AF signs records management BPAs
The Air Force last week negotiated three blanket purchasing agreements for electronic records management and network services.
By Bill MurrayGCN StaffThe Air Force last week negotiated three blanket purchasing agreements for electronic records management and network services.The BPAs are part of the Defense Department's Enterprise Software Initiative. The service on Feb. 14 signed the three-year Information Technology Tools software BPAs. The vendors are FDC Technologies Inc. of Bethesda, Md., Government Technology Services Inc. of Chantilly, Va., and Logicon Inc. of Herndon, Va.Offices throughout the government can use the BPAs to buy records management products from Open Text Corp. of Waterloo, Ontario, Provenance Systems Inc. of Arlington, Va., and Tower Software Corp. of Reston, Va., said Lt. Col. Glenn Taylor, director of the Commercial Information Technology Product Area Directorate. CIT-PAD is part of the Air Force Standards Systems Group at the Gunter Annex of Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.Four Provenance and Tower Software records management products are certified as compliant with DOD's 5015.2 records management standard. The Joint Interoperability Test Command at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., validates products as compliant. According to the command, no Open Text products have received the certification. The command posts lists of compliant products on the Web at .Users of the BPAs will receive discounts of 1 percent to 10 percent off the prices for products available through the companies' General Services Administration schedule contracts, Taylor said. But volume discounts could vary widely, reaching up to 90 percent, he said.Besides records management products, Logicon will sell network management products from Legato Systems Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., and from IBM Corp. subsidiary Tivoli Systems Inc. of Austin, Texas.The BPAs also include information assurance products from Axent Technologies Inc. of Rockville, Md.; BMC Software Inc. of Houston; Hewlett-Packard Co.; Internet Security Systems Inc. of Atlanta; Remedy Corp. of Mountain View, Calif.; and Shiva Corp. of Bedford, Mass.The total estimated value is $300 million, Taylor said. Five vendors submitted proposals, and SSG officials reviewed the bids for three months, he said. The winning vendors showed a 'history of good-quality software sales' to the government, Taylor said.The BPAs will replace Logicon's Integrated Computer-Aided Software Engineering contract, he said.The I-CASE contract, which took in about $70 million in orders last year, expires in 2002.The three BPA contractors will likely have electronic ordering capabilities available by mid-March through their own Web sites and through the SSG site, at .SSG plans to negotiate additional BPAs for network products, workstations, supplies and accessories, and video teleconferencing products, Taylor said. 'That should keep us busy until the fall.'Although small businesses have received several SSG BPAs, 'we're not seeing quite as much volume go to small business as we'd like,' he said. 'We're working hand in hand with the Air Force Small Business Office.'Taylor, who is about to be promoted to colonel, will attend the Industrial College of the Armed Forces this summer. So CIT-PAD will get a new director, he said.
Open to buyers governmentwide, the agreements include network services
Mixed compliance
jitc-emh.army.mil/recmgt
www.web1.ssg.gunter.af.mil
Mixed compliance
jitc-emh.army.mil/recmgt
www.web1.ssg.gunter.af.mil