CSC counts cyber, health, logistics among hot targets
Computer Sciences Corp. celebrates its 50th birthday by identifying the seven markets that it thinks can grow its business.
Computer Sciences Corp. commemorated its 50th anniversary in April, but the company has no plans to rest on its laurels.
CSC has aggressive new goals for its government business, said James Sheaffer, president of CSC’s North American Public Sector business.
Those goals include winning new business in seven high-growth areas, such as cybersecurity — which the company recently added — health care, training, logistics, information technology infrastructure, command and control, and state and local markets.
The strategy paid off substantially in 2008 and continues into 2009, Sheaffer said. “We’ve already had several really good examples of highly successful contracts and programs this year, and I think it all shows that in a marketplace where a lot of people have come and gone over the past 50 years, CSC continues to be a reliable provider of services to the government.”
The company’s success brings it to the No. 9 spot on the Top 100 with $3.4 billion in prime contracts. Overall, CSC's government and commercial businesses brought in $17.9 billion in 2008 revenue.
CSC started 2009 by winning a $265 million contract from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to replace the state’s existing Medicaid management information system (MMIS). The new system, an enterprise MMIS solution, will support other state health services agencies. The contract also calls for CSC to act as the fiscal agent for Medicaid and other North Carolina DHHS divisions.
Sheaffer said the company also is fulfilling other strategic goals, including winning follow-on work with core contracts. This spring, CSC received approval from the Army secretary to implement the next phase of the Army Materiel Command’s Logistics Modernization Program, which will increase the number of users of the logisticst system from 4,000 to 9,000. CSC has held the contract since 1999.
“There’s been a lot invested in that program, both by us and the Army, and so to have it on track to continue success in an environment where there’s been a lot of criticism of [enterprise resource planning] systems and the ability to implement them successfully is a major kudos,” Sheaffer said.
CSC will target opportunities in areas slated to receive funding from the economic stimulus law and President Barack Obama’s budget, specifically health IT and cybersecurity.
Sheaffer said winning the North Carolina MMIS modernization project only adds to CSC’s credibility as a major provider in the health IT market, and the company intends to pursue opportunities created by the Office of the National Health IT Coordinator, which received $2 billion in money from the stimulus law.
CSC is a prime contractor on a project that will implement an automated enterprise solution for the United Kingdom's health care system. It has also been a major player in pilot projects for the Nationwide Health Information Network funded by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department and has extensive commercial experience in implementing health IT solutions for hospitals and physicians.
“The whole health IT area will start to explode over the next few years,” Sheaffer said. "We’re extremely well positioned for those opportunities, and in fact, we’re going to make sure that we’re a leading player in that whole arena.”
Sheaffer was reluctant to name any specific contracts the company is targeting this year, except one that’s already been made public. CSC announced a joint venture with EG&G, a division of URS Corp., to bid on the National Science Foundation’s $2 billion U.S. Antarctic Program. The contract requires integrated operations support to U.S. scientific activities, including climate change research and conservation activities, taking place in Antarctica. “It’s probably the most significant program that we’re pursuing this year,” he said.