Ventera tapped for USDA IT support

Ventera Corp. of McLean, Va., has been awarded a contract valued at up to $25 million to provide IT support and enhancements for the Agriculture Department's Food and Nutrition Service.

The blanket purchase agreement contract has a base period of one year and four one-year options.

Since 2000, Ventera has completed the full lifecycle development of the STARS retailer management system for the Food Stamp Program and the Integrity Profile, which analyzes state agency vendor monitoring activities for the Women, Infants and Children program.

Ventera provides system enhancements and maintenance for each application, daily system performance monitoring, onsite database administration, response to user questions and support to the government's help desk personnel.

In addition to continuing to support the STARS and TIP systems, Ventera will develop a Universal Product Code system for WIC.

Ventera began its work with FNS by re-engineering key business operations and developing the new version of STARS. The contractor built a framework of reusable code modules for FNS that help build new applications quickly while reducing project risk and cost. It helps implement common functions, including user security, secure e-mail and data transmission, data encryption and decryption, report writing and user interface development.

Mary Mosquera is a staff writer for Washington Technology's sister publication, Government Computer News.