Accenture Federal Services and Criterion Systems Awarded Position on US Department of Agriculture IT Support Services Blanket Purchase Agreement

Accenture Federal Services (AFS), a subsidiary of Accenture (NYSE: ACN), and Criterion Systems Inc. have been awarded a spot on the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) Information Technology Support Services (DAITSS) contract, which aims to streamline enterprise information technology (IT) support services and centralize procurement functions.

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Elaine Turville, a managing director and Accenture Federal Services USDA client account lead (Photo: Business Wire)

Issued by the U.S. Forest Service and available to all USDA agencies, the blanket purchase agreement (BPA) has an estimated value of $450 million and a five-year performance period.

Working under a contractor teaming arrangement, AFS and Criterion Systems will provide the USDA with a broad range of IT services, including strategic IT management support, hosting/cloud support, website and application support, software and hardware support, administration support, and IT security and compliance services.

“This is a great opportunity to help the USDA advance its use of tested commercial technologies to improve IT services,” said Elaine Turville, an AFS managing director and the company’s client account lead for the USDA. “Improvements made to the USDA’s IT services can also help lead the way for the use of other advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and machine learning.”

Promod Sharma, Criterion Systems’ president and CEO, said, “Criterion is proud to add the DAITSS BPA to the contract vehicles we already have with the USDA. We are confident that USDA will benefit from the combined efforts of two proven USDA contractors to deliver critical cybersecurity, infrastructure support, and cloud services across the Department. Having supported the USDA since 2014, we look forward to collaborating with Accenture Federal Services to grow our footprint in this important agency.”

Barrett Witkin, a managing director at AFS, said, “We are honored to serve an organization full of hard-working heroes, including more than 10,000 wildland firefighters. We are eager to bring Accenture’s best to empower the Forest Service’s passionate, mission-focused employees — whether that be our aerospace industry insights or Industry X.0 capabilities, which include the internet of things, mobile-at-the-edge, machine learning and analytics technologies.”

Accenture Federal Services has worked on some of the USDA’s most mission-critical IT projects, including the Farmers.gov portal, Ask USDA, and the Chief Executive Officer (CXO) Dashboards. Farmers.gov enables more seamless, convenient, and efficient customer interactions with the USDA and empowers its employees to deliver these valuable services. Ask USDA was designed to address the diverse needs of USDA’s customer base including contact by phone, email, web form, live chat, and 24/7 self-service tools. Through the deployment of more than 200 Executive dashboards, Accenture is equipping USDA agencies and staff offices with critical data to support informed decision-making at scale.

Criterion develops, enhances, maintains, and provides Tier 2 and 3 applications support for more than a dozen U.S. Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management applications, supporting users across the Inter-Agency Fire Community. Criterion also delivers software/hardware/applications services to the USDA Digital Infrastructure Services Center to enhance and secure commercial cloud capability, increase cloud adoption, and improve customer experience across all USDA agencies.

About Criterion Systems
Criterion Systems, Inc. (Criterion) is a systems integrator and cyber operations-focused company. Since 2005, we have provided cybersecurity, cloud/data center management, IT infrastructure operations, and systems engineering across our nation’s mission-critical environments. Criterion has achieved Capability Maturity Model Integration CMMI-DEV and CMMI-SVC Level 3 ratings and is an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001-2015, ISO 20000-1:2011, and ISO 27001:2013 certified company. Criterion is headquartered in Vienna, VA, with sites across the U.S. For more information, https://www.criterion-sys.com.

About Accenture Federal Services
Accenture Federal Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Accenture LLP, is a U.S. company with offices in Arlington, Virginia. Accenture’s federal business has served every cabinet-level department and 30 of the largest federal organizations. Accenture Federal Services transforms bold ideas into breakthrough outcomes for clients at defense, intelligence, public safety, civilian and military health organizations. Learn more here

About Accenture
Accenture is a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries, we offer Strategy and Consulting, Interactive, Technology and Operations services—all powered by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our 506,000 people deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than 120 countries. We embrace the power of change to create value and shared success for our clients, people, shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us here.

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