ACS, FCG Win Hospital Deal

Affiliated Computer Services Inc. and First Consulting Group Inc. have signed a five-year, $100 million outsourcing agreement to provide information infrastructure and applications support to the University of Pennsylvania's Health System, the companies announced Jan. 24.ACS of Dallas will act as a subcontractor on the contract to FCG of Long Beach, Calif. FCG expects the contract to be profitable in the first year. ACS is expected to receive a total of $31 million over the life of the contract, said ACS officials.FCG will provide help desk, local area networks, applications support and applications upgrades, while ACS will manage mainframe and midrange computer operations and wide-area networking and will assist FCG with service level management.The agreement is a continuation of the University of Pennsylvania Health System's comprehensive financial recovery strategy. UPHS expects to save approximately $19 million in operating costs over the life of the contact. Under the contract, 179 of UPHS' information services staff will be offered jobs with ACS or FCG. "UPHS' commitments to the information-intensive core areas of patient care, education and research require that we constantly improve information management while reducing unit costs," said Robert Martin, UPHS' interim chief executive officer.The contract with FCG will bring UPHS a range of resources and experience to develop the kind of cost effective solutions that the health system requires, he said. "By combining the strengths of FCG and ACS with UPHS, we believe that we will be able to substantially increase the value returned to our health system by our information technology investments."Through the agreement, UPHS will be joining the ranks of academic health systems that have chosen innovative ways to improve IT value without losing sight of their core mission, said Luther Nussbaum, FCG's chief executive officer.