Education awards CSC four task orders for consolidation of financial aid systems
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The Education Department last month awarded four task orders worth $150 million to Computer Sciences Corp. to consolidate and operate systems that support five of the department's financial assistance programs. Education awarded the task orders under the General Services Administration Virtual Data Center contracts. The department previously awarded a $71 million VDC task order to CSC to run the National Student Loan Systems, which tracks loans after students receive them.
The Education Department last month awarded four task orders worth $150 million to
Computer Sciences Corp. to consolidate and operate systems that support five of the
departments financial assistance programs.
Education awarded the task orders under the General Services Administration Virtual
Data Center contracts. The department previously awarded a $71 million VDC task order to
CSC to run the National Student Loan Systems, which tracks loans after students receive
them.
CSC will run Educations systems out of the companys regional data center in
Meriden, Conn. The four programs under the new task orders are the Postsecondary Education
Participants System (PEPS), Federal Pell Grant Recipient and Financial Management System,
Central Processing System and Campus-Based Systems.
CSCs services under the tasks order include data center migration, operations and
technical support. The companys migration plan includes establishing communication
links between Education sites and CSCs data center, said Tom OHare, director
for outsourcing and seat management in CSCs civil group.
CSC has already migrated the National Student Loan Systems, PEPS, and the Pell and FMS
system to Meriden. The company will complete the Campus-Based Systems migration by May 2,
OHare said.
CSC must switch the financial assistance programs operating system from IBM MVS
to the year 2000-ready OS/390, OHare said.
Education wants to streamline its financial assistance programs systems to
improve interoperability and reduce costs, said Jerry Russomano, Educations director
of program systems service.
CSCs subcontractors are Berdine and Associates of Falls Church, Va., specializing
in migration support services, and National Computer Systems of Eden Prairie, Minn., which
handles data center printing.
CSC beat out SunGard Computer Services of Herndon, Va., and Unisys Corp. for the task
orders.