GSA tips its hat to 1997's top trail bosses
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GSA also honored three other trail bosses for special achievements at the agency's recent Trail Boss Roundup in Norfolk, Va. Established in 1988, Trail Boss is GSA's governmentwide education program for preparing senior information technology managers to handle major systems acquisitions. The program stresses team management concepts and open communications between government buyers and contractors.
GSA also honored three other trail bosses for special achievements at the agency's
recent Trail Boss Roundup in Norfolk, Va.
Established in 1988, Trail Boss is GSA's governmentwide education program for preparing
senior information technology managers to handle major systems acquisitions.
The program stresses team management concepts and open communications between
government buyers and contractors.
Watson, section chief of IRS' Office of Contract Administration, won the government's
top trail boss honor for her work on the $200 million Treasury Department Acquisition
(TDA) project and the $1 billion Treasury Information Processing Support Services (TIPSS)
program.
Watson formed a special TDA contract administration team to manage multiple contract
awards for PCs. She also created a special purchase card program that authorized card
holders to order up to $100,000 worth of TDA PCs and software per month.
As for Watson's work on TIPSS, GSA cited her role as a member of the project's
pre-award trail boss team and her efforts on improving customer relations. Watson also is
a member of the Trail Boss Interagency Committee's Management Council.
At the roundup, GSA also honored Sara Borders of the Defense Information Systems
Agency, Kenneth B. Heitkamp of the Air Force's Standard Systems Group and Teresa Fleming
of the Social Security Administration for applying trail boss principles.
GSA lauded Borders for her work as deputy trail boss of the Defense Enterprise
Integration Services II program, the Defense Department's largest trail boss initiative.
Borders developed the draft solicitation, wrote the source selection plan and evaluation
handbook, and served as a team leader for the source selection board.
As deputy trail boss for DEIS II implementation, Borders was a major force in bringing
electronic commerce capabilities to DEIS II contract management operations.
GSA recognized Heitkamp, technical director of SSG at Gunter Air Force Base Annex,
Ala., for devising numerous procurement streamlining techniques. Heitkamp was responsible
for the simplified functional specifications used in the $1 billion Desktop IV buy and
other speedy procurement tools incorporated into the Desktop V and Defense Message System
buying strategies.
GSA honored Fleming, Acquisition Branch chief in SSA's Office of Telecommunications and
Systems Operations, for her management of SSA's Mainframe Acquisition Project 2000.
Fleming completed the project in eight months by weighing past performance criteria,
technical superiority factors and costs.