ACS wins Massachusetts outsourcing contract

Affiliated Computer Services Inc., a Dallas provider of business process and information technology outsourcing solutions, won a business process outsourcing contract to provide student loan processing services for the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education.

The five-year contract is worth about $2.4 million, company officials said today. ACS will support nearly 150 Massachusetts educational institutions that participate in the board's loan programs. The company already provides loan servicing for more than 25 schools in the state.

ACS brings "the latest expertise, cutting-edge Web-based technology and the ability to deliver a wide range of services on a large scale," said Clantha McCurdy, associate vice chancellor of the board.

Under the contract, ACS will service four loan programs that support more than 23,000 borrowers. The loan programs are the Massachusetts No-Interest Loan, Tomorrow's Teachers Scholarship, Commonwealth Futures Grant and the Incentive for Inspiring Teachers Program. ACS' services will include transaction processing, payment processing, borrower correspondence, reporting and online technology applications.

ACS provides outsourcing solutions to more than 1,000 colleges and universities and more than 8.2 million borrowers with outstanding loans totaling more than $93 billion. ACS is the primary contractor for the Department of Education's student loan processing services.

ACS employs about 40,000 people who support operations in nearly 100 countries. Its revenue for the year ended June 30 was $3.8 billion.

The company announced Aug. 1 that it would sell most of its federal IT business to Lockheed Martin Corp. and acquire Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin's commercial IT business.

However, ACS is keeping its state and local and education business, which includes the Massachusetts contract. The company also is keeping its Department of Education contract, which brings in annual revenue of about $172 million.

The contract is being re-competed, and an award is expected in October or November.