Industry News
EDS Awarded $92 Million Task Order for CMS Enterprise Data Center Contract
EDS, one of the largest provider of Medicare fee-for-service data center operations, has been awarded the third task order under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Enterprise Data Center Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract vehicle. The task order contains a one-year base period with five additional one-year options with a potential value of US$92 million if all of the options are exercised.
Under the new task order, EDS will host applications that process Medicare claims for services at doctors’ offices and hospitals in 12 states: California, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. EDS will provide 24x7 application hosting and production support services for approximately 180 million Medicare claims within these states.
EDS is one of three companies competing for task orders under the 10-year, US$1.9 billion Enterprise Data Center (EDC) contract awarded in March 2006. CMS is using the contract to consolidate data center operations supporting mainframe and client server applications. That work, currently performed at more than 20 different facilities, will be consolidated into four data centers, saving CMS hundreds of millions of dollars over the ten year contract period.
In March 2006, CMS awarded EDS a task order to perform similar functions in six other states. In June 2006, CMS awarded EDS an EDC task order to provide web hosting services to support CMS’ outward facing websites.
[ FYI Index ]
Raytheon Receives $27.7 Million for V-22 Support
Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC (RTSC), a subsidiary of Raytheon Company, has received two awards totaling US$27.7 million from the U.S. Navy to provide services and systems for the V-22 Osprey aircraft. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
RTSC's Indianapolis facility will continue to provide systems and software engineering services for the V-22 under tasking in the first award. Aircraft avionics acquisition support services are also included.
The second award provides for continued development of the V-22 mission planning system, interactive situational-awareness system, desktop environment software, simulation products, and laboratory capability packages. All work will be performed in the Indianapolis facility, which has provided avionics systems and software for the V-22 for more than twenty years.
RTSC's role began with aircraft avionics acquisition support and software development. The business then took on additional systems and software engineering responsibilities for the software support activity and also began to develop the mission-planning system and the simulation product software for the program. Situational-awareness systems and the creation of desktop environment software are more recent additions to the RTSC tasking. The current awards expand the scope of the support provided for the software support activity, as well as increasing the capability of the facility's V-22 avionics laboratory.
The Indianapolis site recently achieved the highest Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI(R)) rating for software engineering processes as a result of its appraisal against the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute's CMMI models. The level 5 achievement reflects RTSC's ability to apply the mature processes and tools needed to ensure reliability, consistency and accuracy in the products they provide.
RTSC provides technology solutions for defense, federal and commercial customers worldwide. It specializes in Mission Support, counter-proliferation and counter-terrorism, base and range operations and customized engineering services and manufacturing.
[ FYI Index ]
SAP America Inc. Names Peter Dunning to Its Executive Leadership Team
Representatives of SAP America Inc., a subsidiary of SAP AG announced Monday the appointment of Peter Dunning as executive vice president, Strategic Industries. In this key role, Dunning reports to Bill McDermott, president and CEO, SAP Americas, and assumes responsibility for SAP’s public services, retail and financial services industries — all among the fastest-growing businesses within SAP.
Dunning’s experience in the IT industry spans more than three decades. He rejoins SAP after serving as president of field operations for Rightnow Technologies, Inc. Prior to Rightnow, he was executive vice president and general manager of S1 Corporation. Dunning brings an established track record of success, including progressive management positions at Omnexus, Facilitypro.Com, Oracle, SAP (from 1991-1998), and Dun & Bradstreet.
Dunning is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where he received his bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Finance. His accomplishments have been cited in such publications as CRM magazine and the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
[ FYI Index ]
Cisco Announces Agreement to Acquire Reactivity
Representatives of Cisco Systems, Inc., announced Wednesday a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Reactivity, Inc., of Redwood City, California. Reactivity is a leading XML (eXtensible Markup Language) gateway provider for organizations ranging from commercial enterprises to the Global 500.
Customers and major software providers are evolving their enterprise software architectures from a client-server paradigm to a service-oriented architecture. In addition, customers are deploying a variety of Web 2.0 capabilities that are collectively transforming the World Wide Web from a collection of relatively static web sites to a services rich computing platform. XML- and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)-based web services are becoming the de facto communications and information exchange standard for this new model of applications. Reactivity's industry leading XML gateways enable customers to efficiently deploy, secure, and accelerate XML and web services.
The acquisition demonstrates Cisco's commitment to the expanding Application Networking Services (ANS) Advanced Technology segment, which is an important part of Cisco's Service-Oriented Network Architecture (SONA) strategy and vision. Cisco ANS provides customers with shared application-aware services to improve the availability, performance, and security of applications delivered from the network platform. Reactivity complements and extends the capability of Cisco's ANS portfolio for these emerging application architectures.
Under the terms of this agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $135 million in cash and assumed options of Reactivity. The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions, including applicable regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the third quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2007, ending April 28, 2007.
Reactivity was founded in 1998 and has 56 employees in Redwood City, Calif.
Upon close of the transaction, the Reactivity team and products will be integrated into DSSTG reporting up into Ullal.
[ FYI Index ]
Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil to Launch Barzan Gas Project
Representatives of Qatar Petroleum and Exxon Mobil Corporation announced this week that Qatar Petroleum has offered participation in the Barzan gas project and rights for participation in all future phases of the project to ExxonMobil Middle East Marketing Ltd. (ExxonMobil). In parallel with these discussions, the two entities have collectively decided not to progress the Gas to Liquids (GTL) project and instead to pursue the development of the Barzan Project in the North Field.
The initial phase of the Barzan project will supply domestic gas to meet the State of Qatar's infrastructure and industry growth. Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil have agreed to form a joint venture to oversee the project development.
Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil have signed a Statement of Participation Principles for the Barzan Project and a Heads of Agreement (HOA) for all future phases of the Barzan Project. It is expected that the initial phase of the Barzan Project will yield about 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of sales gas with the startup anticipated in the year 2012.
