Compaq Computer Corp. has been awarded a five-year contract from the U.S. Postal Service that is estimated to be worth around US$1 billion, the company announced Thursday. The contract was awarded through a competitive bid.
The contract, which is known as ADEPT2, will see Compaq provide the Postal Service with hardware and support services, a company statement said. Under terms of the agreement, Compaq will provide support to 42,000 Postal Service facilities throughout the U.S., including Puerto Rico and Guam, and has opened a dedicated toll-free telephone support line for Postal Service managers, it said.
The contract will also see Compaq provide the Postal Service with hardware based on Intel Corp. processors and software from Microsoft Corp., it said.
To meet the procurement requirements of ADEPT2, Compaq has entered into a partnership with IBM Corp. to broaden its range of products and services, the statement said. Specific details of the partnership, and its scope, were not immediately available.
ADEPT2 is a follow-on to the ADEPT1 contract that Compaq signed with the Postal Service in 1994, the company said. Under the ADEPT1 contract, Compaq provided more than US$1.2 billion of products and services, including 32,000 servers, 180,000 desktop PCs, and 50,000 notebook computers, to the Postal Service, it said.
The announcement that Compaq had won the ADEPT2 contract comes as many users have expressed concern regarding Hewlett-Packard Co.’s planned US$25 billion acquisition of Compaq, announced in September, and its impact on customers.
