Ciena, Cisco Team on Networks

Sun Delivers Postal Contract

Sun pushed aside IBM Corp. of Armonk, N.Y.; Digital Equipment Corp. of Maynard, Mass.; and Hewlett-Packard Co. of Palo Alto, Calif., to nab a five-year U.S. Postal Service contract worth up to $500 million.

Sun will provide the Postal Service with hardware, software and a full range of computer services as the agency updates and expands its systems. The Postal Service is gearing up for a move into the information delivery business.

A Win-Win Situation

Work under the five-year contract may not reach the spending ceiling but awarding a contract that large to all the bidders avoids two potential problems, said Robert Dornan, senior vice president of Federal Sources Inc. of McLean, Va.

For one, the Defense Department doesn't have to worry about protests filed by losing bidders. And DoD's Health Affairs agency won't have to go through another procurement because it has a contract large enough to handle most of its needs.

The winners? American Management Systems Inc., Fairfax, Va.; BDM International Inc., McLean, Va. (now TRW Inc.); Computer Sciences Corp., El Segundo, Calif.; Electronic Data Systems Corp., Plano, Texas; IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y.; PRC Inc., McLean, Va.; and Science Applications International Inc., San Diego.

Stottlemyer Lands on His Feet

Todd Stottlemyer, formerly corporate vice president for BDM, will become BTG's senior vice president and director of corporate development.

Stottlemyer will form teaming partnerships with other information technology companies and hunt for quality acquisitions, according to Edward Bersoff, BTG's chief executive. Also under his purview will be the legal, purchasing and contracts departments, investor and media relations and government affairs.

Alliance Targets Fed Market

The companies will target federal agencies looking to migrate Unix applications to Windows NT platforms. The Unisys-Softway alliance also will target agencies creating combined Unix/NT networks, Unisys officials said.

Old Systems Foil IRS Collections

The subcommittee held three hearings last week to review financial management practices at the IRS, Department of Defense and Social Security Administration. Those hearings came in the wake of the first-ever governmentwide federal audit, conducted by the General Accounting Office.

As a result of the delays, which stem in part from problems with old computer systems, the IRS can only collect about 13 percent of the $214 billion owed by delinquent taxpayers.

Next Generation Net

Qwest is making available 16,000 miles of fiber optic lines worth $500 million. And Cisco and Nortel are giving in-kind contributions of equipment to aid the network.

The Next Generation Internet is a federal research project investing in high-speed experimental networks and new applications. High-tech companies are teaming up with 122 leading universities to create the network. When complete, it will be able to transmit the entire 30-volume Encyclopedia Brittanica in about one second, White House officials said.

Tech Data Buys Euro Distributor

The deal, which would team the world's second and third largest computer product distributors, is worth about $395 million and must be approved by regulators.

Tech Data of Clearwater, Fla., and Computer 2000 had combined sales of about $12 billion last year, while Ingram Micro of Santa Ana, Calif., had sales of $16.5 billion. Tech Data officials expect the deal to close by June 30.

Fat Web Wallets

All Web jobs paid more than the average job salary of $28,582 in 1996. The Internet industry also has created 33 new job categories with positions such as Electronic Commerce Manager, Internet Strategy Director and Web Technologist.

Ciena, Cisco Team on Networks

Ciena's stock price rose 5.3 percent on the news April 20. Ciena and Cisco also announced that they are launching an industrywide initiative to create the Optical Internetworking Forum, which will focus on accelerating the deployment of optical connections between networks.

William Daley		It's Built		and They've Come in Droves.
The radio was available commercially for 38 years before 50 million people took a listen. For the television, it was 13 years until 50 million saw it for themselves. The Internet accomplished that feat in just four years. Information technology - and especially the Internet - has been a major driver of the U.S. economy over the past five years, according to a Commerce Department study released last week. In fact, the industry was responsible for roughly 25 percent of overall economic growth in that period. In presenting those findings, Commerce Secretary William Daley urged Congress to support tax-free Internet zones and tough standards on copyright protection.

- Lawrence Weinbach, chairman, president and CEO of Unisys Corp., explaining how he plans to differentiate his company from the competition in the IT market.

Copyright 1998 Post-Newsweek Business Information, Inc. All rights reserved