GSA must meet IT challenges
Reinventing federal personnel and workplace management policies is the next major challenge for information technology managers, General Services Administration administrator David J. Barram recently predicted. "Electronic services are showing us new possibilities, and we have just begun to take advantage," Barram said. "We now live in a real-time world and our customers expect us to provide real-time service. It's up to us to stay on top of this wave of change."
Agencies need telecom savvy
HERSHEY, Pa.--Regardless of new laws and industry price wars, consumer savvy will be the key to agencies cashing in on telecommunications reform, one of the government's top telecommunications chiefs has predicted. "There's a $43 billion local telecommunications market that will lead to chaos or at least significant changes in competition and more complexity," said Margaret Binns, assistant commissioner of the General Services Administration's Federal Telecommunications Service for regional services.
OPM puts career advice online -
To help agencies plug staff holes and create their own technical experts, the Office of Personnel Management has established a new online career counseling service. The USACareers system gives agencies an automated toolkit for evaluating a person's job skills, interests and training needs. OPM officials said the new interactive personnel testing program is intended to help federal employees chart direct career paths and cope with downsizing pressures.
Seat management draws near
LANCASTER, Pa.--By October, the General Services Administration will issue its final solicitation for agencies to buy a desktop's worth of computing services. GSA's Seat Management project calls for vendors to supply a full suite of desktop processing tools with agencies never having to install or take ownership of the PCs, hardware, software and peripherals. GSA officials are prescribing a series of technology classes and service bands for agencies to tailor buys based on user needs.
NIST and NSA create partnership to revamp security product testing
The government's top computer security experts have established a new teaming agreement for streamlining commercial security product evaluations. Under the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP), officials from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Security Agency will work together to devise evaluation tests and metrics to rate security products. NIST and NSA will be responsible for developing test methods. Certified commercial laboratories will conduct the evaluations for vendors.
Trail Boss prepares to visit new territory
"Trail Boss has had a tremendous impact on where we are and where we're headed as we implement the IT Management Reform Act," said Emory Miller, director of IT professional development for the General Services Administration's Office of Governmentwide Policy. GSA established the Trail Boss program in 1988 to provide senior IRM officials with graduate-level training in all aspects of IT acquisition and management. The initial strategy was to develop a cadre of experienced IT
Former senator to join IT security team
President Clinton has named Sam Nunn, the former Georgia U.S. senator, as co-chairman of the advisory team to the White House commission established to assess threats to the nation's computer infrastructure. Clinton also appointed Charles R. Lee, chief executive officer of GTE Corp. of Stamford, Conn., David N. Campbell, president of BBN Technologies of Cambridge, Mass., and Elvin Moon, president of E.W. Moon Engineering & Construction Management Industries of Los Angeles, to serve on the
New MAS policy promotes pre-award audits
But General Services Administration officials said the new MAS policy set for release last Friday modifies schedule oversight rules to stress pre-contract award audits while curbing requests for commercial sales records. "I believe we have clarified a number of things," said Ida Ustad, deputy associate GSA administrator for acquisition policy.
Final 2000 regs are out
The government has turned back the clock to craft a standard procurement regulation for ensuring that all agencies buy commercial products that will work come 2000. The rule takes effect in mid-October. Borrowing from a warranty clause developed last year, the FAR Civilian Agency Acquisition and Defense Acquisition Regulations councils have refurbished the government's year 2000 rule regarding agency and vendor obligations for guaranteeing that federal systems will perform date and time processing tasks after
EC group forms new chapter
CommerceNet, a nonprofit consortium of IT companies and Internet service providers, has formed a Washington chapter to promote federal EC initiatives. The new CommerceNet Northeast group is working with officials from the General Services Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Social Security Administration, the Defense Information Systems Agency, the Defense Logistics Agency and NASA to launch a series of pilot programs using the Internet to handle all aspects of electronic procurement.
CIO programs face 1st hurdle
As the Information Technology Management Reform Act turns one year old this month, agencies are preparing to prove that their revised systems management programs can live up to Congress' requirements. Chief information officers face their first test this fall when they must use the new funding and performance measures to argue for fiscal 1999 systems funds.
GSA's Ortego takes NFC director post
John Ortego is the new director of the Agriculture Department's National Finance Center in New Orleans. Ortego, deputy assistant commissioner of the General Services Administration for Information Technology Integration, will assume his duties later this month. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman cited Ortego's experience in devising innovative IT procurement initiatives--such as the pending seat management contract for desktop computing services contract--as key in his appointment.
Security group seeks funding
Having lined up just three agency clients so far, the government's central security incident center is searching for a finance plan that will let it stay on the job. The Federal Computer Incident Response Capability (FedCIRC) began offering agencies incident alert and security consulting services last November after receiving $2.8 million in seed money from the Government Information Technology Services Board's Innovation Fund Committee.
GSA rethinks financial systems schedule buys
GSA officials are floating the idea of replacing the existing FMSS program with an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity format. In a recent memo to members of the Chief Financial Officers Council's Joint Systems Solutions Team (JSST), GSA officials said the IDIQ contracting approach appears to be the best way to streamline financial software buying procedures and respond to JSST's concerns about providing agencies with reliable software products.
Final year 2000 regulation is due out Aug. 1
General Services Administration officials are fine-tuning the final version of a year 2000 procurement regulation defining interoperability requirements for the government's systems. The Federal Acquisition Regulation Council crafted an interim rule requiring agencies to certify that any commercial products they buy can handle date and time processing tasks after Dec. 31, 1999.
Education will test GSA's data center services
Education officials said they plan to use the General Services Administration's governmentwide data center services contract to outsource the department's entire suite of student loan and financial aid systems, starting with the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). Jerry Russomano, director of program systems service for Education's Office of Post Secondary Education, said NSLDS currently runs on an IBM Corp. mainframe environment managed by Raytheon E-Systems Inc. of St. Petersburg, Fla.
Procurement czar Kelman to step down
Kelman, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, will leave government in mid-September to resume teaching at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. But Kelman said before he returns to Cambridge, he will close out several procurement reform initiatives, including final changes to Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 15 and the General Services Administration's revamped Multiple-Award Schedule policy.
GSA will plant IT evergreens
Many agencies likely will continue to cultivate their favorite information technology sources through greater use of blanket purchasing agreements and more sophisticated online procurement systems, several top federal procurement officials predicted. "The future is evergreen contracting," said Linda Hauenstein, business adviser for the Office of Acquisition in GSA's Federal Supply Service.
MAS contracts come together
But schedule vendors still are awaiting the final revisions to the government's policy for negotiating and managing MAS contracts. Starting Oct. 1, the General Services Administration will begin consolidating its MAS information technology contracts into a uniform acquisition program. Under the old MAS format, officials in GSA's Federal Supply Service negotiated separate contracts for items in different technologies and services groups. For example, the MAS Group 70 A contracts covered large systems products, and Group 70 B/C
OMB demands IT architectures
The Office of Management and Budget has laid down the law: Agencies must set systems architecture plans within a year or the administration will rein in information technology funding during the fiscal 1999 budget process. In a new IT architecture guide, OMB said agencies must show how systems investments will promote interoperability, eliminate duplicative operations and bolster security.
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