I.T. Firm CGI ‘pre-cleared’ to bid on $6B of U.S. federal cybersecurity contracts
by By Ross Marowits THE CANADIAN PRESS
The firm's U.S. subsidiary was one of 17 companies that won positions allowing them to quickly win work without a drawn-out bidding process.
MONTREAL—Information technology company CGI Group Inc. has been pre-cleared by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to bid on up to US$6 billion worth of cybersecurity work over the next five years.
The clearance could help the Montreal-based company bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenues to monitor online threats to more than 20 federal government agencies.
The U.S. subsidiary of CGI was one of 17 companies that won positions on the program, allowing them to quickly win work without a drawn-out bidding process.
The program is designed to provide government agencies, including the more than 60 per cent which don’t have mature surveillance programs, with the ability to continuously monitor computer threats and detect abnormal network activity.
CGI says the U.S. government contract could add about US$350 million in revenues if CGI wins its traditional share of such blanket purchase agreements, although there are no guarantees.
Spokesman Lorne Gorber the pre-clearance will allow CGI to capitalize on its expertise providing cloud computing services for the U.S. government.
“It’s something that can only grow for us in the future,” he said.
Kris Thompson of National Bank Financial added that CGI is “punching above their weight in the U.S. Federal market.”
“These contract vehicles are very positive for CGI in a tight government spending environment,” he noted.
CGI has 1,200 experts working at nine security operating centres and three cybersecurity labs around the world.
Among its work for the U.S. military is the deployment and support of more than 9,000 biometric devices at more than 100 locations around the world.
CGI Group is the fifth largest independent information technology and business process services firm in the world with about 69,000 employees and more than $10 billion in annual revenues.
