Ohio taps Covansys for child support enforcement

Covansys Corp. has won a two-year, $17.8 million contract from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to operate the state's child support computer system, the company announced July 2.


The two-year contract has options for four additional years. Under the contract, Covansys Corp. of Farmington Hills, Mich., will operate the support enforcement tracking systems. Covansys is the prime contractor, and American Management Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va., and Keane Inc. of Boston are subcontractors, the company said.


The contract uses a quarterly deliverable agreement concept in which payments are based on deliverables instead of time and materials. Before the start of each quarter, the department and the company will develop project plans and resource and cost projections.


The departments of Job and Family Services and Administrative Services sign the quarterly agreements, which spell out deliverables, milestones and expectations. The Department of Administrative Services will hold the contract on behalf of the Department of Job and Family Services.


Ohio has about 985,000 child support cases. The state collected $1.8 billion in child support payments in fiscal 2001.