Compaq Awarded $2 Billion Postal Service Contract

Compaq Computer Corp. was awarded a contract worth up to $2 billion to supply the U.S. Postal Service with information technology products and services, the company announced Oct. 11.

The Houston company beat out Dell Computer Corp., Austin, Texas, GTSI Corp., Chantilly, Va., and IBM Corp., Armonk N.Y.

The postal service contract, called the Acquisition for Desktop Extended Processing Equipment, or ADEPT2, has a five-year base worth up to $1 billion, with extensions for another five. It is a re-compete of a contract first awarded to Digital Equipment Corp. in 1994, a company that Compaq purchased in 1998.

The contract calls for Compaq to provide Microsoft Windows- and Intel-based computers, as well as printers, disk storage, tape backup units and systems software. The company must also provide support services such as hardware repair, maintenance and replacement.

The contract also carries some unique requirements such as remote support, software version control, a means of recycling the discarded hardware, and a Web-based ordering and invoice service.

In the previous contract, Compaq and Digital Equipment delivered more than $1.2 billion of products and services, including 32,000 servers and 180,000 desktops and 50,000 notebooks, Compaq said.

The ADEPT contract was unusual, said an analyst at Input, a Vienna, Va.-based IT market research company, in that the postal service, rather than putting the work on a General Services Administration schedule or going with a desktop outsourcing model, will manage seats in-house and contract only for hardware and support services.