Acquisition
Guidance coming on FSS services
Two years after information technology services became available to agencies on the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Service schedule contracts, GSA is moving to provide regulatory guidance on how to buy those services.
Acquisition
Purchasing in Internet time
Of all the influences transforming the information technology buying process for state and local government officials, a key yet frequently overlooked factor is the sharply increased speed at which most IT service vendors are now accustomed to doing business.
Acquisition
The art of the deal
Otto Doll, director of South Dakota's Bureau of Information and Telecommunications, has a way to get buy-in on technology issues from skeptical lawmakers.
Acquisition
Eye on performance
Well, as might be expected, the contracting community has stepped out front again. When fiscal 2001 began a few months ago, federal agencies began gathering data on a series of contracting performance measures agreed on for the entire government for each year.
Acquisition
Open minds on open source
NASA programmers might raise a few eyebrows by converting their electronic posting system for business opportunities from an Oracle Corp. relational database to an open source counterpart, mySQL.
Acquisition
Firms say 'blacklisting' regs still onerous
Companies seeking federal contracts are cautiously ? and unhappily ? awaiting word on a change to contracting regulations they say could lead to protests and delays
Acquisition
Customs primed for contractor
The Customs Service expects to seek a prime contractor within the next six months for its $1.4 billion modernization program, the agency's CIO says
Acquisition
Letters to the Editor
That Steve Kelman should toe the contractor line comes as no surprise ('TRAC should be derailed,' Federal Computer Week, Nov. 6, 2000). After all, he testified in 1998 in favor of the infamous Freedom from Government Competition Act, which would have competed 1.4 million federal employee jobs over five years under a manifestly procontractor system.
Acquisition
CDW-G adds Apple to its cart
CDWG has added Apple's entire line of products to its General Services Administration schedule
Acquisition
Reverse the course
The second experiment in reverse auctions at the General Services Administration is scheduled for Nov. 16. The U.S. Coast Guard's Aircraft Repair and Supply Center will use the auction to buy Falcon Jet aircraft parts and plans to make an award two weeks after the auction date.
Acquisition
B2G, take two
Earlier this year, Tony Bansal had maneuvered his business-to- government e-commerce company into what seemed to be the perfect position. Not long after, the company's can't-miss strategy was a little off the mark.
Acquisition
Playing by the rules
Deidre Lee, a top government procurement official, is pleased that so many companies are offering electronic procurement solutions. But in the move to egovernment, she doesn't want to leave government contracting rules in the dust.
Acquisition
SBA gives agencies more 8(a) buying power
The Small Business Administration wants to streamline the way agencies award contracts to socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses
Acquisition
Virginia getting comfortable with seat
State agency heads learn do's and don'ts about purchasing under the state's new seat management contract
Acquisition
NIH builds online commerce mall
The National Institutes of Health is creating a virtual library to give large and small companies an edge in doing business both inside and outside government.
Acquisition
Plans afoot to better track agency purchasing
Congress and the Clinton administration are moving forward with initiatives to improve federal agencies' ability to track what they buy, how much they pay and where the products or services are used.
Acquisition
Tracking DOD
The fiscal 2001 Defense Authorization Act requires the Pentagon to track contract actions
Acquisition
For rent: Agency systems
Two agencies have signed contracts to rent enterprise application services from USinternetworking Inc.
Acquisition