Firm wins contracts to help business consolidation effort

The Bush administration's latest efforts to centralize and consolidate agency information technology systems moved forward Wednesday with the announcement that a Fairfax, Va., firm has been hired as a consultant for the initiatives.

The company, SiloSmashers, will work with the Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration's Office of Governmentwide Policy to create the processes and metrics that will be used in awarding contracts for the new consolidation projects.

SiloSmashers won the support and consulting work through three contracts, each worth about $500,000 and lasting until Oct. 31. The contracts were awarded through a blanket purchase agreement created in February.

The new areas, or "lines of business," that OMB has proposed including in the consolidation effort are systems for budget formulation and execution, IT infrastructure and geospatial systems. OMB estimates that more than $5 billion can be saved over 10 years through the consolidation efforts already under way and that the IT infrastructure initiative alone could save the government another $18 billion to $29 billion over a decade.

A request for information on the three new initiatives will be announced at the beginning of April, and industry days for the contracts will be held April 18 and 19, according to a SiloSmashers spokeswoman.

SiloSmashers, a company of 150 employees and $20-25 million in revenues, was founded in 1992 and provides management and technology consulting services to both government and private sector clients.

"We are very pleased to support these important programs for our government," said Angela Drummond, the company's CEO, in a statement. "The lines of business initiatives are an important step in advancing the President's Management Agenda."

Four other companies are included in the February blanket purchase agreement but have not yet received any task orders: Booz Allen Hamilton, Grant Thornton LLP, Performance Management Consulting Inc. and Touchstone Consulting Group. Contractors working under the agreement will support the government's efforts to identify new consolidation opportunities and develop guidelines for future lines of business.

Past efforts to eliminate duplicative business processes across agencies, including human resources management and financial management services, have resulted in recommendations that agencies stop supporting certain IT systems and obtain the services from OMB-approved agencies, known as "centers of excellence."