At annual gala, GCN honors excellence in government IT

Less than a year
ago the community held its collective breath to see what would happen to government
systems when 2000 dawned. When nothing in particular did occur, federal information
technology and program managers and their industry partners spent only a moment basking in
satisfaction. Then they plunged headlong into a new set of challenges.

We gather tonight in the midst of those challenges, which
in many ways are tougher than the year 2000 conversion. The issues—including
security, establishing effective online government, and hiring and keeping the required
talent—have no endpoint, no specific time when one can
collect a trophy and rest.

But we also have new tools to deal with the challenges.
For example, who could have predicted a year ago the growth of online reverse auctions,
purchases of services via the GSA Multiple Awards Schedule or tangible progress in
deployment of public-key infrastructure? Or, for that matter, the frank willingness to pay
hiring and retention bonuses to federal workers?

At one time, the advent of a new administration would have
caused doubt about the future of major IT programs. Today, both political parties have
openly acknowledged the need for online government and the investments to carry it out.

Tonight we celebrate the government-industry partnership
that is also required to effect progress, and we honor agencies and people with a record
of excellence in IT. GCN’s Executive Awards go to David Borland, vice director for
Information Systems C4 at the Army; James J. Jasinski, program manager of the FBI’s
Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System; and Renato A. DiPentima, president
of SRA Government Sector, SRA International Inc.

We also take pride in inducting into the GCN Hall of Fame
Alvin M. Pesachowitz, formerly chief information officer of the Office of Environmental
Information at the Environmental Protection Agency and now director, Information
Technology Consulting, Grant Thornton L.L.P.; and John A. Koskinen, formerly chairman of
the President’s Council on Year 2000 Conversion and now deputy mayor and city
administrator for the District of Columbia.

A final note: GCN’s parent recently renamed itself
Post Newsweek Tech Media Group. The new name signifies our renewed commitment to deliver
the most relevant and timely information products to our government and industry readers
and customers, whether in print, in person or online. Keep your eye on us.

Government Information Technology Agency
Awards

The Government Computer News Agency Awards
are conferred on federal organizations with a record of excellence in the application of
information technology to improve service delivery. Selections are based on group and unit
performance rather than on the accomplishments of single individuals.

Award Winners

Financial Resources Desktop (FreD)

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms

Treasury Department

Acceptor: William T. Earle, Chief
Financial Officer

The creation and deployment of the FreD
system marks a major change in the way ATF conducts business. ATF is headquartered in
Washington but also has divisions in 23 cities, each with between 100 and 200 people.
Until implementation of FreD, ATF’s financial and purchasing processes were handled
by three systems. They worked well in a mainframe environment, but the bureau was moving
its systems to an n-tier client-server, open architecture.

The implementation of FreD required a
reinvention of ATF’s financial business processes, supported by a frame relay wide
area network that took nine months to install. Approximately 4,000 PCs with dial-up
connectivity were then rolled out in a 100-day period. Security encryption is WAN-based.

The FreD system is a decentralized
approach. It gives field offices greater flexibility in funds control and more ubiquitous
access to ATF’s corporate financial information.

Web-based introductory course to STIP

Defense Technical Information Center

Defense Department

Acceptor: Kurt N. Molholm, Administrator

An online, unclassified course gives
students a multimedia-intensive overview of DOD’s Scientific and Technical
Information Program (STIP) and is among the first such courses to incorporate streaming
videos, simulations and animation. The course objective is to develop awareness of where
to find DOD’s scientific and technical information, and the regulations governing
their use. The course was designed to keep the interactive features of more traditional
classroom training while eliminating travel time and expense.

Rich audio and video in the STIP course
enhances learning. Students encounter 12 embedded videos; audio is offered as a choice in
each of the seven course modules.

The traditional three-day classroom course
could accommodate 140 students. The online course is training DOD personnel at more than
400 percent the previous rate.

Project Firebird

Drug Enforcement Administration

Acceptor: Dennis McCrary, Deputy Assistant
Administrator, Office of Information Systems

Project Firebird is a decision support
application that provides DEA employees worldwide with a standard suite of office
automation tools. Firebird gives users access to specific mainframe applications, such as
case management, via the DEA intranet.

Under Project Firebird, the DEA has
outsourced the management of systems at several locations. The agency also has sought to
re-engineer several systems management processes to make use of best practices and
ease-of-use features. DEA gathered information, developed data metrics, calculated
efficiencies and studied what return it can expect on its investment in Project Firebird
The annual savings reaped by the program are projected to be $6.6 million.

