Think back to 2004. This marked the time in which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12), calling for the mandatory implementation of a government-wide standard for secure and reliable forms of identification for federal employees and contractors.

Prior to 2004, a wide range of mechanisms had been used to authenticate individual’s identity, using these credentials to gain physical access to buildings and authorization to gain access computers and data. With this new directive, a common standard for identification credentials could be achieved by using cards and a credential management system (CMS), streamlining the process across the government to:

• Enhance and increase security of federal facilities and information systems;
• Strengthen access controls;
• Protect personal privacy;
• Reduce the chance of potential terrorist attacks and identity fraud; and
• Increase overall government efficiency.

DHS and XTec partnered in 2008 to ramp up their efforts and set a goal to issue 250,000 PIV credentials to their employees and contractors between 2010 and September 30, 2011.

DHS accomplished this goal using their 192 Enrollment/Issuance Workstations deployed across 619 DHS sites, and as of late, strode forward with goals to renew approximately 161,924 cards in 2013 and 116,172 cards in 2014.

Having previously awarded this contract to HP Enterprise Services, LLC on September 27, 2013, DHS decided to re-evaluate the submitted proposals. During the re-evaluation process, DHS indicated that the IDMS provided by XTec is the “most critical enterprise service for the HSPD-12 program;” awarding XTec a one year contract to continue the support of the DHS HSPD-12 program.

Ultimately, the decision was made to award a new Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for a performance period of 10 years to XTec Incorporated on February 28, 2014. XTec was awarded the $102,800,000 contract to assist DHS in meeting continued HSPD-12 implementation, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum M-11-11 and various National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) publications all under the umbrella of the government-wide Federal Identity, Credential and Access Management (FICAM) initiative.

In addition to DHS, XTec supplies HSPD-12 credentialing and access control solutions to other agencies including the Department of State, Department of Labor, General Services Administration, Department of Defense and HSPD-12 interoperable solutions for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and District of Columbia.