GSA's Federal Technology Service Continues ACES Awards

Note: Archived news releases may contain contact names, telephone numbers, Web links, or other information that is outdated. You may reach a public affairs officer at 202-501-1231. For a list of public affairs officers by beat, visit http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/101120.

GSA# 9610

September 30, 1999
Contact: Bill Bearden (202) 501-1231

Second Award Goes to Minority-Owned 8(a) Company; Additional Awards Expected in Weeks

Washington, DC - The U.S. General Services Administration has issued a second award in its Access Certificates for Electronic Services (ACES) procurement to a minority owned 8(a) company.

The Federal Technology Service (FTS), Office of Information Security selected Operational Research Consultants, Inc (ORC) headquartered in Chesapeake, VA, for the second award of the ACES contract. ORC is a minority-owned 8(a) company incorporated in 1991. They are a multi-disciplinary firm offering a broad range of technical, analytical, and engineering support services. ORC has partnered with Netscape, Cygnacom Solutions, DataKey, Valicert, and nCipher to provide the full suite of services required by the ACES procurement.

The ACES contract will provide a common public key infrastructure for enabling the American public electronic access to privacy-related U.S. government information and services. Based on public key technology, ACES will provide identification, authentication, and non-repudiation via the use of digital signature technology as a means for individuals and business entities to be authenticated when accessing, retrieving, and submitting information in communications with the government.

This award to ORC ensures competition on the task order-based offerings to provide best value to the government.

GSA/FTS is continuing to work with the remaining offerors and expects to have additional awards on this multiple award contract within the next few weeks.

The National Institutes of Health is the first to enter into an Inter-agency agreement with GSA/FTS for PKI services under the ACES contract.

Additional information concerning ACES is available at http://www.gsa.gov/aces. For further information about ACES, contact Judith Spencer at (202) 708-5600.
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