Thread: H-P to Serve U.S Immigration Agency

H-P to Serve U.S Immigration Agency

by Zacks Equity Research

March 11, 2013
Hewlett-Packard Co.’s ( HPQ - Analyst Report ) Enterprise Services unit was recently chosen by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Department to provide call-center support for its U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (‘USCIS’) arm. The 5-year task order will boost H-P’s cash balance by $220.5 million.

Per the contract, H-P will manage the entire task of developing a call center platform, starting from recruiting and training personnel, setting up questionnaires (expected queries from prospective immigrants) and jotting down probable and satisfactory answers for the queries. For these services, H-P will implement its Customer Engagement Management Services.

H-P will also provide complete hardware support for the call centers. The hardware will include ProLiant DL380 Generation 7 servers, MSR30-20 routers, 5500-48G-PoE EI switches, ProBook 6560b notebook PCs powered by Intel Corp.’s ( INTC - Analyst Report ) processors and LaserJet M9040 multifunction printers.

H-P’s services will enable the U.S. immigration agency to serve new immigrants better and faster.

Earlier this year, H-P managed to retain a federal contract worth $543.0 million despite IBM Corp.’s ( IBM - Analyst Report ) protest.

Back in June 2012, a contract was announced by the federal agency Department of Veterans Affairs. The 5-year wireless tracking contract required the 90 competing companies to provide a technology to reduce the number of lost equipment, monitor sterilization of medical devices and identify patients receiving recalled products.

H-P, considered to be the most competent one, was initially awarded the contract. In response, IBM challenged the agency’s decision and its evaluation process before the U.S. Government Accountability Office (‘GAO’), the agency to resolve contract disputes.

The GAO held the Department of VA guilty of not evaluating the proposal properly and ordered a re-run of the selection process.

The re-evaluation process turned out to be positive for H-P as the agency found H-P’s technological support to be the most competent.

A win against IBM and the federal agency’s continued reliance on its services is certainly a reason to cheer for H-P. Also, the continuous deal wins from the federal sector are encouraging, but the lower margins associated with the deals cap profitability.

Though further indication of PC market slump in 2013, declining revenues and competition from Dell Inc. ( DELL - Analyst Report ) are concerns, back-to-back product launches and growing exposure into enterprise storage space are encouraging.
H-P to Serve U.S Immigration Agency - Zacks.com

huh????

It seems that contracts have been in the works for a while. I also think we should know that the large corporations make a lot of money "servicing" the immigration industry.

Obama’s ICE releases Illegal aliens from jail, awards $220.5 million contract to answer USCIS phones

Marinka Peschmann
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
canadafreepress.com

While Obama’s Immigration Custom Enforcement (ICE) was releasing thousands of illegal aliens from jail supposedly because of the sequester budget cuts, Obama’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) was awarding a $220.5 million contract to answer phones.

On March 7, HP Enterprise Services announced it won a $220.5 million five-year “task order” from Obama’s USCIS “to manage call centers for those applying for citizenship or who need immigration assistance for the USCIS National Customer Service Center.”

According to the press release:

“Immigration services is commonly the first experience a potential new citizen has in dealing with the U.S. government, so agents must be informed, professional and expedient,” said Marilyn Crouther, the senior vice president, general manager, U.S. Public Sector, HP Enterprise Services.”

Recall how days earlier, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was in damage control mode over the administration’s decision to release illegal aliens onto the streets of America in Arizona, California, Georgia and Texas because of budget cuts from the sequester. Napolitano “acknowledged” regretting the manner in which the detainees were released. ICE and USCIS fall under the DHS umbrella.

As the Associated Press reported, “The Homeland Security Department released from its jails more than 2,000 illegal immigrants facing deportation in recent weeks due to looming budget cuts and planned to release 3,000 more during March… The newly disclosed figures, cited in internal budget documents reviewed by the AP, are significantly higher than the “few hundred” illegal immigrants the Obama administration acknowledged this week had been released under the budget-savings process.

The government documents show that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement released roughly 1,000 illegal immigrants from its jails around the U.S. each week since at least Feb. 15. The agency’s field offices have reported more than 2,000 immigrants released before intense criticism this week led to a temporary shutdown of the plan, according to the documents.”

Providing funds for phone calls as opposed to keeping law breakers off the street is in sync with operations at America’s immigration agencies. Illegal aliens no longer have to worry about deportation thanks to Obama’s amnesty by memos but legal immigrants do.

Most Americans do not realize they have been funding along with legal immigrants an anti-legal immigration, lawless USCIS that has been bedeviled by mindboggling incompetence for decades. The basic task of providing accurate information over the phone to legal immigrants has been a challenge for this federal agency. In fact, the incompetence has been so vast it earned its very own Government Accountably Office (GAO) report.

As I reported in Crime & Incompetence, Guide to America’s Immigration Crisis, in 2005, the GAO report entitled “Immigration Services: Better Contracting Practices Needed at Call Centers,” documented the ongoing travesty that is what the politicians call legal immigration. Contractors contracted by the USCIS “failed to meet 4 out of 7 measures” that included “how quickly calls were answered and the accuracy of information provided.”

Meanwhile, if you thought the USCIS had already been given funds to modernize and transform for the 21st century during the Bush era and wondered why President Obama, and the senators of the “Gang of Eight:” Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and Michael Bennet (D-CO), John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Marco Rubio (R-FL)keep saying it needs to be done, you would be correct. It was January 29 when President Obama said during his immigration reform speech, “And the third principle is we’ve got to bring our legal immigration system into the 21st century because it no longer reflects the realities of our time.”

As I reported in Crime & Incompetence, the USCIS has already received over $1 billion to modernize and transform and is running over budget, behind schedule, and does “not use best practices.”

Even Mark Schwartz the USCIS Chief Information Officer knows about the ongoing transformation and modernization program considering it is a multi-year effort and “the agency is right in the middle of.” Watch this interview with Schwartz and FedScoop TV.

Perhaps this new $220.5 million phone contract from the USCIS to HP Enterprise Services will be additional good news for the illegal aliens who were just released from jail onto the streets of America considering they are on the verge of being legalized if President Obama and the Gang of Eight have their way. Maybe, just maybe the illegal aliens will receive accurate information from informed, professional and expedient agents at USCIS call centers now regarding their path to citizenship. That certainly has not been the case for the legal immigrants.

Obama’s ICE releases Illegal aliens from jail, awards $220.5 million contract to answer USCIS phones