CDW-G wins $38 million Air Force desktop deals

CDW-Government Inc. won purchase orders potentially worth more than $38 million to supply desktops, expandable mini-towers and mainstream notebooks to the Air Force, the company said today.

The orders were awarded under the Air Force's Quarterly Enterprise Buy program, which centralizes hardware and software purchases. The program requires all desktop and notebook computer purchases to be made through the Air Force's nine major commands and requires officials to consolidate hardware purchases using the AFWay online procurement system.

Under the orders, CDW-G will configure hardware and software, and manage the staged deployment for more than 35,000 systems to agencies across all Air Force organizations in more than 180 locations around the world.

"It's advantageous to Air Force customers because we load software and software images that bring them up to speed on the latest Microsoft [version] and new security tools," said Max Peterson, CDW-G's vice president of federal sales. Most computer hardware has a life cycle of three to four years before it needs to be replaced, he added.

CDW-G also is providing the Air Force with various services, including assembling and configuring system components, such as common access card readers, removable hard drive cages, additional memory and mass storage devices. The company also supplies custom software imaging for machines acquired under the work and installs various application profiles prior to delivery to minimize assembly and integration at the end-user sites.

The company sells similar products and services to other military branches and federal government agencies.

CDW-G, a wholly owned subsidiary of CDW Corp. of Vernon Hills, Ill., sells hardware, software and solutions to educational institutions and government agencies. It ranks No. 43 on Washington Technology's 2004 Top 100 list of federal prime contractors.

The parent company employs approximately 2,900 workers and had 2003 revenue of more than $4.6 billion. CDW-G's public sector service had revenue of about $1.1 billion in 2003, Peterson said.