GSA Awards FirstGov Contract to GRC International

GSA #9718

August 11, 2000
Contact: Eleni Martin (202) 501-1231
eleni.martin@gsa.gov

Washington, DC --The U.S. General Services Administration, on behalf of the President's Management Council, has awarded a contract to build the new FirstGov.gov federal search portal to GRC International of Northern Virginia.

In President Clinton's June 24 webcast, he said that the new FirstGov website would be created in 90 days or less. "I am delighted to announce that we awarded FirstGov on schedule," said GSA Administrator Dave Barram. "FirstGov gives the American taxpayer a way to find all federal government web information easily without having to know where it lives."

This award will enable GSA to offer a robust, cutting edge and intelligent way for all levels of users to be able to search for government information on FirstGov and integrate well with the free service of the Federal Search Foundation search engine.

To build FirstGov, GRCI has assembled a team that blends the global corporate strength of AT&T with the proven government performance record of GRCI and with the cutting edge state-of-the-art search technologies of Autonomy, plus proven strengths of Appnet (web design), Mercury Interactive (testing), Oracle (databases) and Sun Microsystems (operating system).

GSA invited 13 bidders from GSA's Federal Supply Service Schedule 70 (General Purpose Commercial Information Technology Equipment, Software, and Services) and Management, Organizational and Business Improvement Services Schedule (MOBIS). A six-member contract evaluation team included representatives from GSA, the Department of Defense, and the Library of Congress.

When fully operational, FirstGov will allow Internet users to search all Federal agency websites to find the information that they need, 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week, while ensuring the privacy of visitors and maintaining the integrity of the source of information.

Direction for the FirstGov project is provided by a Board of Directors consisting of 8 members of the President's Management Council (PMC) and three members of the federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council. The database for FirstGov is being created by the Federal Search Foundation.

For additional information, visit the firstgov.gov web site.