Web-Based Error Correction Process

Envirofacts Warehouse

Environmental Protection Agency

Acceptor: Pat Garvey, Special Assistant,
Collection Service Division

This Web-based application is a tool for
Internet users to notify EPA of errors in data the agency has on regulated facilities.
EPA’s Envirofacts Warehouse stores data on more than 750,000 regulated facilities.
The warehouse has information from national databases on chemical discharges, toxic
releases, permit status, compliance information, Superfund site cleanups, drinking water
violations and many more categories.

The application allows the agency to
receive notifications over the Web, track them to ensure accountability and inform the
notifier when resolution has been achieved. The app can also flag incorrect records in the
data warehouse so the information can be corrected in the systems that report to EPA,
often those of state environmental departments.

NEXRAD Hotline

Commerce, Defense and Transportation

Acceptor: Bobby Harp, NEXRAD Hotline
Electronics Specialist, Department of Defense

The Next Generation Radar hotline was
established to provide fast, comprehensive technical help to thousands of field personnel
in the departments of Commerce, Defense and Transportation who operate and maintain the
NEXRAD systems worldwide. The systems are a complex mix of radar, computers, workstations
and communications equipment utilizing more than a million lines of code to identify
weather hazards.

The hotline team has helped field sites
restore or optimize operations quickly in order to issue severe weather warnings. More
than 5,000 workers at 304 field sites around the world depend on the hotline to provide
timely, effective assistance in order to accomplish their missions.

Natural Resource Information System
(NRIS)

Forest Service

Agriculture Department

Acceptor: Chris Risbrudt, Director,
Ecosystem Management Coordination

In 1997 the Forest Service initiated
development of a system for managing data about the natural resources on 192 million acres
of public lands. The data includes information about soil, water, vegetation, air,
wildlife and habitats, climate, and geology of national forests.

NRIS replaces more than 100 nonstandard
data storage and processing applications scattered throughout the agency. It provides a
data warehouse managers can use to collect, manage, and interpret resource information.
The Forest Service projects that implementation of the system will reap savings of more
than $500 million over 10 years.

Electronic Trial Card System

Navy

Acceptor: Scott Monroe, Lead Yard
Production Manager

Before the Navy accepts a new ship, the
vessel must pass a series of rigorous inspections known as builder trials. As ships are
built, inspectors examine hull, mechanical, electrical and combat systems. The inspection
process, in which spiral notebooks were used to record about 3,000 discrepancies per ship,
was plagued with problems.

To replace this cumbersome system, the
Navy instituted an automated data-collection system that would standardize the process.
This required the ability to collect data remotely and to connect to a central database.
Using handheld devices, inspectors can record data in hard-to-reach places and avoid
errors of transferring handwritten data to the centrally managed database. Use of the
devices also has decreased the inspection process from several days to a few hours.

Anti-Money Laundering Compliance System

Postal Service

Acceptor: Robert J. Pedersen, Assistant
Treasurer

One of the principal instruments used by
criminals to launder money is a USPS money order. They are easy to buy because a money
order of less than $3,000 does not require personal identification. But when postal
managers saw an increase in the volume of purchases of $2,900 money orders, they sought a
way to verify and combat this suspected means of laundeing money. The matter was quite a
challenge, since the Postal Service issues a million money orders a day from 39,000 post
offices.

While postal employees still are required
to fill out paper forms on money orders of $3,000 or more or any financial transaction
they consider suspicious, the information is now stored on the database USPS developed to
keep track of such movements. The system can follow a money order from point of sale to
cashing and helps investigators track down suspicious transactions without having to wade
through a mountain of paper forms. The database also helps monitor the compliance of
postal workers and managers with financial reporting laws.

Data Warehouse

Veterans Benefits Administration

Department of Veterans Affairs

Acceptor: Nora E. Egan, Deputy
Undersecretary for Management

Reacting to 1999 reports by the VA’s
Inspector General about VBA’s inability to deliver benefits in a timely, accurate
manner, the administration created a data warehouse in the newly formed Data Management
Office. The warehouse has dramatically improved the delivery of vital business information
to VBA business analysts, managers and executives.

Previously unavailable reports and
analyses have been automated and made readily available to end users. Information that
once took days or weeks to gather can now be obtained almost instantaneously. Analysis can
now measure performance in ways that were previously impossible. They can track successes
and potential areas of improvement more easily, while identifying special circumstances
leading to anomalies in service delivery.

Montgomery GI Bill System

Veterans Benefits Administration

Department of Veterans Affairs

Acceptor: Nora E. Egan, Deputy
Undersecretary for Management

When Chapter 1606 of the Montgomery GI
Bill was enacted in 1985 to deliver $100 million in benefits to 70,000 Reserve and
National Guard personnel, VBA’s Education Service put into place a rudimentary
mainframe-based payment system designed to last two years. Plans were to replace it with a
more sophisticated accounting and benefit system, but 13 years later this had not
happened, and the legacy system was falling apart.

