Representatives of Affiliated Computer Services Inc (ACS), a provider of business process and information technology outsourcing solutions, announced Friday that it has been selected by the U.S. Department of Education (Department) as the winner of the Common Services for Borrowers (CSB) contract. The CSB contract, signed today, includes comprehensive loan servicing, loan consolidation, and portfolio management services.

The new, 5-year base contract will integrate a number of currently separate services, which will allow the Department to increase service quality while saving overall program costs. The contract is estimated at more than $1 billion dollars in revenue to ACS over the five-year base period. The contract also includes provisions for up to five, one-year extensions, which would increase the potential revenue to US$2 billion. The new contract is effective January 1, 2004.

Since 1993, ACS has provided complete business process management services including systems development, integration, management, operations, and customer service to the Department of Education's direct loan program. Under this procurement, the Department will modernize the servicing system and shift the contract to a performance-based arrangement. ACS will provide comprehensive servicing, consolidation, and portfolio management for more than $95 billion in loans to more than nine million student aid borrowers.

In response to the Department's requirements and strategic objectives, ACS recruited and assembled a group of subcontractors for its winning team. The team includes key partnerships with EDS, Pearson Government Solutions, Raytheon Corporation, and more than 30 small business and minority-owned enterprises.

Representatives of EDS and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) announced Monday a US$71 million extension of their US$156 million business process outsourcing services agreement originally signed in 2001. Under the agreement EDS provides CIBC's 37,000 global employees and 9,000 retirees with a 7x24, one-stop-shop for human resources business process services including benefits, payroll, workforce administration and compensation management.

CIBC has benefited from the completion of two key e-HR projects; the development of an on line e-Compensation Planning system and MyHR@CIBC -- a self-serve portal which gives employees easy access to, and faster delivery of, HR services.

According to market research firm IDC, global Business Process Outsourcing market is expected to grow between 9 percent and 11 percent during the next three years.

A Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Block 5D-3 spacecraft, built under contract for the U.S. Air Force by Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), completed on-orbit checkout, was declared operational and turned over to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for operations. The Flight 16 (F16) DMSP satellite was launched Oct. 18 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. on a Lockheed Martin-supplied Titan II launch vehicle.

During the past 30 days the DMSP Early-Orbit Team at the NOAA Space Operations Control Center (SOCC) in Suitland, Md. successfully completed on-orbit checkout of the spacecraft and instruments. Having been declared operational, the satellite was turned over to the National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Integrated Program Office (IPO). The IPO Assistant Director of Operations then delegated F16 command authority to the NOAA Office of Satellite Operations.

The F16 DMSP satellite is a Block 5D-3 series that accommodates larger and more advanced sensor payloads than earlier generations. They also feature a more advanced attitude control system for precision pointing; a more powerful on-board computer with increased memory -- allowing greater spacecraft autonomy; a higher rate command link for shorter ground contact times; and increased battery capacity that prolongs the mission duration.

DMSP, operated by NOAA, is used for strategic and tactical weather prediction to aid the U.S. military in planning operations at sea, on land and in the air. Equipped with a sophisticated sensor suite that can create visible and infrared images of cloud cover, the satellite collects specialized meteorological, oceanographic and solar-geophysical information in all weather conditions.

The DMSP constellation comprises two spacecraft in near-polar orbits, C3 (command, control and communications), user terminals and weather centers. Currently, four additional Block 5D-3 satellites are maintained at Space Systems' operations in Sunnyvale for storage, functional testing and upgrading. The spacecraft are shipped to Vandenberg for launch when requested by the Air Force. Now in its fourth decade of service, DMSP has proven invaluable in scheduling and protecting military operations on land, at sea and in the air.

The U.S. Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif. manages the DMSP and Titan programs.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company is one of the major operating units of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Space Systems designs, develops, tests, manufactures, and operates a variety of advanced technology systems for military, civil and commercial customers. Chief products include a full-range of space launch systems, including heavy-lift capability, ground systems, remote sensing and communications satellites for commercial and government customers, advanced space observatories and interplanetary spacecraft, fleet ballistic missiles and missile defense systems.

Carol Roehrig has been appointed to Parkland Health & Hospital System's Board of Managers.

Commissioner Jim Jackson appointed Roehrig to fill the vacancy created when Jim Williams Jr. resigned from the board. Williams' resignation was effective October 27.

Roehrig is the president of BKM Total Office of Texas, L.P. During the eight years she has served as president, the company's revenue grew 121 percent from 1995 to 2000. In April 2002, Roehrig purchased the business, making BKM one of the largest female owned organizations in the distribution industry.

Civic duties for Roehrig include serving as a board member and as a part of the Executive Women's Roundtable for the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce.