Unisys to provide IT support services under Army Enterprise Service Desk contract

The U.S. Army has selected Unisys Corp. to provide the Army Enterprise Service Desk (AESD) a single point of contact for all U.S. Army personnel who need help desk or other end user IT support services.

The AESD contract, worth approximately $93 million over five years, if all options are exercised, will consolidate much of the Army’s existing outsourced service desk operations related to LandWarNet, the Army’s portion of the Department of Defense global networking program. This is a new contract for Unisys and represents a significant expansion of the services Unisys provides to the Department of Defense.

AESD represents a significant improvement in the way the Army will obtain support for IT users. Historically, organizations within the service used different processes, systems and data to support their users, resulting in an environment where users might need to contact different support organizations based on where they are located and the type of assistance needed. This approach has limited the Army’s ability to gain efficiencies and cost savings by consolidating common functions.

The AESD project was designed to address these issues by providing a baseline service for assisting end users, including a Web-based self-help portal, call center-based service agents, and experts able to resolve more complex issues and change ongoing operations to avoid future incidents of a similar nature. The project will operate 24 hours per day and seven days a week from a primary location and a secondary backup location, both connected to the Army’s non-classified and secure networks.

Unisys will utilize innovative technology to meet the Army’s requirements, including its Edge Service Management solution, a comprehensive, standards-based solution that enables IT organizations to focus on making employees more productive by better connecting IT services to related business processes, as well as Unisys VantagePoint, an advanced user interface and service orchestration center for Unisys’ IT service management and other business and IT services users need for their work.

“This project will allow Unisys to help the Army make its IT support services more efficient and cost-effective through the use of proven commercial technology and services,” said Gene Zapfel, group vice president for defense and intelligence agencies at Unisys Federal Systems. “We look forward to bringing our innovative solutions to help the Army achieve its mission.”