Nine companies win Army contracts for computer equipment

The Army awarded nine contracts late yesterday under a $5 billion procurement vehicle designed to standardize desktop and notebook computer purchases.

The 10-year, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity Army Desktop and Mobile Computing-2 contracts were awarded to three large businesses and six small businesses.

The large companies include CDW Government Inc. of Vernon Hills, Ill; Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

The small-business contracts went to Integration Technologies Group Inc. of Falls Church, Va.; MPC-G of Nampa, Idaho; NCS Technologies Inc. of Manassas, Va.; Telos Corp. of Ashburn, Va.; Transource Computer of Phoenix; and Westwood Computer Corp. of Springfield, N.J.

The contracts cover a three-year base period with three two-year options and a one-year option period.

"ADMC-2 is an important follow-on procurement for the Army. It provides desktops and laptops that focus on DOD and Army specific requirements and standards," said Kevin Carroll, the program executive officer for enterprise information systems. "This contract will continue to allow the smaller customers of the successful Army Small Computer Program to combine their needs with the commodity buying power of larger customers to take advantage of deeper discounts."

The Army will buy desktops, notebooks, ruggedized and semi-ruggedized devices, printers and peripherals from the winning contractors' offerings. Some services will also be offered, including installation, asset tagging, imaging, site surveys and system configuration.

Following the success of the Air Force IT Commodity Council, established in June 2003, the Army decided last year to mandate twice-yearly commodity buys of PCs, notebooks and other hardware devices through ADMC-2. The Army expects the commodity purchases to save money, promote enterprise solutions, enhance interoperability and improve security, officials said.

Dawn S. Onley is a staff writer for Washington Technology's sister publication, Government Computer News.