8(a) Firm Wins Big on Energy Contract RSIS Information Services and its CEO, Rodney Hunt, got a graduation present as the company prepared to leave the 8(a) program this month: The Energy Department awarded RSIS a five-year, $409 million task order to provide information technology support. The contract was awarded through the Commerce Department’s COMMITS government-wide acquisition contract, the only GWAC set aside for small businesses. RSIS will provide IT support services, cyber-security, telecommunications support and enterprise architecture, the Energy Department said. The award is a high-profile result of Energy’s drive to improve its small business procurement record, which has been the worst of any department. “DOE’s Office of Economic Impact and Diversity is working to provide better procurement tools to assist small businesses by expanding and refining the procurement tools currently in place; allowing more flexibility in specific small business programs; and making the overall system more user friendly for the small business community,” Secretary Spencer Abraham said in announcing the award Jan. 15. The initiative included a series of workshops for small firms and advertisements in national business magazines. DOE has also pledged to review its large facilities management contracts to see if some of them can be unbundled. (SAA, 11/15/02) RSIS had more than $100 million in federal prime contracts last year, according to Washington Technology magazine. Its largest ones, each worth more than $80 million, were with the Air Force Space Command and the Federal Aviation Administration. Hunt, a former minor league baseball pitcher, co-founded the McLean, VA, company in 1992. He has been a frequent evangelist for the 8(a) program.