EDS wins option year for DFAS work

EDS Corp. won a year-long option worth up to $12.2 million to continue providing services for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service's electronic data management system.

The option is the fourth and final one of a five-year prime contract awarded to the company's of Herndon, Va., office in January 2002. The indefinite delivery contract has a total value of $61.4 million. EDS is providing production, hardware and software support and making system improvements.

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service manages payments throughout the Defense Department, including payrolls and payments to contractors. EDS will perform the work at DFAS offices in Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis, Omaha, Neb., and Charleston, S.C.

"We took the paper out of the DFAS processing," said Earl Nicks, EDS program manager for the project. "Using database management and scanning tools we were then able to replace those manual processes with automated processes." The electronic data management system replaces about 3.2 billion pieces of paper.

EDS also held the original contract for the program, which spanned September 1994 to March 2000. The company is negotiating with the DFAS to recompete the current contract when it expires at the end of 2006, Nicks said.

EDS' team of subcontractors on the current contract includes Oracle Corp. of Redwood City, Calif., Information Management Consultants Inc. of McLean, Va., Sun Microsystems Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., and Rhombic Systems of Washington Crossing, Pa.

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, EDS has more than 117,000 employees and annual sales of $20.7 billion. The company ranks No. 6 on Washington Technology's 2005 Top 100 list of federal prime contractors.