Harris, Lockheed to design e-records system

After five years of planning and research, the National Archives and Records Administration has taken the next step in dealing with the flood of electronic records that agencies produce each day.

NARA tapped Harris Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. to design and test the Electronics Records Archive system. NARA will pick the winning design after 12 months of testing.

The winning system will be hardware- and software-independent and guarantee forever the authenticity of the records.

"Mark my words: the Electronic Records Archive will change the world as we know it," said U.S. Archivist John Carlin during a recent news conference at NARA headquarters in Washington. "Having two companies compete in this first phase will optimize the ERA system design," he said. "They will hone their architecture insights on what the complete ERA system should look like and what specific tools should go into it."

Harris of Melbourne, Fla., will get $10.6 million, and Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., will get $9.5 million in the first year for design and prototype development. The contract to build the final system could be worth $500 million through 2011.

Harris' team includes Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. of McLean, Va., CACI International Inc. of Arlington, Va., and Information Manufacturing Corp. of Rocket Center, W.Va.

Lockheed Martin's team includes BearingPoint Inc. of McLean, Va., EDS Corp. of Plano, Texas, Fenestra Technologies Corp. of Germantown, Md., History Associates Inc. of Rockville, Md., Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego, and Tessella Inc. of Newton, Mass.