Digital Government
GSA mulls Advantage changes
The General Services Administration's Federal Supply Service has met with industry associations over the past month to discuss plans to decentralize the agency's GSA Advantage electronic commerce system and allow vendors to maintain their own sales databases for products and services on multipleaw
Digital Government
Roster
Bill Gormley, assistant commissioner of the General Services Administration's Office of Acquisition, last week received President Clinton's Meritorious Executive Service Award for his work on the GSA schedule contracts and other programs. Mary Walsh has been named assistant chief counsel for legisl
Digital Government
Navy to field PC-based command, control system
The Navy has received initial approval to start fielding a PCbased version of its command and control (C2) system, after completing what a top Navy commander called the 'largest and most comprehensive'' test of such a system in the service's history. The test of the Navy's Joint Maritime Command I
Digital Government
Customs launches import system
The Customs Service last week switched on the first module of a new computer system that will better track imports, amid pleas from the international trade industry that Congress help find money for the mammoth modernization project and spare private firms higher trade fees. On May 4, Customs used
Digital Government
Deeper impact
It's a case of virtual reality imitating art. Ads for Steven Spielberg's new movie 'Deep Impact,' in which a comet strikes the ocean off New York, show a massive tidal wave heading for Manhattan. Last week Sandia National Laboratories announced that it had used its supercomputer to produce a virtua
Digital Government
Senate bill delays IRS reforms
Shortly after Congress heard a plea to push back the deadline to reform the Internal Revenue Service so that the tax agency can focus on its Year 2000 problem, the Senate last week passed a bill that would delay some parts of a dramatic overhaul of the IRS. The Internal Revenue Service Restructurin
Digital Government
Intelligent Decisions adds Netscape to GSA sked
Intelligent Decisions Inc., the Chantilly, Va.based reseller and PC manufacturer, has signed an agreement with Netscape Communications Corp. to make Intelligent Decisions one of four companies that offer Netscape products on a General Services Administration schedule. Intelligent Decisions will of
Digital Government
Industry Watch
Cabletron introduces new switching technology Cabletron Systems Inc. has unveiled a new family of higher performing SmartSwitches. The switches can interoperate with previous versions of the SmartSwitch, and they are based on an Application Specific Integrated Circuit that provides system throughpu
Digital Government
Two new sites help feds solve Y2K problem, plan trips
For the next one year, seven months and a handful of days, anyone who is even remotely connected to information technology probably will need to turn their browser to the new World Wide Web site of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion. Located at www.y2k.gov, this new site is still under
Digital Government
Industry speeds delivery of standard-compliant modems
After more than a yearlong delay caused by a standards dispute, modem vendors have begun to deliver new products that promise faster file downloads for federal employees who rely on dialup connections or who travel frequently with a laptop computer. The new modems transmit data at close to 56 kil
Digital Government
GAO report details air traffic control host computer failings
Federal agencies may now contract directly with socially and economically disadvantaged firms in the Small Business Administration 8(a) program, according to an agreement SBA signed May 4 with 25 other agencies.
Digital Government
Curran Data Technologies nabs Army records contract
Curran Data Technologies Inc. will digitize 4.3 million pages of Army personnel records over the next year under a contract with the U.S. Army Enlisted Records and Evaluation Center, Indianapolis.
Digital Government
IRS asks Congress for flexibility in tax reforms
The new commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service today called on Congress to give his agency more flexibility in abiding by proposed tax reforms so the agency can focus more on its Year 2000 problem.
Digital Government
Defense Travel System contract awarded to TRW
The Defense Department moved a step closer to onestop, electronic shopping for items such as airline tickets and hotel and meal vouchers with today's award of the key Defense Travel System (DTS) contract to TRW Inc.
Digital Government
SBA cuts out contracting middleman
Federal agencies may now contract directly with socially and economically disadvantaged firms in the Small Business Administration 8(a) program, according to an agreement SBA signed May 4 with 25 other agencies.
Digital Government
Senate panel eyes extra Y2K funding
The chairman of a newly formed Senate committee on Year 2000 last week disputed the Clinton administration's estimates of the cost of fixing the problem and said the committee will consider 'significant appropriations' for agencies struggling to fix computers by 1999, despite longstanding White Ho
Digital Government
MMS dives into better whale tracking
The Minerals Management Service last month awarded a software contract that will help the agency better analyze the migration habits of the endangered bowhead whale, whose seasonal wanderings bring it close to offshore oil rigs. MMS, an Interior Department agency in charge of managing the nation's
Digital Government
GSA awards Citibank smart card task order
The General Services Administration awarded Citibank a task order to provide GSA employees with integrated purchase and travel cards and to test smart card applications, the company announced today.
Digital Government
Roster
S.W. 'Woody'' Hall, chief information officer for the Energy Department, is joining this week the Customs Service as the CIO and assistant commissioner for information and technology. Hall replaces Edward Kwas, who retired in January. ***Two computer scientists, Ian Foster, with Argonne National La
Digital Government