Digital Government
Systems management standards move ahead
The Desktop Management Task Force, a group which includes IBM Corp., Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp., has issued the Desktop Management Interface. DMI promises to make "agent" technology remote processes that capture performance information and can receive orders to take corrective actions
Digital Government
GSA's Post-FTS 2000 plan goes `back to the future'
The General Services Administration last week revised its PostFTS 2000 (PF2K) acquisition strategy, eliminating shortterm plans to award "niche" contracts and offering vendors a minimum guarantee of $1 billion in revenue. The changes transform the PF2K acquisition originally envisioned as a
Digital Government
AWARDS
Bell Atlantic Federal Systems. A $27.9 million award to provide voice messaging and voice processing systems at Air Force hospitals. Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. NCI Information Systems Inc. A $20.9 million award for business and administrative management information services. NASA Langley Rese
Digital Government
Can Congress change a contract's provisions?
This topic was raised by a reader: Recently, Congress has been getting much more involved in the management of agency contracts. Some of the congressional directives may have a substantial impact on existing contracts. How far can Congress go in changing the terms of a government contract? Can acts
Digital Government
Agencies adopt management tools to monitor distributed systems
Agencies with large, diverse client/server environments are buying distributed systems management tools to help keep their missioncritical applications up and running. Systems management tools have long been a fixture of mainframeclass computing. But until recent years, those tools have been lack
Digital Government
Rhoda Davis to retire March 1
Rhoda M.G. Davis, director of the Office of Strategic Management and senior information resources management official at the Social Security Administration, plans to retire March 1. Davis, who assisted in managing major technology upgrades at SSA, will be the second key information technology execu
Digital Government
ROSTER
Pamela White has been named assistant director, Office of Automation and Technology at the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and is responsible for the judiciary's automation program. She replaces Roy Carter, who has taken a position with the secretary of the Navy. White was previously chief
Digital Government
Performance pressure stresses agencies
Agencies now free of centralized information technology oversight procedures could lose that flexibility if they fail to get results from more creative ways of buying and managing their systems, a panel of industry and government officials said last week. "Now is when the hard work is really going
Digital Government
Clinton to expand computer donations
President Clinton plans to issue an executive order next month that will direct federal agencies to donate millions of dollars worth of surplus computers and peripherals to a wide range of educational organizations and programs, according to White House officials. The order will broaden President B
Digital Government
Congress pressures USDA for plan
The Agriculture Department's Info Share program is under pressure yet again from a provision in the Senate and House farm bills that would prevent the department from using funds from the Commodity Credit Corp. Money from the CCC could have been used by the USDA for initial funding of Info Share. W
Digital Government
FEDERAL BYTES
The Golf War Talk about your missioncritical systems. The Air Force posted a notice in the Commerce Business Daily in January for pointofsale computer equipment to be installed at Defense Department golf courses worldwide. The notice said software specs will include conformance to the U.S. Golf
Digital Government
PeopleSoft lands HR deal at DOJ
PeopleSoft Federal last month nabbed a contract to provide offtheshelf human resources software to the headquarters offices of the Justice Department. The contract marks the second federal award for PeopleSoft Federal, a division of PeopleSoft Inc., Pleasanton, Calif. Last fall the Department of
Digital Government
FedCenter Web site delivers vendor info
A commercial World Wide Web site is positioning itself as a onestop resource for federal users seeking information on computer and network products and services. FedCenter, which is located on the Internet at http://www.fedcenter.com, culls information from vendors and presents that information to
Digital Government
OMB: Where the buck stops
The Information Technology Management Reform Act codifies two very sensible ideas: Agencies' IT programs will have a greater chance of success if planners must show what kind of a return new systems will produce for their missions, and purchasing strategies should be tailored as much as possible to
Digital Government
Informix maps three-phase path to Universal Server
Informix Software Inc. earlier this month laid out a threephase strategy to help customers migrate to its forthcoming Universal Server, which will allow users to manage complex data types within Informix's relational database management software. The announcement follows Informix's acquisition in
Digital Government
FEDWIRE
Litton completes PRC buy Black & Decker Corp. last Friday reported that it has completed the sale of PRC Inc. to Litton Industries Inc. The $425 million transaction was announced in December [FCW, Dec. 19, 1995]. With the closing of the deal, James Leto will retire from his post as chairman and chi
Digital Government
Report: Private nets will save big bucks
The government can save millions of dollars a year by consolidating traffic on private networks run by individual agencies, according to an interagency report delivered last week to the Government Information Technology Services Working Group. The report, "Inventory of Private Telecommunications N
Digital Government
Koskinen and council put the Net to the test
For the past two years, Larry Koskinen has preached the virtues of the Internet and how it will redefine the way government works. Now he has the chance to prove it. Formerly a staff member of Vice President Gore's National Performance Review, Koskinen begins a new job this week as vice president o
Digital Government
Intercepts
Air Force vs. ASD/C3I? I have been picking up strong signals that there is fallout from a newly released Air Force study, "New World Vistas," which lays out the technologies the service believes it needs and does not need over the next 25 years. The study puts some pet projects of ASD/C3I Emmett
Digital Government