VA Awards $12 Billion For Tech OverhaulVA Awards $12 Billion For Tech Overhaul

Government Innovators

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has named 14 prime contractors for a sweeping $12 billion technology contract aimed at modernizing IT systems across the department.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Harris Corp. are among the big-name companies that have won awards under the Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology (T4) program, a five-year program aimed at charting the agency's long-term technology course by transforming a range of IT operations across the department.

However, the VA also has awarded seven of the 14 contracts to service-disabled veteran small businesses and veteran-owned small businesses as a way to provide opportunities to the veterans it services, the department said in a statement.

The department also will name one additional company for T4 once it resolves a dispute with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), according to the VA.

Rounding out the awardees of T4 contracts are: Adams Communications & Engineering Technology, ASM Research, By Light, CACI-ISS, Creative Computing Solutions, Firstview Federal TS, Information Innovators, 7 Delta, SRA, Systems Made Simple, and Technatomy.

T4 encompasses a broad range of IT and telecommunications services, including program management and strategy planning; systems and software engineering; enterprise network, test and evaluation; independent verification and validation; cybersecurity; operations and maintenance; and training and IT facility support.

Since taking his post in May 2010, VA CIO Roger Baker has been proactive in pushing for IT reform and modernization at the agency through a range of projects and initiatives.

For instance, the department also is currently in the process of modernizing its decades-old electronic health records system, Veterans Integrated System Technology Architecture, by using open-source technology. The VA expects this summer to begin the open-source conversion of the system, which is used at 153 major VA hospitals and more than 800 community-based outpatient clinics across the United States.

The VA also has been working closely with the Department of Defense on aligning both organizations' electronic health records strategies through the use of standards to better facilitate interaction between them and provide better service to veterans.

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