Nine win GSA call center deal

The General Services Administration has awarded slots on a contract for governmentwide contact center services to nine companies.

The companies providing services through the USA Contact contract are Convergys Corp., CSC-Datatrac, EDS Corp., ICT Group Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp., L-3 Communications Corp., TechTeam Government Solutions Inc., Teletech Government Solutions LLC and Vangent Inc.

The 10-year, $2.5 billion contract is designed to allow federal agencies a way to quickly set up contact centers during emergencies.

The qualified contractors will provide a range of contact center services for agencies and will help them get official information to the public on a daily basis and in times of crises.

The contract will enable agencies to establish emergency centers in a short time, GSA said. "Every second matters during a crisis," said Lurita Doan, GSA administrator.

USA Contact replaces FirstContact, which aimed to streamline and simplify the process of buying contact center services for government agencies.

Between 2004 and 2007, FirstContact completed 15 task orders, which included setting up contact centers for the Federal Emergency Management Agency after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005 and for the Veterans Affairs Department following the theft of a laptop containing sensitive personnel data.

Like FirstContact, USA Contact also remains part of GSA's USA Services, an e-government initiative.

"GSA is helping citizens get the information they want and need from government by assisting agencies with the delivery process," said Martha Dorris, deputy associate administrator of GSA's Office of Citizen Services, which manages USA Contact.

Matthew Weigelt writes for Federal Computer Week, an 1105 Government Information Group publication.