Privately held software vendor Softmart Inc. has landed one of the biggest contracts ever to resell Microsoft Corp. software.
The company's Softmart Government Services Inc. subsidiary last month was awarded a six-year, $450 million contract to provide Microsoft products and upgrades to the U.S. Army. It also was awarded its first-year delivery order, which is worth $78 million, under the contract.
"It's one of the biggest Microsoft ever did; one of the biggest the Army ever did," said Dean Picciotti, Softmart's president and chief executive officer.
To land the contract, Softmart, which employs 200 and has annual revenue of about $500 million, had to beat out much larger competitors, including Dell Computer Corp., the Hewlett-Packard Co. and CDW Computer Centers Inc.
About six months ago, Softmart, those companies and five others were approved as Microsoft resellers under the Defense Department's Enterprise Software Initiative. As a result, all were allowed to bid on the Army's Enterprise Software Consolidation contract.
News source: msnbc.com
