IRS tees up next generation of tech contracts

The Internal Revenue Service late last week awarded 21 indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts for information technology services.

The contracts were awarded under a program known as Total Information Processing Support Services-3. It has a maximum value of $3 billion over five years and is designed for use by multiple agencies, although the IRS will be the primary consumer.

In a period of tumult for governmentwide contracting following revelations of contracting scope abuses at the General Services Administration, "The TIPSS vehicles are examples of contracts that have been very successful and have been administered well," said Jim Flyzik, a former Treasury chief information officer, now a partner in IT consultancy Guerra, Kiviat, Flyzik and Associates. TIPSS-3 covers a comprehensive set of IT services meant to improve existing systems and to introduce new technologies as they emerge. The procurement is a follow-on to TIPSS-2, for which the IRS awarded 18 contracts in 2000. The agency extended TIPSS-2 contracts until Nov. 30.

Of the 21 TIPSS-3 awards made on Oct. 28, 15 went to large businesses and six to small companies. The large business winners are:

• Accenture LLP, Chicago
• Apogen Technologies, Portsmouth, N.H.
• BearingPoint, McLean, Va.
• Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Va.
• CGI-AMS, Fairfax, Va.
• Computer Sciences Corp., El Segundo, Calif.
• Electronic Data Systems Corp., Plano, Texas
• FC Business Systems, Fairfax, Va.
• IBM Global Services, Armonk, New York
• Lockheed Martin Services, Bethesda, Md.
• Management Systems Designers, Fairfax, Va.
• Northrop Grumman IT, McLean, Va.
• QSS, Lanham, Md.
• Science Applications International Corp., San Diego
• Unisys Corp., Blue Bell, Pa.

The six small business award winners are:

• ActioNet, Fairfax, Va.
• Avineon, Alexandria, Va.
• Catapult Technology, Bethesda, Md.
• Information Systems Consulting Group, Fredericksburg, Va.
• Inter Image, Arlington, Va.
• Pragmatics, McLean, Va.