The contract was awarded in May 2000. Vendors are EDS, BearingPoint Inc., Maximus and Northrop Grumman Corp. The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract is designed to provide agencies with common, interoperable, multiapplication smart card systems for identification, physical access, biometrics and cryptography.
Task orders are competed among the vendors to keep competition high and prices low. Technologies available under the contract include integrated circuit chips, bar codes and magnetic strips.
Multiapplication technologies allow agencies to maintain existing systems while deploying smart card technologies. The contract supports applications such as property control, "electronic purse" transactions, electronic forms, medical information and financial applications.
More than three years after the General Services Administration awarded its smart card contract, the agency is maneuvering to boost the popularity of that contract among agencies by creating a standard set of federal credentials to support interoperability while also examining the possibility of opening the procurement vehicle to more contractors.
GSA's Smart Access Common ID contract has attacted significant attention from agencies — especially for physical access applications — since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but the contract still needs some tweaking to fully capitalize on this newfound interest, according to industry observers.
The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract is now at a critical turning point. Agencies need a set of standardized identity requirements to ensure cross-agency interoperability. In addition, officials are clamoring for more advanced technologies, such as contactless cards and biometric tools, as they work to secure buildings and computer systems.
"This contract is really just starting to take off right now," said Jeremy Grant, director of strategy and business development for Maximus, one of four vendors on the contract. "A lot of the business case before Sept. 11 was in terms of efficiency of government. Once Sept. 11 happened, the brand-new focus was on security. There was not a lot of interest in biometrics before Sept. 11. We're now seeing a much greater integration of biometrics."
To date, buying on the contract has flowed from three main sources: commodity card buys from the Defense Department, a handful of DOD demonstration projects that are testing the use of biometrics on the cards, and competitive task orders from various agencies, Grant said.
For example, Maximus has won task orders from the Department of Veterans Affairs for its next-generation ID card, the Treasury Department for physical and logical access, GSA's New York office for physical access with biometrics, GSA's headquarters for physical access and the Transportation Security Administration's new pilot project for employee credentialing.
The VA Express Card program was designed to provide veterans with a portable data carrier so that health information could be transferred into an internationally readable format at any facility that a veteran enters for care, Grant said.
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