Subject: [NEXTEL-1] NY CIO: Wireless network project award is daunting task

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 01:56:13 -0500

NY CIO: Wireless network project award is daunting task
Source: Newsbytes
Publication date: 2002-12-19

The state of New York faces a major challenge next month when officials
begin evaluating the bids for a statewide wireless network because of the
complexity of the technology involved.

"The difficulty in judging such an award is that we can't predict what
technologies will be included in the responses," James Dillon, the state's
chief information officer, told Washington Technology Dec. 17. "So we will
have to judge and compare in a way that gets as close to apples to apples
as we can."

State officials may find themselves evaluating wireless technologies from
both the commercial and defense sectors, Dillon said. "We may end up
dealing with different technologies," he said.

Bids on the 8-year, $400 million statewide wireless network project are due
Jan. 7. The request for proposal was released June 3, 2002.

Tom Davies, senior vice president at the market research firm of Current
Analysis, Sterling, Va., said evaluating the bids and making sure that
industry capabilities match government requirements for the statewide
wireless network is a daunting task.

To help it make the best selection, the New York Office for Technology
might hire a consulting firm that specializes in public safety
communications, he said.

New York is one of about a dozen states that have plans in the works to
upgrade their statewide communications systems for justice, public safety,
and public health operations, Davies said.

New York is the first to issue an RFP, and its project "will be one of the
largest and most complex," he said.

The project initially was envisioned as providing wireless infrastructure for
the New York State Police, but it's scope has been broadened to include
the state's criminal justice, public safety and transportation functions, Dillon
said.

The state expects no more than a handful of teams to bid on the project
because of its complexity, Dillon said.

Eighty-seven companies attended a pre-bid conference last June. Among
the 20 companies that subsequently filed an intent to bid as prime
contractor were Accenture Ltd., General Dynamics Corp., Lockheed
Martin Corp., M/A-Com Inc., Motorola Inc., Nextel Inc., Northrop
Grumman Corp. and Verizon Inc.

The state will take at least three months, and perhaps longer, to evaluate
and award the project, Dillon said. The winning team is scheduled to start
work on the project before the close of 2003, he said.

Dillon said that the state's first-hand experience with the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks has impressed upon it the need for interoperability. He said that the
statewide wireless network would provide New York state and local
government with the capability to respond to any future emergency, whether
a security matter or natural disaster.

"This will be a system that is working when everything else fails," he said.

Reported By Washington Technology,
http://www.washingtontechnology.com

http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=35291655&ID=cnniw&scategory=Business+and+Finance&

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