Unisys joins Boeing’s team for SBInet bid
Defense contractors continue to pay increasing attention to homeland security contracts, and IT solution big hitter joining defense giant’s team to bid on lucrative border security contract
Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based Unisys (NYSE: UIS) said yesterday that it had joined Boeing’s bid for a portion of DHS’s border-protection contract. If the Boeing team is chosen, then Unisys would be involved in providing technology to allow information sharing among federal authorities along the southern U.S. border. The company would build, deploy, and maintain computer networks used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Unisys would also integrate biometric authentication into the system capabilities. Agents would be able to capture ten finger prints from those they apprehend and compare the prints instantly with those stored in government databases.
The contract is the first phase of DHS’ Secure Border Initiative (SBI), a program aiming to halt the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States. The contract was initially announced in November 2005 and DHS began taking bids for the first phase, called SBInet, this past April. Boeing (NYSE: BA) is bidding as the prime contractor. It has competition from Raytheon, which has also submitted a proposal to be prime contractor.
Unisys has already delivered IT services similar to the ones it will offer CBP to 300 law enforcement and criminal justice agencies around the world. In the United States, it has built systems for CBP, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), and DHS headquarters.
