The company has its roots in the HERKULES project launched in 2006, Germany's largest public–private partnership to date for modernizing the IT of the German Armed Forces.

[2][3] BWI is today responsible for the operation, expansion and maintenance of a large part of the IT systems of the Federal Ministry of Defence and the German Armed Forces.

Siemens and IBM acted as civilian partner companies, together holding a share of 50.10 percent of the Joint venture.

BWI assumed responsibility for the modernization, support and operation of 140,000 PCs, 7,000 servers and 300,000 landline telephones as well as 15,000 cell phones.

[8][9] As a result of the non-continuation of the public-private partnership and the takeover of the business shares of Siemens and IBM, the Federal Ministry of Defence was ordered to make a compensation payment to the companies involved.