Education awards Perot second contract in 2 weeks

Under terms of the $200 million contract, the department will outsource its postsecondary student financial aid data center operations.

The Education Department has awarded Perot Systems a new information technology contract to outsource data center operations. It’s the second Education contract win for Perot in two weeks.

Late last month, Perot won a five-year, $17 million contract to upgrade the department’s business management processes for the Federal Student Aid (FSA) program.

According to a company announcement, the two contracts have a combined value of more than $220 million.

Under the performance-based Virtual Data Center (VDC) Services contract, Perot will host and process the department’s $78 billion annual postsecondary student financial aid system. The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract has an expected value of more than $200 million in its 10-year life, Education spokeswoman Jane Glickman said.

“Perot Systems will bring innovation to data center operations at the department to achieve significant cost savings and to more effectively serve the tens of millions of students seeking financial assistance,” said Peter Altabef, president and chief executive officer of Perot, in a statement.

In late August, Perot won FSA’s Integrated Partner Management contract. The contract manages Title IV aid to postsecondary students. Under that contract, the company will integrate FSA’s multiple systems.

The performance-based, fixed-price award is worth about $17 million with a delivery time of 30 months.