DataStream

Budgeted pay increases for IT workers are roughly 10 percent higher than increases for non-IT workers, according to the first phase of a two-year study released late last month by the Information Technology Association of America and human resources consulting firm William M. Mercer Inc. IT workers also were much more likely to get sign-on bonuses than non-IT workers.The first phase of the study covered the fourth quarter 1999. [See story, "", in the 'workplace' section of this website.]XXXSPLITXXX-American Management Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va., will buy the assets of privately held Synergy Consulting Inc. of Sacramento, Calif., in a cash transaction, AMS announced early this month. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.Synergy, a provider of e-business, information technology and management consulting services to California state and county government agencies, had 1999 revenue of $15.4 million. AMS said the acquisition supports its expansion of state and local government business and e-government activities in key markets. AMS, an international business and information technology consulting firm, had 1999 revenue of $1.24 billion. E-business accounted for 40 percent of the total, an increase of more than 150 percent over 1998.Acquisitions are a new strategy for AMS, which has made one other purchase in the last five years. In March 1999, the company bought Budget Technology Inc. of Bethesda, Md., which specializes in budgeting systems for state and local governments.AMS also has struck alliances or partnerships with several e-commerce firms, including Ariba Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., an e-commerce software provider; Siebel Systems Inc. of San Mateo, Calif., a maker of customer relationship management software; and govWorks Inc. of New York, a developer of e-government services.XXXSPLITXXX-Wang Government Services Inc. of McLean, Va., has named C. Harlan Johnston as its president and chief executive officer. Johnston, most recently an executive with Logicon Inc., replaces James Hogan, 57, who died April 3 after complications from kidney cancer.Johnston was president of Logicon Defense Technology Group in San Pedro, Calif., and a vice president of Northrop Grumman Corp. of Los Angeles, Logicon's parent company.As president and CEO of Wang, Johnston will oversee a $400-million-a-year company with 2,700 employees. Wang is the U.S. government subsidiary of Getronics NV of Amsterdam, but Wang has a separate board of directors, which picked Johnston."Harlan brings a wealth of experience in leading and growing a worldwide information and communications technology company," said John White, chairman of Wang's board of directors.XXXSPLITXXX-CACI International Inc. of Arlington, Va., has signed deals with two electronic commerce companies to bolster the range of services it can sell to government customers.The systems integrator formed an alliance with Commerce One Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif., to create an online solution for contract management, invoicing, acceptance and receipt as well as electronic catalog procurement.A second alliance was formed with Cyclone Commerce Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz., to jointly develop online trading community solutions.CACI will deliver consulting and technology integration solutions to customers that are implementing Cyclone's business-to-business, electronic commerce, secure data communications management software."Our goal is to provide a more comprehensive solution to our clients. We can now do that by combining our deep credentials in e-purchasing and e-payment with our relationships with Cyclone Commerce and Commerce One," said Mark Bloom, vice president for CACI's Web, e-commerce and enterprise systems business.XXXSPLITXXX-Frank Pugliese, commissioner of the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Service, is leaving that post to become president and chief executive of Star Mountain Inc.The Alexandria, Va., company helps government agencies and businesses improve their performance through training, management and information technology solutions. He begins his new post Sept. 1. Star Mountain is a unit of Provant Inc. of Boston, a performance improvement training and development company.Replacing Pugliese at GSA will be Deputy Commissioner Donna Bennett. Bennett has been deputy since July 1994."Frank has been a terrific commissioner during some very challenging times," said GSA Administrator David Barram. "He has brought us strategic leadership and has proven abilities in producing business results."XXXSPLITXXX-Four companies nabbed a piece of the $270 million Metropolitan Area Acquisition contract for local telecommunications services in the Boston region.AT&T Corp. of Basking Ridge, N.J.; Bell Atlantic Corp. of New York; Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. of San Antonio; and Winstar Communications Inc. of New York will now compete for work under the contract managed by GSA's Federal Technology Service.The contract spans eight years, four base years plus four one-year options, with the MAA providing local telecommunications, voice, data and dedicated transmission services to federal agencies.Just four cities are left to receive MAA awards over the next few months: Albuquerque, N.M.; Boise, Idaho; New Orleans; and Philadelphia.XXXSPLITXXX-Affiliated Computer Services Inc. of Dallas entered into a three-year business partnership Aug. 4 with GovStoreUSA of Clearwater, Fla., an online procurement service, to set up joint marketing plans in the state and local space.The partnership will allow both organizations to expand their government customer base, said GovStoreUSA officials. ACS will expand its reach in the state and local market through GovStoreUSA customers, while GovStoreUSA has access to ACS' large customer base. They will market each other's services and hope to build more business opportunities in the e-government marketplace, said company officials. "This partnership is a win-win for both companies' state and local government customers," said Harvey Braswell, president of ACS' state and local government division. "It takes the core competencies of two strong state and local government vendors and will leverage those strengths into value-added services for the customers of both."XXXSPLITXXX-Both sides are claiming victory in an arbitrator's decision that Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting can sever all ties with each other. An arbitrator with the International Chamber of Commerce ruled that Andersen Consulting could split away from parent company Andersen Worldwide and does not have to pay the $14.5 billion Andersen Worldwide claimed was owed under a contractual agreement. Instead, Andersen Consulting will pay about $1 billion and will have to drop the Andersen name by the end of the year.Andersen Consulting also will have to give back any technology jointly developed by the firms.The decision, announced Aug. 7, took effect immediately.Andersen Consulting filed for arbitration in December 1997 after several years of tension between Andersen Consulting and Arthur Andersen, also part of Andersen Worldwide. All three companies are based in Chicago. Part of the acrimony resulted from Arthur Andersen's moves into the consulting market. Andersen Consulting claimed that Arthur Andersen, by competing in the consulting market, violated the terms of the restructuring agreement that created Andersen Worldwide in 1989.