Channel News

With a passel of major contract wins, Intelligent Decisions Inc. of Chantilly, Va., is refocusing the way it attacks the government market.

The value-added reseller is hanging its growth plans on capturing more business as a prime contractor rather than a subcontractor, said Harry Martin, president and chief executive of the company.

Two major steps in that shift are two wins. One covers a series of Agriculture Department contracts worth $18.7 million to deliver 8,500 systems; the other is a $10 million contract with the Defense Finance and Accounting Service for another 8,500 systems.Both contracts include configuration management and systems integration services, evidence the company "can handle the larger opportunities," Martin said.

The company, which has grown steadily since its founding in 1988, has the back-office infrastructure, operational capabilities and financial wherewithal to take on multimillion dollar projects, he said.

Intelligent Decisions had about $130 million in 1998 revenue and expects to have $200 million to $250 million in 1999, Martin said. About 73 percent of its business is with defense and intelligence agencies; 20 percent is with civilian agencies. The rest is commercial. While the company is 8(a) certified, only 2 percent of its revenue comes from set-aside contracts, he said.

The company wants to do more work as a prime contractor because that will help the company control its destiny and take better advantage of the customer relationships it has established, he said.

Martin also said he is trying to build stronger professional services offerings and enhance the integration, configuration management and assembly capabilities.

As part of the new go-to-market strategy the company began pushing in August, Intelligent Decision is adding more 17 labor categories to its General Services Administration schedule. Services range from data entry specialists to consultants.Beyond.com of Sunnyvale, Calif., expanded its offerings to federal government customers by signing an agreement to distribute software products from Corel Corp. of Ottawa. Beyond.com will use its General Services Administration schedule to push Corel software products. The software licenses are delivered electronically.

"With the availability of Corel products 24 hours a day to all government agencies and employees, Beyond.com is changing the way product licenses are ordered, making it easier and more cost effective," said Kendall Fargo, vice president of government sales for Beyond.com.

Beyond.com also offers digitally downloadable titles and licenses from leading software publishers, including IBM/Lotus Corp., Microsoft Corp., Network Associates Inc. and Symantec Corp.Intelliworxx Inc. of Sarasota, Fla., tapped Government Technology Services Inc. of Chantilly, Va., to be a channel partner for the company to go after business with the federal government. Intelliworxx creates, develops and markets mobile multimedia computing solutions for commercial and government use.

GTSI will push Intelliworxx products to both civilian and Defense Department agencies. GTSI will focus its initial marketing efforts on the VoiceTablet product line. The VoiceTablet is the only rugged handheld device offered by GTSI and the only tablet computer based on an Intel Pentium II processor.


? Nick Wakeman