VAR500 Roundup: GTSI Hit With SBA Suspension, Accenture Expands Services

VAR500 Roundup: Solution Providers Make Headlines

This week, GTSI battled the Small Business Administration, while Accenture made a deal to expand services and CIBER hires staff.

Also: GlassHouse made a virtual move globally and TCS wrapped up an IT deal in the travel segment.

SBA Suspends GTSI

GTSI (2010 VAR500 rank: 82) has been informed by the Small Business Administration that it has been suspended from any future contract awards from the federal government. The announcement came Oct. 1, and caught the federal contractor by surprise.

"Until tonight, no government agency had made an allegation that GTSI had violated any law or regulations regarding this matter," said CEO Scott Friedlander in a statement. "We appreciate your support during this time and look forward to providing you with a report on our activities as the situation warrants. Please be assured that we will fight to restore our good name."

Accenture Expands Sourcing, Procurement Services

Accenture (2010 VAR500 rank: 5) will buy the sourcing services and business process outsourcing services assets of Ariba, which provides collaborative business commerce solutions. Under the terms of the $51 million agreement, Accenture will take ownership of those assets, which include Ariba’s category expertise, sourcing process expertise and strategic sourcing execution resources.

’Ariba is a leader in spend management and this acquisition will extend and strengthen Accenture’s existing sourcing and procurement services by adding deeper category expertise, highly scalable global sourcing service delivery operations and proprietary sourcing databases, benchmarks and technologies,’ said Mike Salvino, group chief executive, BPO, Accenture.

Approximately 160 Ariba employees are expected to join Accenture upon the closing of the transaction. The deal is set to close by December.

CIBER Increases Payroll

CIBER (2010 VAR500 rank: 64) has hired 150 skilled information technology professionals to join its expanded Detroit Global Solutions Center, in Southfield, Mich. CIBER is investing more than $8 million in this facility over the next seven years, with a commitment to add more than 700 jobs.

"CIBER provides IT services to major corporations, and this center will serve clients not only in Michigan but across the U.S., and potentially around the world," said David Peterschmidt, CEO of CIBER. "These are sophisticated jobs, requiring employees with a deep knowledge of specific technologies and business acumen. With the type of industries historically present here in Detroit, there is a deep base of talent that we are able to tap into."

GlassHouse To Deliver Desktop Virtualization Globally

GlassHouse Technologies (2010 VAR500 rank: 270) and Login Consultants, an international IT service provider specializing in virtualization, desktop deployment and application delivery, have entered into a strategic agreement to jointly deliver desktop virtualization services worldwide.

’Understanding the challenges as well as the benefits of desktop virtualization has become a critical focus of our customers,’ said Mark Shirman, CEO of GlassHouse. ’This partnership brings the power of data center experience and desktop virtualization expertise together to help our customers anticipate and overcome these challenges.’

TCS Flies High with British Airways

Tata Consultancy Services (2010 VAR500 rank: 23) has joined forces with British Airways to launch ’SWIFT MRO." The integrated IT solution, based on the latest SAP platform, addresses key Maintenance, Repair and overhaul industry requirements, and leverages British Airways’ best practices with a focus on increasing productivity through a simplified graphical user interface. ’Evolving technologies and tougher regulations in the MRO industry mean that engineering and maintenance are becoming increasingly challenging... WIFT MRO will be a valuable tool for all organizations looking to improve functional performance in the MRO area while remaining efficient," said Sukanya S, Head of Travel, Transportation and Hospitality, TCS.

Gartner reports the travel and transportation sector worldwide is expected to spend $33 billion on IT by 2013.