ACS wins LA county Metro smart-card deal

Affiliated Computer Services Inc. won a five-year, $31.5 million contract from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to deploy a smart-card system.

The five-year contract has a pair of two-year options, which could raise its value to $60 million.

Under the contract, ACS of Dallas will build and operate a regional service center to administer the Regional Transit Access Pass program. The company will furnish an array of services, including cardholder registration, card inventory and distribution and point-of-sale network management.

Customer contact will be conducted through a Web site, an interactive voice response phone system, customer service representatives, mail and fax.

The pass lets riders in the Los Angeles metro area use a single smart card for transit fare payment on all regional bus and rail systems.

In addition to the metropolitan transportation authority, 11 other agencies are participating in the smart-card program from the outset, and more area transportation agencies are expected to sign on in the future.

ACS offers business process and IT outsourcing to the commercial and government sectors. The company, which has more than 5,500 employees and annual revenue of $4.3 billion, ranks No. 48 on Washington Technology's 2006 Top 100 list of federal prime IT contractors.