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Thursday, July 27, 2006
Following a competitive evaluation process, the Detroit Board of Education Monday night selected four minority-owned firms, three of them Detroit-based, to provide the District’s information technology services for the next five years.
The District will pay the four companies approximately $11.6 million each year for the next five years.
The four companies are:
• VisionIT, which is located in Detroit’s New Center, has offices in Chicago and Atlanta, and counts Wayne State University, General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Xerox, Dell and Siemens among its many clients. VisionIT’s services will include management of the data center, network services, application systems, data warehouse, help desk, and field services and technology curriculum. VisionIT will team up with SYNC Technologies, Inc., a minority and woman-owned firm that has been in business for nearly 20 years, and Unisys to execute the contract.
• Management Systems Consultants, a Detroit-based firm that has provided e-solution consulting and project management services to various clients for more than a quarter of a century. It will provide web technology services, including the design and maintenance of all websites and web applications.
• Universal Sales, a Detroit-based company whose employees collectively have more than 170 years of audio-visual experience.
• GVC Networks, a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) that is licensed to provide telecommunications and information technology services in 41 states. GVC Networks maintains a presence in Downtown Detroit.
VisionIT will carry out the lion share of the contract or about $9 million. The size of the contract for the other companies will range from $500,000 to $720,000.
This new contract is expected to save the Detroit Public Schools about $2 million a year. The savings will be used to update technology throughout the system.
Seventeen companies from around the country placed bids for this contract.
“We are pleased with the caliber of the companies that won this contract,” said William F. Coleman III, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools. “Most of these companies are companies that are familiar to us. We know and admire their work. I have no doubt that our students, faculty and staff will benefit enormously from their rich and varied experience.”
Since becoming superintendent a little over a year ago, Coleman has implemented a new policy that encourages companies doing business with the District to provide jobs and internships to high school students. Many DPS students will work as interns at these four IT companies in the coming months.
About the Detroit Public Schools
The Detroit Public Schools, founded in 1842, is one of the nation’s largest public school systems. Detroit Public Schools is a school district of choice and is open to children who live outside the city. The District offers numerous competitive academic and career technical programs.
Among these world-class programs are the Foreign Language Immersion and Cultural School, Michigan’s only public school of its kind; Davis Aerospace, one of few college prep high schools in the country where students can obtain a pilot’s license; the Detroit School of the Arts, a multiple award winning performing arts high school; and Crockett Technical High School, a digital technology high school.
For more information about the District, visit our website at www.detroitk12.org.
