Nortel to support Immigration Services operations

Nortel Government Solutions Inc. has won a contract that could be worth as much as $39 million from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to provide support in program management, acquisition and administration.

The goal is to make USCIS more flexible and cost-effective in carrying out its mandate by augmenting USCIS staff with highly-skilled program management specialists, the company said.

The Fairfax, Va.-based company, which is a unit of Toronto's Nortel Networks Corp., recently completed a one-year support agreement with the immigration agency. The new deal runs through November 2011.

Under the contract, Nortel will support 10 USCIS offices, up from five, and will more than triple, to 77, the amount of support staff it provides to handle procurement strategy development and execution; project planning and scheduling; and day-to-day reporting, purchasing, database management and other administrative tasks.

Nortel Government Solutions has had a 20-year relationship with the immigration agency that began when it was the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services, which was renamed and folded into the Homeland Security Department in 2003.

"Two decades of providing IT management and support services to this and other Homeland Security agencies have given us a wealth of legacy knowledge and experience that helps us to support their critical missions," said Chuck Saffell, chief executive officer, Nortel Government Solutions.

Nortel Government Solutions ranks No. 90 on Washington Technology's 2007 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.