BUSINESS IN BRIEF

ACS won a two-year, $14.7 million contract to deliver and operate an enhanced version of its Pharmacy-Only Processing System to the Massachusetts Division of Medical Assistance. Under the contract, ACS' Pharmacy Benefit Management Services unit will implement point-of-sale claims processing for the 28 million prescriptions covered by the state's Medicaid program each year. With processing to begin Dec. 17, ACS will also provide an array of clinical support services and program management tools.

The company also announced it has reached an agreement extending the Colorado Medicaid Fiscal Agent contract for five additional years, through November 2006. ACS has been under contract with the Colorado Department of Heath Care Financing since 1996, when it was awarded the contract after a competitive bidding process.

ACS operates Medicaid programs in 13 states and has recently been named as the successful bidder in the state of Georgia.Keane has developed an online vessel registration renewal application for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. The system, which can be accessed via the Internet at http://www.ncwildlife.org, provides citizens the convenience of processing vessel registration renewals from any location, 24 hours a day. Developed by Keane's Raleigh/Durham-Triad branch office in North Carolina, the online system provides a Web front end to existing legacy vessel information to allow citizens to retrieve and renew their vessel registration. Customers enter the vessel number and renewal number printed on the renewal notice received in the mail. After reviewing and confirming vessel information, customers enter the credit card information to purchase their new registration.KPMG Consulting said it is trimming staff by about 3 percent, or about 300 to 400 people, to keep its 10,000-person payroll more in line with market demand. KPMG Consulting also said about 300 workers chose to take a voluntary leave of absence for three to six months or move to on-call or part-time status. KPMG will take a $15 million to $20 million charge in December to account for the reductions. Earlier this month, KPMG Consulting paid $28.9 million for KPMG International's consulting unit in Australia. KPMG Consulting now has market rights in Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and parts of China. The company now has full access to Australia.Cubic Defense Systems won a contract to provide personnel locator systems and new URX-3000 survival radios to the Spanish Navy. The advanced equipment is used to recover survivors during combat search-and-rescue operations. The contract, worth about $1 million, marks the first sale of Cubic's new URX-3000. This new handheld survival radio has a lighter weight, lower price, and better performance than any other on the international market, according to the company.The Air Force Space Warfare Center signed a cooperative research and development agreement with SGI Federal to help develop, test and evaluate certain command and control technologies. The purpose of the agreement, SGI officials said, is to improve space support for area commanders. The Air Force and SGI will process data gathered from space to provide commanders an integrated picture of a battlefield. In partnership, they will examine command, control, communications and systems technologies, such as those that provide data and video feeds from unmanned aircraft, to see how systems can be integrated into a common operation. Their goal is to give commanders the best possible information for decision-making.
A New Jersey company that provides Web-based procurement for local governments has struck an alliance with two state associations that could bolster use of the online service. Towndata.com Network Inc. recently announced an alliance with the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, which represents the state's 566 municipalities, and the Governmental Purchasing Association of New Jersey, a nonprofit group that represents nearly 300 government purchasing personnel.

The Neptune, N.J.-based company launched its online purchasing service in January. The state league links to Towndata from its site. But the purchasing association indicates on its site that, although it is in a strategic alliance with the company, it is not in partnership with and is not endorsing the company. The site allows local governments to use reverse auctions to make purchases of less than $17,500.

These business briefs are composed of selected excerpts from the BB&T Capital Markets publication, "Aerospace/Defense/Government IT Services Weekly Review," written by Thomas Meagher.