Northrop Grumman Corporation's Information Technology (IT) sector was awarded an order by the U.S. Department of State to design and demonstrate a fully secure and integrated messaging and archiving system that will modernize the department's ability to serve America's foreign policy interests. This system, the Department of State Messaging and Archive Retrieval Toolset (SMART), is the top-priority IT project for the department. This toolset will replace the department's multiple fragmented messaging systems and significantly improve the ability of employees to find and access all information necessary for analyzing foreign policy issues. The initial award value to Northrop Grumman IT is $3 million, with a potential value of $237 million over 10 years if all options are exercised. Northrop Grumman IT estimates that the SMART project will bring approximately 110 new jobs to the company. "We are proud to have been selected by the State Department to support their core vision for SMART, to develop an easy to use, secure and user-driven system to support the conduct of foreign affairs through modern messaging, dynamic archiving, and information sharing," said Kent Schneider, president, Defense Enterprise Solutions, Northrop Grumman IT. "We proposed an innovative solution that will seamlessly integrate all required functions with a reliable technical architecture, all backed by demonstrated success with other comparable projects." Northrop Grumman IT will replace existing messaging and e-mail systems; incorporate document management, search and retrieval, and build the foundation for knowledge management; provide commercial-off-the-shelf integration with minimum essential customization; design, integrate, test, pilot and deploy the SMART system; and provide operations and maintenance. The system pilot for a user population of approximately 3,000 users domestically and at selected overseas locations will begin in June 2004. Worldwide deployment will begin in January 2005 and will support 46,500 users at 260 locations worldwide by the end of 2005.