Feds Award $20 Billion in IT Contracts in4Q FY04

Feds Award $20 Billion in IT Contracts in 4Q FY2004

Defense Related Contracting Exceeds Civilian by 4-to-1 Margin; Army Leads the Way

U.S. Federal Government awards of Information Technology (IT) related prime contracts reached $20 billion during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2004 (4Q FY04), according to a report released by INPUT, the quantifiable leader in government market intelligence. The October INPUT/Output report indicates that defense agencies awarded the lion's share of contract dollars during the quarter, at $15.6 billion compared to $4.4 billion awarded by civilian agencies.

In terms of total dollars, just five departments awarded over $16 billion, or 80 percent, of the entire dollars awarded during 4Q FY04. The United States Army led the way with $9.7 billion awarded, which includes the revised Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) contract. "Defense related agencies stole the spotlight previously held by the Department of Homeland Security with its massive $10 billion US-VISIT contract award to Accenture in the previous quarter," stated Michael Boland, senior analyst of federal vendor profiles at INPUT. "The upcoming months will be defined by billion dollar awards made by both defense and civilian related agencies including Air force, Army, and Energy."

In addition, the INPUT/Output report notes that set-aside awards to small businesses totaled $1.4 billion in 4Q FY04, an increase of 105 percent over 3Q FY04, but down from over $2.2 billion awarded during the same time period in 2003. A total of 23 federal departments awarded set-asides, accounting for seven percent of the total contract dollars awarded during 4Q FY04. For the second consecutive quarter, the Navy led all agencies with 25 set-aside competition awards. However, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded the greatest overall in terms of dollar value at $382 million.

The increase in defense contracts benefited integrators such as Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC). These three organizations - ranking one, two, and three respectively in total contracts during 4Q FY04 - accounted for 48 total awards, only eight generated from civilian agencies. INPUT outlines the 15 most active contractors by total number of awards in its report, broken down by defense and civilian agencies. The report states that DOD awarded four times more contracts than civilian agencies. To review the 4Q FY04 federal IT awards and winning vendors analysis, download the INPUT/Output report at: http://awards.input.com