In 1998, Congress authorized an 18-month
modernization project for the failing system. The Education Service consulted with end
users to determine what capabilities the new system should include and installed the
mainframe application in February 2000. The system helps to instantly compute benefit
payments and works with an imaging system to reduce paperwork and mistakes. The Education
Service has greater control of the system’s checks and balances and is able to keep
track of each recipient and each payment.

Executive Award for Excellence In Information Resources
Management

2000 Government Executive of the Year, Defense

In recognition of his leadership strengthening information
technology.

David Borland

Vice director for Information Systems C4

Army

Mr. Borland has been the vice director of DISC4 since 1994
and was appointed deputy chief information officer for the Army in 1996.

Among his recent accomplishments are spearheading the
opening of DOD’s Biometrics Center and increasing security of the Army’s
computer networks in part by obtaining increased funding for the Network Security
Improvement Program.

He is chairman of the Pentagon’s Operational
Requirements and Performance Board, and he jump-started the Army’s Enterprise
Software Initiative. Mr. Borland oversaw implementation of the Army’s Computer Base
Training initiative. And he has provided expert direction and oversight to the
establishment of a new project management office supporting the Army’s worldwide
public-key infrastructure and smart-card implementations.

Before becoming vice director, Mr. Borland gained
extensive experience in information systems technology and procurement, holding several
contracting management posts from 1976 through 1984.

He served as deputy director of the Information Systems
Selection and Acquisition Agency from 1984 to 1989, where he was oversaw all Army
information acquisition programs.

Mr. Borland served in the Air Force from 1966 to 1970. He
received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Central Missouri State
University. He also holds a master’s degree in finance from George Washington
University.

2000 Government Executive of the Year, civilian

In recognition of his leadership in strengthening
information technology.

James J. Jasinski

Program manager, FBI’s Integrated Automated
Fingerprint Identification System

Mr. Jasinski has been an FBI special agent for 21 years.
Most recently, he has been the program manager for IAFIS, a $640 million project and the
largest information technology program ever undertaken by the agency. He has also been the
FBI’s chief contracting officer, a bureau litigation attorney and a field
investigative officer.

Before joining the FBI, he was an attorney in private
practice.

IAFIS is a marriage of telecommunications and computer
applications designed to deliver accurate, fast and complete fingerprint identifications.
IAFIS went live in July 1999 and has proven to be a powerful tool for civil law
enforcement throughout the United States. When a suspect is charged with a crime and his
or her fingerprint images are transmitted electronically to the FBI, IAFIS within two
hours provides a positive identification and complete criminal history if that person has
previously been arrested.

IAFIS also returns positive identifications within 24
hours on fingerprints submitted electronically for background checks. More than half of
all fingerprints submitted to the FBI for searching against the Criminal Master File are
these so-called civil prints. In total, IAFIS contains fingerprint images and criminal
histories of approximately 38 million people. It was designed to process 62,500 search
requests each day, but its actual performance has far surpassed that goal.

Mr. Jasinski is a native of Buffalo, N.Y. He received his
bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He
earned a law degree from the Albany Law School in 1975 and was admitted to the New York
State Bar that year. Mr. Jasinski is married to the former Donna Heard. They have lived in
the Washington area since 1982 and have two daughters.

The Government Computer News Information Resources
Management Hall of Fame

Inductees to the GCN Information Resources Management Hall
of Fame are drawn from the ranks of executives who have made substantial and long-term
contributions to the federal government in the application of information technology for
management improvement.

Alvin M. Pesachowitz

Mr. Pesachowitz recently joined Grant Thornton’s
Global Government Group as director of Information Technology Consulting. Before this he
was the chief information officer at the Environmental Protection Agency, where he also
held numerous management posts after joining the agency within a year of its founding. He
successfully led the year 2000 conversion initiative, managed the agency’s 70
million-hits-per-month Web site, and developed and managed EPA’s environmental data
warehouse. Before his promotion to CIO, his management roles included budget director,
comptroller, and deputy assistant administrator for administration and resources
management, where he was responsible not only for information management but also
personnel, grants, contracts and facilities support services.

Throughout his 32-year government career, Mr. Pesachowitz
received numerous awards in recognition of his contributions to improving government
operations. In 1987, he was selected for the Senior Executive Service. In 1991 and again
in 1998, he won the President’s Meritorious Service Award. He also received a
Presidential Letter in honor of his receiving the Government Chief Information Officers of
the Year Award in 1997.

