Digital Government
Sterling buy improves Army C4I opportunities
Sterling Software Inc. made a major step into the Army command and control arena with the planned acquisition of Mystech Associates Inc. in a $25 million stock deal announced last week. Mystech, a Falls Church, Va.based company founded in 1971, holds several Army contracts, including the Army Inte
Digital Government
CDC Bolsters Public Health Network to Fight E. Coli Illness
CDC Bolsters Public Health Network to Fight E. Coli Illness
Digital Government
Small competitive areas limit options during RIFs
When agencies downsize, they classify employees in groups called 'competitive areas' and forbid employees from competing for jobs in other areas. A decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [Case 973249; John J. Markland v. Office of Personnel Management, April 2, 1998] said ag
Digital Government
FEDERAL BYTES
A dumb purchase The Social Security Administration is holding a fire sale on 15yearold IBM Corp. 'dumb terminals,' which are being replaced as part of a nationwide modernization project. Dumb terminals were installed widely throughout many organizations before the dawning of the PC era. SSA is re
Digital Government
Leadership void for national security computing, comm
At a time when we are becoming increasingly aware of the vulnerabilities of our national sanctuary related to our unprecedented dependence upon inadequately planned and defended national and Defense information services and infrastructure, the Defense Department's lack of strong, capable leaders as
Digital Government
Roster
Stephen Elbert has been appointed director of the National Science Foundation's Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure. He comes from the Energy Department, where he was program manager for grand challenge applications. PACI was launched by NSF last year to fund collaboration among U
Digital Government
Agenda
12 Disaster Preparedness and Response for Records Managers. National Archives and Records Administration. Archives II Building. College Park, Md. For information, call Scott Roley, (301) 7137200, Ext. 249; email, scott.roley@arch2.nara.gov. 14 11th International Conference on Industrial and Eng
Digital Government
EDS protests award of DTS contract
Electronic Data Systems Corp. filed a protest with the General Accounting Office last week against award of the $263.7 million Defense Travel Systems contract to TRW Inc. An EDS spokesman said the company believes it could provide the Defense Departmemt with better service at a lower overall cost.
Digital Government
Java Makes an Entrance
Hailed as a giant step forward for software code reuse, Java, the objectoriented programming language launched in 1995, is just starting to creep into state and local governments as a development tool for enterpriseclass, missioncritical projects.
Digital Government
The Relevant IT Plan
Plans have a high mortality rate. That's partly because while they are made for longterm results, shortterm payoffs are usually limited to abstractions, such as a better understanding of an organization's goals. But if a plan cannot be kept vibrant, daily routine will dampen commitment to those g
Digital Government
Congress praises, admonishes DOD in 1999 bills
Both Houses of Congress strongly endorsed the ability of information technology to enhance U.S. military capabilities in separate versions of the 1999 Defense authorization bills passed last month. The House and Senate strongly backed efforts such as the Navy's Information Technology for the 21st C
Digital Government
Intercepts
* Spectrum czar. Cindy Raiford, currently deputy director for communications in the ASD/C3I office (awaiting congressionally directed renaming), will soon become manager or director of a beefedup DOD spectrum office, according to a memo from Art Money, the senior civilian official in the ASD/C3I s
Digital Government
Intellisource, RMS merge operations
Intellisource Inc. and RMS Information Services Inc. announced today that they will merge their operations into a new services integrator concern under the name The Intellisource Group.
Digital Government
Sterling Software acquires DOD-centric services firm
Sterling Software Inc. today announced plans to buy Mystech Associates Inc. in a $25 million stock deal that will give the Dallasbased company a stronger position in the command and control and simulation markets.
Digital Government
Marketplace
CACI to acquire QuesTech CACI International Inc. has announced plans to acquire QuesTech Inc. through the purchase of outstanding common stock in a cash deal valued at $42 million. The acquisition is designed to position CACI, an Arlington, Va.based systems integrator, in the information warfare a
Digital Government
Roster
Vice President Al Gore this month handed out Presidential Rank Awards for Meritorious Service to six employees at the General Services Administration. The winners were William Gormley, assistant commissioner for acquisition, for streamlining the acquisition process; Ida Ustad, deputy associate admi
Digital Government
IBM rolls out clustering for low, midrange users
IBM Corp. last week made a big push into the highavailability computing market with a new Unix server solution for small and midsize organizations and with new cluster management technology. Clustering, which is designed for organizations that cannot afford to have their servers crash and disrupt
Digital Government
School district extravagance jeopardizes E-Rate program
The Clinton administration's plan to offer discounted telecommunications services to school districts so they can connect students to the Internet may be jeopardized by school districts abusing the program and by too little oversight on the part of the federal government.
Digital Government
NARA joins document management test bed
The National Archives and Records Administration plans to take part in an advanced computer networking project that could point the way to how it will manage future federal government document handling and storage. The Distributed Object Computation Testbed (DOCT) brings together supercomputers, la
Digital Government