On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Defense announced an initial $568 million contract award for the provision of global information grid services management to a series of small businesses from around the Washington, D.C., Beltway. In Maryland, Bethesda-based Digital Management, Columbia-based Onyx-Technica, and Rockville's TurningPoint-EMW will work on the project. In Virginia, contractors include Alexandria-based NES Associates and Cambridge International Systems, By Light Professional IT in Arlington, and Stafford's IPKeys Technologies are the winners. None of the seven firms are subsidiaries of larger defense contractors.
All seven firms are to be part of a "multiple indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract" specifying "worldwide support necessary to carry out required engineering, transition, implementation, integration, connection approval, and IT service management activities, in support of existing and future Defense Information System Network networking capabilities."
The contract stretches over a possible five-year term, beginning with a two-year "base" term and offering options to extend the contract for a second two-year term, and a possible one-year term thereafter. The base term is covered by the $568 million award, but if options are exercised, the total value of the award may rise as high as $1.4 billion.
