Acquisition

Blizzard of awards in 30-day forecast

Although the holiday season traditionally is a quiet one in the nation's capital the next month could be busy for information technology procurement offices with agencies scheduled to award more than a dozen large IT contracts with a combined value approaching $10 billion.

Acquisition

CIOs mull plan to rein inmaverick agency buys

In what may be the first pullback from largescale procurement reform the Office of Management and Budget is considering regulations that will prohibit agencies from embarking on a procurement if the purchase would threaten other agencies from obtaining low prices through volumediscounted buys.

Acquisition

Overhaul of blue pages to help users

The General Services Administration is moving closer to updating government listings in all local telephone books around the country in an effort that should make populating the X.500 governmentwide directory blue pages faster and easier. The goal of the blue pages project is to provide a more user

Acquisition

GTSI retools for changing market

Government Technology Services Inc. in the midst of a major makeover under the watch of chief executive officer Dendy Young this winter will expand its business beyond the namebrand PC market and reposition itself for new opportunities in the federal market. During the next several months GTSI pla

Acquisition

Network buy pared in favor of governmentwide pacts

The National Institutes of Health has scaled back a network procurement thought to be worth about $70 million and instead plans to purchase much of the equipment software and services it needs from other contracts. 'It would be silly to duplicate something that's already been done " said John Dick

Acquisition

EPA plans $8.5M Notes purchase

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to spend $8.5 million on Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes groupware product during the next five years. As part of the deal which Lotus announced two weeks ago EPA expects to buy licenses for more than 18 000 Notes clients. EPA is expanding its use of Notes

Acquisition

It's official: GTE wins wireless pact

Capping off a 27month effort the General Services Administration this month awarded a $300 million nationwide contract for cellular telecommunications services a move designed to cut most federal users' cellular bills by up to 60 percent. The award is the first in a series of PostFTS 2000 contrac

Acquisition

FBI buy may be bid to influence market

The FBI is negotiating with AT&T to purchase a security product that soon will have keyrecovery abilities sources said. Some observers consider the move an attempt to boost the market for encryption products that would make it easier for law enforcement agencies to access suspects' protected data.

Acquisition

Industry faults rule on pricing, audits

Industry groups last week attacked the General Services Administration's proposed final rule for governing the multipleaward schedule program charging that GSA's language is not in keeping with the spirit of acquisition reform. GSA late last month issued the proposed final MAS rule as well as a se

Acquisition

Booz, Allen snares $620M telecom services pact

The General Services Administration last week awarded a contract to Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc. for up to $620 million worth of telecommunications support services that will complement the PostFTS 2000 contract. ~~The Telecommunications Support Contract 2 services available to agencies throughout t

Acquisition

Leasing fare added to IT schedule menu

HERSHEY Pa. The General Services Administration will award next month three or four schedule contracts to vendors who will lease laptops and other information technology products to federal users. Bill Gormley assistant commissioner of acquisition at GSA's Federal Supply Service said last week at

Acquisition

Shifting landscape requires training

Forget everything you know about federal procurement. Years worth of knowledge and insights have little relevancy due to the wholesale overhaul of procurement regulations over the last two years. To compete in the new world order government and industry executives are finding the need to refresh th

Acquisition

HQ, regional offices set to kick off FAST

Contracting personnel at General Services Administration headquarters hope to issue a solicitation this month for a $1 billion program to channel agencies' information technology requirements to small disadvantaged 8(a) vendors as well as contractors holding schedule and governmentwide contracts. O

Acquisition

BofA loss raises tape questions

The practice of shipping backup tapes to remote sites may be reviewed in light of the loss of computer tapes with financial information on more than 1 million feds.

Acquisition

Auditor general chides Florida tech office outsourcing

The state auditor general found that the technology office did not follow Florida laws.

Acquisition

ICE prepares for $500M deal

Immigration and Customs Enforcement seeks bidders on a tech support contract possibly worth up to $500 million.

Acquisition

Mactec to run EPA's CASTNet

The environmental agency will pay Mactec up to $24 million over five years to run the Clean Air Status and Trends Network.

Acquisition

Keeping the customer happy

Shopping is a necessary activity, but it's one that can result in nearly indescribable frustration, especially around the holidays.