a true recognition of where the federal market is going," said Phyllis Johnson, director of sales and marketing for FDC Solutions Group.

American Management Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va., also gave its e-commerce business a boost when it formed a partnership with Entrust Technologies Inc. of Plano, Texas. AMS and Entrust will work together on security issues facing government and commercial customers.
Electronic Data Systems Corp. of Plano, Texas, closed it acquisition April 22 of MCI Systemshouse, the Canadian systems integrator and outsourcing company.

The transaction, part of a broader EDS-MCI WorldCom pact, is valued at $1.65 billion. EDS picks up about 9,000 employees in the deal. The broader agreement includes two 10-year outsourcing contracts and a marketing relationship to explore opportunities in electronic business and networking solutions. The rest of the agreement is expected to be finalized by the end of June.

The federal market for knowledge management is expected to grow to $6.3 billion by the year 2003, a whopping rate of 102 percent a year, according to a study by the market research firm Federal Sources Inc. of McLean, Va. A combination of legislative mandates, maturing technology solutions and a just-developing level of user acceptance are the primary factors driving the growth, Federal Sources said. The Federal Sources report breaks demand down by hardware, software and services such as information engineering and implementation.