DARPA Robot Challenge: Disaster Recovery

The FBI, in a move to consolidate and update its network of printers and multifunction products, has awarded Lexmark International a three-year contract worth more than $30 million. The award consolidates and replaces contracts the agency had with multiple vendors, making the company the exclusive outlet provider to the FBI, according to Mark Guthrie, Lexmark's vice president of government solutions.

The company had already been providing its Common Access Card (CAC)-enabled products to 142 FBI sites across the country as a subcontractor. Now Lexmark will be replacing nearly 20,000 printers and other devices with a lesser number of its own products, as it finds ways to streamline the law enforcement agency's processes through the FBI's cloud IT infrastructure.

The bureau's efforts represent a broader push across government to significantly reduce the number of stand-alone printing devices in favor of multi-function products and to reduce printing costs in general. Marty Canning, EVP and president of Lexmark's imaging solutions and services business, said Lexmark is projecting the company's approach will save the federal government $10 billion in costs by 2020, across all the agencies it serves -- civilian, Defense Department, and the intelligence community. The estimate is based on the more than "5,000 assessments" conducted by the company's professional services business and the methods it has honed for reducing costs, he said.

[ What makes a successful federal IT leader? Read 5 Habits Of Highly Effective Government IT Leaders. ]

Another factor driving the IT direction in the FBI and throughout the government is the Obama Administration's goal of "digital transformation" for providing services. That's requiring greater need for secure, sustainable, accessible and mobile solutions, said Guthrie.

"By 2020 there will be five generations in the workforce, particularly in the government," Guthrie said. "For every five [federal] retirees, they're filling one job." Policy directives from the White House to streamline processes, better share information, and manage documents, among other initiatives, will continue to place an emphasis on flexible, cost-effective solutions that maximize the productivity of federal employees in a constricted environment, he said.