Digital Government
SBA works on Y2K internally, with small biz
Although the Small Business Administration is making strides in fixing its own internal year 2000 problem, the 23 million small businesses the agency serves are much farther behind, according to witnesses who testified at a congressional hearing last week. As of May, SBA has renovated, validated an
Digital Government
Business Objects tailors tools for extranets
Business Objects SA last week announced a new version of its World Wide Webbased decisionsupport system (DSS) software that includes features intended to make it easier for organizations to extend their tools from an intranet to an extranet. DSS, or 'business intelligence,' tools are designed to
Digital Government
FTS to form services centers
Officials at the General Services Administration's Federal Technology Service will restructure the organization this fall in response to their concerns about the proliferation of contracts in the agency's 11 regional offices, many of which duplicate each other. FTS Deputy Commissioner Sandy Bates s
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Survey: Feds undecided about seat management
Few federal informationtechnology managers say they plan to use two recently awarded, highprofile desktop outsourcing contracts, according to a survey released last week. About 15 percent of federal managers said they planned to use desktop outsourcing contracts specifically the General Service
Digital Government
Buying tips for Year 2000 tools
The impending challenge facing managers to get their code and embedded software ready for the Year 2000 has prompted industry to create thousands of tools to help find and automate the fixes. But for anxious buyers, the dizzying choice of tools often adds to the confusion. Whether you are shopping
Digital Government
What are the rules for task-order pacts?
Several readers have raised the following topic: What are the rules for placing task orders under multipleaward, indefinitequantity contracts? An indefinitequantity contract is any contract that defines the parties' obligations primarily through the use of minimum and maximum ordering rules inst
Digital Government
AMD's K6-2: A strong alternative to Intel's PII
As one of the last chip manufacturers battling for market share with Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has developed a new processor called the K62 that stands up to the ubiquitous Pentium II, both in performance and price, according to tests by the FCW Test Center. Released in late March,
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Optivision helps DISA communicate with video
Optivision Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif.based developer of professional network video communications products, recently provided the Defense Information Systems Agency with a suite of equipment that is changing the way the agency shares and accesses information. 'One of the things [the Defense Departm
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Agenda
20 Conference on Implementing Electronic Records Management: The State of the Art. Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. Washington, D.C. Presented by J. Timothy Sprehe, president of Sprehe Information Management Associates, and Charles R. McClure, distinguished professor at Syracu
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Panasonic CF-M31 challenges Toshiba Libretto
With the introduction of its 2.2pound CFM31 subnotebook computer running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 95, Panasonic Personal Computer Co. has launched an attack on Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.'s popular Libretto, which is now in its third generation of development. The CFM31 from Panaso
Digital Government
DOJ site shows you the scenes of the crimes
The Justice Department's Crime Mapping Research Center has launched a new World Wide Web page to provide access to the latest information on crime mapping, which uses computer systems to show trends in crime incidents by regions. Point your browser to www.ojp.usdoj.gov/cmrc to learn more about high
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Fedwire
AF awards sim training pacts The Air Force last week awarded contracts to five vendors under a $486 million program that will serve as the primary vehicle for training and simulation systems for the Air Force and other Defense organizations. Under the Training Systems Acquisition program, the Air F
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Innovation, tech refresh fuel SEWP II
While so much business for commercial technology has shifted to the General Services Administration schedule, NASA's Scientific and Engineering Workstation Procurement II is proving to be a pipinghot contract, based on a sales report NASA published last month. According to NASA, SEWP II has done $
Digital Government
Clinton speaks out on Y2K
President Clinton, speaking publicly about the Year 2000 problem for the first time, drew praise from even some of his harshest critics last week after laying out his administration's work on fixing the government's computer systems for the millennium date change. However, those same critics said t
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Industry Watch
Notebook prices cut Compaq Computer Corp., Houston, last week lowered prices on more than a dozen models of its Armada notebook computer. The company will make the same price cuts on its General Services Administration schedule. At the low end, Compaq cut pricing by 8.9 percent, from $1,919 to $1,7
Digital Government
CBD Watch
Environmental Protection Agency. Information technology database system. Sol. RFQ #98013. (CBD, July 14) The EPA, Region 6, Dallas, intends to issue a procurement for an online data service. This service will allow access to online databases throughout the continental United States and its territo
Digital Government
Amendment redefines pay-raise factor
I have never seen as unfriendly a political environment for federal employees as the present one. According to a recent report by the Federal Managers Association, lastminute action was required to stave off assaults against federal employees from a variety of sources. In one action, Rep. Steny Ho
Digital Government
Tools make Wintel low-cost option to NetPCs
The government information technology community has voted overwhelmingly for Wintel, the unavoidable combination of Microsoft Corp.'s system software and Intel Corp.'s microprocessors. But tight budgets are causing more federal IT managers to evaluate other lowercost alternatives, such as the Orac
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Senate curbs outsourcing bill
Bowing to pressure from labor unions, a Senate committee last week watered down a bill that would have forced agencies to put large portions of federal work, including information technology services, up for competition between government and the private sector. The Senate Governmental Affairs Comm
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