23 IT Companies Partner to Compete for $7.06 Billion in Government Contracts

CHICAGO, June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Twenty-three award-winning information technology companies from around the country have teamed up to compete for military contracts in excess of $7 billion. The Minority Information Technology Consortium (MITC) provides a vehicle to bolster small businesses with little to no chance of winning multimillion-dollar contracts on their own.

"The definition of small business has evolved. If you're too small, you're out of the game," said Dr. Randal Pinkett, MITC national spokesman and fourth-season winner of "The Apprentice." Dr. Pinkett is chairman and CEO of MITC member company BCT Partners in Newark, N.J.

"Now more than ever the message for small business owners today is that size matters to our customers. We live in a day and age when scale is necessary to compete."

The goal of the MITC is to become a strong and attractive resource for technology applications and infrastructure for the military and other government agencies. Its members were drawn from more than 200 firms nationwide. MITC firms are located in 24 states, but their capabilities extend outside the continental U.S.

MITC companies are hoping to win portions of the Air Force's NETCENTS 2, a $24.2 billion project to procure a range of technology services. "We commend the Air Force for its ongoing efforts to make NETCENTS 2 more small business friendly by breaking up the contracts into smaller projects," Dr. Pinkett said.

MITC firms have annual revenues between $600,000 and $25 million.

"A company would have great difficulty winning a contract even twice its annual revenues," Dr. Pinkett said. "A consortium translates into strength in numbers and is a way of formalizing how we pool our collective capabilities."

Each MITC member carries one or more of the following business classifications:

• SBA 8(A)
• Historically Underutilized Business Zoned
• Service Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses
• Women Owned Businesses
• Small Disadvantaged Businesses
• Veteran Owned Businesses

MITC is advised by retired military personnel and is further enhanced by partnerships with majority firms and three historically Black colleges and universities – Hampton University, North Carolina Agriculture and Technical University, and Tennessee State University -- that provide research and industry-specific development data. For more information, visit www.minorityit.com.

SOURCE Minority Information Technology Consortium