RS Information Systems, Inc. (RSIS) has been awarded a $409 million contract to provide mission-critical information technology support to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The award of the highly competitive Information Technology Integrator Support Services (ITISS) task was made officially in a telephone call from Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to Rodney P. Hunt, RSIS President and CEO. (The DOE issued a press release on the award Jan. 15). The contract, which will require a staff of approximately 700 professionals, is a consolidation of several existing and related IT contracts. It is one of the largest federal information technology services contracts ever awarded to a small business.
RSIS will support a wide range of technology areas – including enterprise architecture, cyber-security, telecommunications, network infrastructure, systems design and engineering, help desk support, software applications, and Web design. The goal of the comprehensive contract is to maximize DOE’s return on its IT assets, resources and capital investments and support the department’s migration to e-Government.
Founded in 1992, RSIS is an African American-owned business with a diverse professional talent base of 1,400 professionals that includes 65 percent minorities, women and veterans. A privately held company, RSIS’ revenue rose to nearly $190 million in 2002, with a contract backlog of $700 million in future revenues, not including the new DOE contract.
Hunt called the award “a defining moment not only for RSIS but for the entire small business community. We are proud of our professional accomplishments and are confident we will successfully execute the requirements of DOE’s mission-critical contract.”
“As one of the largest and more experienced small businesses in the federal IT marketplace, we are well-positioned and fully prepared to do an outstanding job for the Department of Energy,” Hunt said. “We have in place the corporate infrastructure, seasoned management, subject matter expertise and financial strength required of contracts of this magnitude.”
RSIS will be the prime contractor for the DOE ITISS work. Its subcontractors include SAIC, IBM, Booz-Allen and Qwest, which Hunt said “are among the best in the business and bring incomparable strengths to this contract.” Hunt noted that the RSIS team also includes a small business consortium of ten highly skilled small businesses.
“Small businesses are the heart of the American economy,” Secretary Abraham said in the DOE press release. “Making contract opportunities available to the small business community is one of my priorities at DOE. In addition to supporting small businesses, this contract will support DOE’s continued leadership in expanding e-Government to secure greater services at lower costs and to meet the public demand for a more efficient, effective government.”
The contract was awarded through the Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) of the Department of Commerce, known as the COMMerce Information Technology Solutions contract vehicle, or COMMITS.
Washington Technology places RSIS 50th among the Top 100 federal IT contractors nationally. Black Enterprise Magazine lists RSIS as the largest African-American-owned company in the Washington, DC region and the fifth fastest-growing African-American company in the country.
Over the past year RSIS has received the U.S. Department of Transportation Minority Business Enterprise Award, U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator’s Award of Excellence and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Award of Excellence. RSIS also received the 2001 National American Business Ethics Award and was named NASA's Minority Contractor of the Year.
RSIS's Quality Management System has been certified to ISO 9001:2000, affirming that RSIS operates in compliance with the ISO Standard.
