Raytheon lands education contract

Raytheon Co. has won a new contract for work on the Education Department's Common Services for Borrowers program, the company said.

The contract, which could be worth up to $168 million over 10 years if all options are exercised, was awarded by the program's prime contractor, ACS Education Solutions LLC of Dallas. The contract is for five years with five one-year options.

The program was initiated by the Education's Department's Office of Federal Student Aid. It was created to streamline and re-engineer FSA's business processes to improve how it manages its student aid obligations.

Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon will provide a customized version of its Quester debt collection system, which will help consolidate FSA's legacy systems into an integrated solution.

Raytheon will also provide system management and maintenance, including operational functions for the receipt and processing of new debts, the reconciliation of financial reporting on defaulted loans, specialized payment processing, overall mailroom inbound document processing and imaging and outbound mail generation.

"Our team is focused on providing greater services to borrowers, reducing operational overhead, and incorporating industry best practices to manage Department of Education student loan programs more effectively," said Randall Booth, president of ACS Education Solutions.

With 2003 sales of $18.1 billion and 78,000 employees, Raytheon ranked No. 6 on Washington Technology's 2003 Top 100 list, which measures federal contracting revenue.