GRC Wins $4.1 Million Deal to Build FirstGov.gov Site

By Nick Wakeman, Staff Writer


AUG. 11 ? The size of the contract may not be great, but the prestige should more than make up for it.


GRC International Inc. of Vienna, Va., Aug. 11 was awarded a two-year, $4.1 million contract by the General Services Administration to design and build the federal government's new Web portal, FirstGov.gov.


The site, which is expected to launch this fall, will be a gateway to all government Web sites and provide a powerful search tool being developed free of charge to the government by Eric Brewer, founder of Inktomi Corp. of Foster City, Calif., an Internet software company.


GRC, which in March was acquired by AT&T Corp. of Basking Ridge, N.J., is leading a team that includes its parent, AT&T; Autonomy Inc. of San Francisco; AppNet Inc. of Bethesda, Md.; Mercury Interactive Corp. of Sunnyvale, Calif.; Oracle Corp. of Redwood Shores, Calif.; and Sun Microsystems Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif.


"Now that we are part of AT&T, we have access to a lot more resources," said Wayne Jackson, director of corporate communications for GRC. He could not comment on whether GRC would have pursued the contract if it had not been acquired.


The prestige alone makes the win an important one for GRC, Jackson said. "This is going to be an important, national web site, so it is an honor to do it," he said.


The win also shows that AT&T acquisition of GRC was a smart move, Jackson said. "AT&T wanted to get into new markets and [the acquisition] is paying for both AT&T and GRC," he said.