Perot Systems inks Education data network deal

Perot Systems Corp. won a contract potentially worth $20 million from the Education Department to operate, maintain and enhance ED's Data Exchange Network, the company announced this week. The three-month contract has four one-year options.

Under the contract, Perot Systems' government services subsidiary will provide support for ongoing data definition, acquisition, usage, quality and infrastructure. The company also will provide support for knowledge management, information technology platform infrastructure and capacity building. Perot Systems will provide additional network enhancements as required and ordered by the department.

The network, called Eden, will enable the federal government and state education agencies to transfer and analyze information about education programs through analysis and reporting tools. The tools will allow users to obtain organized and formatted information about the status and progress of education in states, districts and schools.

The initiative was developed and implemented under the Performance-Based Data Management Initiative, which develops standards and guidelines for transforming the way that the Education Department manages its data collection and information management business.

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, Perot Systems employs more than 16,000 people worldwide and had 2004 revenue of $1.8 billion. Its federal customers include the Defense and Homeland Security departments, civilian agencies and the intelligence community. The company ranks No. 50 on Washington Technology's 2005 Top 100 list of federal prime contractors.