Justice Dept. Awards $300 Million ASSIST II Contract

Compaq Computer Corp. of Houston, DynCorp of Reston, Va., and Unisys Corp. of Blue Bell, Pa., have each won a piece of a $300 million Justice Department information technology support and maintenance contract.

The companies will compete for task orders under the five-year deal, known as ASSIST II. It was awarded in November.


The contract is a follow-on to the five-year ASSIST contract, which Unisys held. The first contract had a $120 million ceiling, but it was increased to $150 million before the deal ended in June 2000, said Mark Selweski, the Justice Department contracting officer who handled the ASSIST II procurement.

Under the new contract, Justice and other federal agencies may purchase several types of support services, including hardware maintenance, help-desk support, asset and configuration management, cable wiring and equipment installation and operations support.


"This contract complements our existing contracts with DoJ, whom we've supported for the past 10 years," said Mark Andresen, vice president of the systems services division at DynCorp.


DynCorp has begun marketing the contract to its customers at the Justice Department, Andresen said. Two statements of task proposals have been released, and several more are in the pipeline, he said.


"I think they went to multiple awards in order to give the customers a wider range of choices," Andresen said.


"As the incumbent contractor since 1995, Unisys is pleased to continue our relationship with the Department of Justice and provide the same superior support services as we did on the original contract," said Drew Cramer, vice president, services and infrastructure outsourcing, Unisys U.S. Federal Government Group.