USPS awards date code verification contracts to the tune of $10 million
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The service has ranked each system by importance, Celentano said. The Postal Service has awarded two $10 million contracts to test and verify its date code fixes. SRA International Inc. of Arlington, Va., and Unisys Corp. will ensure the year 2000 code corrections continue to perform at least two years after the date change, Postal Service purchasing specialist Michael Celentano said.
The service has ranked each system by
importance, Celentano said.
The Postal Service has awarded two $10 million contracts to test and
verify its date code fixes.
SRA International Inc. of Arlington, Va., and Unisys Corp. will ensure the year 2000
code corrections continue to perform at least two years after the date change, Postal
Service purchasing specialist Michael Celentano said.
These are the only verification contracts USPS will award, he said.
Under the two-year contracts, which have two-year options, each vendor will cross-check
the work of the other, as well as verify remediation work done by the service and other
vendors, said Mary Dale, national account manager for Unisys Federal Systems.
Weve identified the most significant areas, and we are addressing those
first, said Greg Frey, media relations representative for the service.
The service began its year 2000 work in 1993. It has ranked each system according to
its level of importance, Celentano said.
Thousands of components ranging from information systems to mail processing equipment
could be affected by date code errors, service officials have said.
If not fixed, failures could compromise our ability to deliver mail, collect
revenue, monitor and control expenses, provide high-quality customer service and maintain
customer and employee satisfaction, a USPS year 2000 document said. In less
extreme cases, failures could interfere with our ability to generate reports used to make
business decisions or compile statistics or effectively complete mail operations
functions.
The Office of Management and Budget, in its most recent report on agency year 2000
preparedness, criticized the service for a lack of contingency planning and independent
verification and validation.
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