World Wide Technology, the Maryland Heights IT heavyweight long rooted in Westport Plaza, just locked in a 12‑month, $230 million U.S. Army contract to run a Cisco‑centered IT modernization effort known as GEMSS 2.1. The award, announced July 7, rolls a tangle of separate Army Cisco agreements into one support and licensing vehicle and delivers a headline‑grabbing federal win for the St. Louis tech scene.
In its announcement, WWT said GEMSS 2.1 will provide year‑round hardware technical support, software subscriptions, legacy‑software maintenance, advanced implementation services and enterprise asset management for Army installations around the globe. The company said the deal pulls together the Army Voice, Video and Security (VV&S) program, GEMSS 1.0 and about 30 additional Cisco enterprise agreements into a single, centralized solution. In a press release via WWT, the firm framed the contract as a way for the Army to streamline how it manages software and IT assets.
Locally, there is plenty of reason for the region to pay attention. WWT is headquartered in Westport in Maryland Heights and ranks as the St. Louis region’s second‑largest privately held company, according to the St. Louis Business Journal. The outlet highlighted the company’s long record of federal contracts and its outsized role in the metro area’s tech economy, casting the GEMSS 2.1 win as another sizable federal program running through a St. Louis‑based operation.
“We are proud to continue supporting the Army's modernization priorities through the next phase of the GEMSS program,” Scot Gagnon, WWT's vice president for federal, said in the announcement. Cisco's Area Vice President of U.S. Federal, Carl De Groote, added that “Cisco and WWT have worked closely with the Army to help simplify management of critical IT infrastructure and software environments at scale.” Both statements were included in the company’s announcement from WWT.
What GEMSS 2.1 Covers
GEMSS 2.1 is set up to centralize Cisco licensing, technical support, training and advanced services across the Army’s enterprise networks, pulling several previously separate enterprise agreements into one overarching acquisition vehicle. Procurement records show the Army Contracting Command‑Rock Island handled market research and early solicitation work for GEMSS 2.1. A notice on SAM.gov describes the program’s goal as simplifying license management and operational support across both CONUS and OCONUS Army installations.
Why It Matters In St. Louis
WWT already operates at serious scale in the region. Glassdoor lists the company as employing more than 14,000 team members and identifies Maryland Heights as its headquarters, underscoring a sizable local workforce. The company’s Advanced Technology Center and integration capabilities are frequently cited by partners as key to winning and delivering large government programs that call for extensive testing, staging and rapid deployment.
For the Army, GEMSS 2.1 is billed as a way to cut complexity and bolster readiness across its networks. For St. Louis, it is another reminder that national‑scale defense work flows through local companies, and that those wins can ripple into area hiring, subcontracting and continued tech investment.
