Aquilent Win for Defense-Wide Strategic Sourcing Pilot; Contract Modification to Leverage Government-Owned SeaPort for Defense-Wide Strategic Sourcing Clerical and Administrative Services Contracting Pilot

Business Wire, Jan 24, 2006

LAUREL, Md. -- Aquilent, Inc. announced today the execution of a contract modification by the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) to leverage the Aquilent-developed and government-owned SeaPort portal for the Department of Defense (DoD) Commodity Council's Defense-Wide Strategic Sourcing (DWSS) pilot. SeaPort is the DoD e-Business solution for strategic sourcing and managing multiple award Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts.

The project will leverage existing SeaPort capabilities to provide DoD customers a secure, web-based ordering platform for the acquisition of clerical and administrative support services under multiple award contract vehicles. This initiative supports the strategic sourcing procurement of Clerical and Administrative Support Services sponsored by the DoD Commodity Council, and managed by the Department of the Navy, Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP).

NAVSUP, NAVSEA, and Aquilent will work together to enhance existing SeaPort capabilities to automate and manage the clerical support acquisition processes. SeaPort's task order management and vendor portal capabilities will provide a means for DoD activities to request and acquire services under the IDIQ contract vehicles.

"SeaPort has illustrated the benefit of combining e-Procurement tools with innovative acquisition processes," said David Fout, Aquilent's President and CEO. "The DWSS Clerical and Administrative Services project is a great example of industry and government working together to leverage successful investments. We are proud to partner with NAVSEA and NAVSUP on additional DoD e-Procurement initiatives."

Aquilent's partnership with NAVSEA began in 2001 with the rollout of the SeaPort pilot to NAVSEA Headquarters in just 69 days. The SeaPort contract vehicle and associated portal solution generated a combined savings of $55 million in its first two years of operation. In 2003, Aquilent added support for the SeaPort-e MAC contract vehicle and its business process requirements. The cumulative success of the SeaPort/SeaPort-e solution led the Navy's Virtual SYSCOM to recommend expanding SeaPort's usage Navy-wide in 2005. To-date, SeaPort has processed approximately $10B in procurements for the Navy and is accessed by over 6000 users and 2500 companies.

About Aquilent

Aquilent is an award-winning company with a 25-year history of providing innovative information technology and web-based services to federal agencies. Aquilent improves the quality and efficiency of service to citizens, employees, and businesses through a premiere suite of solutions and services, including enterprise acquisition and finance solutions, public and private web presence, regulatory management solutions, and information management and access systems. Additional information about Aquilent is available at www.aquilent.com.