Booz, Allen snares $620M telecom services pact

The General Services Administration last week awarded a contract to Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc. for up to $620 million worth of telecommunications support services that will complement the Post-FTS 2000 contract.

~~The Telecommunications Support Contract 2 services available to agencies throughout the government include telecom planning analytical and acquisition support installation integration and implementation services and operations and maintenance. Booz Allen which is the incumbent vendor will receive a minimum of $58 million for work on the contract.

~~Robert Sudhoff a senior contract specialist with GSA's Federal Telecommunications Service said TSC2 will expand on the success of the previous GSA telecom support contract by including international coverage and some additional labor categories such as telecom and systems services.

~ ~The contract will run two years with three optional one-year periods.

~~"We've had a lot of demand from various DOD bases who had a lot of work that needed to be done overseas " Sudhoff said.

~ ~"And there are law enforcement agencies doing classified work that are expanding to other countries. In the past we've been limited in our ability to meet those requirements " he added.

~~Sudhoff said agencies wishing to order services from TSC2 must contact FTS personnel who will negotiate terms and conditions with the vendor and draw up a statement of work.

~ ~In return GSA will receive a surcharge for services that Sudhoff expects will range between 4 and 8 percent of the value of the job.

~~Although the contract is expected to complement the Post-FTS 2000 program GSA will still issue a solicitation for a Telecommunications Management Services (TMS) contract as early as the middle of next month FTS officials said.

~ ~TMS one of the contracts grouped under the Post-FTS 2000 umbrella will offer many of the same services now available through TSC2 they said.

~~FTS commissioner Bob Woods said the two contracts will overlap but that the TSC2 award was necessitated by agencies' continuing demand for support services combined with the imminent demise of the previous TSC.

~ ~"We were running out of contracting capability with TSC " Woods said.

~ ~GSA selected Booz Allen from a field of five vendors who responded to a request for proposals last year. Other bidders included Unisys Corp. PRC Inc. DynCorp and Electronic Data Systems Corp.