Chameleon Integrated Services, a St. Louis-based IT services firm that in October won a $54 million bid to do work for the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), has added another IT consulting services contract worth $9.5 million to the mix.
This contract calls for Chameleon, which expects to grow revenue by $10 million over the next 12 months to $35 million, to design and build out the network inside a new $65 million, 169,000-square-foot IT building the agency is building at Scott Air Force Base.
Both contracts fall under a larger DISA contract Chameleon was deemed eligible for in 2013. It’s worth $404 million. Chameleon, along with three other firms, was given rights to projects under the contract, which expires in 2019. Chameleon was able to bid on the contract because it is a minority-owned small-business contractor; co-founder Jeff Kelley is from Honduras.
The Defense Information Systems Agency provides information and communications technology throughout the national security system, from the White House to the Department of Defense and major combat commands. The Scott Air Force Base facility is already under construction and is expected to be complete in March 2016.
To support the most recent contract at Scott Air Force Base, Chameleon officials said they plan to hire 25 new full-time IT employees.
“Implementing this contract is another strategic step toward our goal of becoming the leading small business provider of IT support services to DISA and the U.S. Department of Defense,” said Drew Acree, president and co-owner of Chameleon, in a statement.
The new jobs Chameleon expects to add are in addition to the 75 employees that Kelley, Chameleon’s CEO and co-owner, said Chameleon needed to support the other $54 million contract, which calls for Chameleon to provide operational support capabilities required by DISA to operate, maintain and modernize its IT enterprise globally.
Today, the company has about 150 employees.
Kelley said he expects Chameleon to receive the lion’s share of the contract “based on our record of performance.” He said Chameleon should end up with more than $100 million from the entire DISA contract when it’s completed.
The other companies vying for a slice of the contract include HighAction (Virginia), Soft Tech Consulting (Virginia) and NOVA Corp. (Pennsylvania).
Another contract through the DISA program is expected to be announced before the end of the year.