As director of Information Technology Consulting at Grant
Thornton, he is responsible for building the firm’s IT consulting practice for the
Global Government Group in specialties such as strategic planning, program management,
data warehousing, business case development and activity based costing.

Mr. Pesachowitz graduated from Rutgers State University
with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a bachelor’s degree in
liberal arts. He earned a master’s degree in administration from George Washington
University.

John A. Koskinen

Mr. Koskinen served as assistant to the president and
chairman of the President’s Council on Year 2000 Conversion from February 1998 to
March 2000. He was responsible for overseeing the federal government’s efforts to
ensure that its critical information technology systems operated smoothly through the year
2000 and coordinating federal relationships with state, local and tribal governments, the
private sector and foreign institutions as they dealt with the same challenges. Mr.
Koskinen served as deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget
from 1994 to 1997, where he was responsible for oversight of federal regulations,
information and procurement policies, and financial management practices.

He currently serves as deputy mayor and city administrator
for the District of Columbia, concentrating on the District’s public schools.

Before returning to public service, Mr. Koskinen was
president of Palmieri Co., which restructured large, troubled operating companies. During
Mr. Koskinen’s 21 years with Palmieri Co., he helped reorganize Penn Central
Transportation Co.; Levitt and Sons Inc.; and Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Co., the
largest failed life insurance company in U.S. history.

Earlier in his professional career, he served as law clerk
to David L. Bazelon, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington. He also
worked as an attorney with the firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and was
special assistant to the deputy executive director of the National Advisory Commission on
Civil Disorders. Mr. Koskinen represented Mayor John Lindsay of New York City in
Washington and served for four years as administrative assistant to Sen. Abraham A.
Ribicoff of Connecticut.

Mr. Koskinen was born in Cleveland on June 30, 1939;
attended high school in Ashland, Ky.; and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s
degree from Duke University in 1961, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa honor
society. He received a law degree with cum laude honors from Yale Law School in 1964 and
did postgraduate work in international law at Cambridge University in England in 1964-65.

He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public
Administration and of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He served as chairman of the Board of
Trustees of Duke University for three years during his 12 years as trustee.

Mr. Koskinen and his wife, the former Patricia Salz, have
two adult children, Cheryl and Jeffrey, and live in Washington.

Executive Award for Excellence In Information Resources
Management

2000 Industry Executive of the Year

For his contributions to cost-effective information
technology solutions for the federal government.

Renato A. DiPentima

President, SRA Government Sector, SRA International Inc.

DiPentima oversees government businesses, contracts and
programs at SRA International Inc., an information company providing systems and services
to industry and government. The government sector, the largest component of SRA, employs
some 1,500 people and generates more than $260 million in revenues annually.

Before joining SRA in July 1995, he was the Social
Security Administration’s deputy commissioner and CIO, and was responsible for
managing all of SSA’s information processing and data and voice communication
systems.

DiPentima was chairman of the Federal
Information Technology Acquisition Improvement Team as part of the President’s
National Performance Review initiatives. Recommendations of this task force were reflected
in three landmark laws— SIZE="3" face="Times New Roman">two overhauling federal acquisition and the Information
Technology Management Reform Act. DiPentima chaired the Industry Advisory Council’s
CIO Task Force, providing recommendations to the federal CIO Council.

He is a member of the Federal Council for Excellence in
Government and National Academy of Social Insurance. He sits on several corporate advisory
boards, as well as the International Advisory Board of Loyola College of Baltimore, and is
a director on the Board of Work Recovery Inc. He was chairman of the Advisory Committee on
Data Processing of the International Social Security Association and vice chairman of the
Permanent Committee on Administrative Management, Organization and Methods.

DiPentima holds a bachelor’s degree from New York
University, a master’s from George Washington University and a doctorate from the
University of Maryland.

Industry Information Technology Awards SIZE="2">

Top Federal Government Contractors

Top Systems Developers

Government Computer News recognizes the following
companies for outstanding leadership and performance in assisting federal government
agencies in information systems development.

Top Minority-Owned Firms

Government Computer News recognizes the following
minority-owned firms for their outstanding leadership and performance under the Small
Business Administration 8(a) program.

Top Woman-Owned Firms

Government Computer News recognizes the following
woman-owned firms for their outstanding leadership and performance under the SBA 8(a)
program.

Top Fast-Growth Firms

Government Computer News recognizes the following firms
for their rapid and sustained growth in providing technology capabilities to the federal
government.

Top GSA Schedule 70
Contractors

Government Computer News recognizes the following
suppliers under the combined GSA Schedule 70.