Digital Government
Gaining perspective on seat management
Every summer it seems one issue crops up and takes the information technology community by storm. A few years ago, discussions centered on the new procurement rules: Were the new rules too radical? Could industry compete effectively under these rules? Would prices increase? Over time, reason prevai
Digital Government
Boole extends scope, accessibility of Command/Post
Boole & Babbage Inc. has introduced a new version of its Command/Post systems management system that improves the support for management activity at a variety of levels in an organization and broadens the support for other vendors' management tools. With Command/Post 4, the system offers access to
Digital Government
Intercepts
ATM ATTACK. I'm picking up reports of yet another DISA vs. The World turf battle, this one over the agency's desire to install its own ATM switches on Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine bases and stations. This seems a bit redundant because all the services have longrange projects the Army's CUITN
Digital Government
Retirement plan switch not an easy choice
When it comes to retirement plans, federal employees are faced with a critical decision: whether to switch to the newer Federal Employees Retirement System or stay with the triedandtrue Civil Service Retirement System. The decision is not easy. Following are points to get you thinking about the c
Digital Government
NIH boosts the EC in ECS II
Ten months into one of the largest and most complex set of computer contracts ever awarded, the National Institutes of Health is reading promising vital signs for the electronic shopping and ordering services of its Electronic Computer Store II program. Last September NIH selected 45 prime contract
Digital Government
FACNET alternative adds Defense users
Ecweb.net, an Internetbased electronic commerce service, recently stepped up its presence in the federal market with the addition of two Defense Department customers. The World Wide Web site, www.ecweb.net, was created by EC Web Technologies Inc. and links government agencies and vendors by electr
Digital Government
Roster Change
Arlene Millard was selected as deputy director of the Agriculture Department's National Information Technology Center. Millard recently served as chief of the Telecommunications Division for the Farm Service Agency's Kansas City Management Office. Anne Reed, chief information officer at the USDA, h
Digital Government
The Rage for Value
This month's issue of civic.com is full of stories that show how information technology is being put to work as a tool for delivering civic and community value. In one case, the value is directly financial, as in our story about how Massachusetts, in order to lower procurement costs, is piloting a
Digital Government
DOD to use IT for nuke cleanup
Marking the final stage of a 10year, multimilliondollar environmental restoration project, the Defense Special Weapons Agency last month issued a request for proposals to develop cuttingedge information technologies to help clean up the remnants of a Cold Warera nuclear weapons disaster. The RF
Digital Government
Sun Fed enters NT debate
When Scott McNealy, the president and chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems Inc., first coined the phrase 'The network is the computer' in 1987, only one application was available for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system, and Microsoft had not reached the $400 million mark in total reve
Digital Government
ITS: The New Road Rage
It's a phrase born in Hollywood, but one that accurately sums up the dilemma of state and urban transportation officials who are dealing with traffic and population patterns in the late 20th century: If you build it, they will come.
Digital Government
Dell adds leasing to GSA schedule
Looking to capitalize on the growing interest in leasing rather than buying PCs, Dell Computer Corp. last week announced a new leasing program on its General Services Administration schedule. Dell, which has been the topselling vendor on the GSA schedule in recent quarters, offers four options und
Digital Government
Merisel creates fed division
In response to reseller demand, Merisel Inc. last week announced a new division targeting the federal market with a dedicated sales force, marketing programs and expanded product offerings. Based in El Segundo, Calif., Merisel is a distributor of more than 25,000 computer hardware and software prod
Digital Government
Expanded CBDNet falls apart
A multipleagency effort to enhance the Commerce Business Daily online listing of government contracting opportunities has unraveled over the past two months, underscoring once again how difficult a task it is for agencies to agree on how to create a single face to industry for electronic commerce.
Digital Government
Scouting out Year 2000 solutions for the desktop
Many of the software products released in recent weeks to make Year 2000 fixes easier are aimed squarely at the desktop, as vendors scramble to capture business in an area that is not as saturated with millennium bug products as the mainframe arena. According to Infoliant Corp., nearly every major
Digital Government
GSA's MAS program: Look before you leap
It seems that lately everyone in the information technology community is looking to secure a General Services Administration multipleaward schedule contract. Like a small tidal wave, the rolls of the MAS program have swelled to include 1,435 IT vendors up 534 from just last year. According to GS
Digital Government
FAA reports two-thirds of systems Y2K-compliant
The Federal Aviation Administration, criticized for its tardiness in fixing computers for the Year 2000 bug, said late last month it is one step closer to fixing its missioncritical systems to properly process dates occurring after 1999. At a press briefing held at FAA headquarters, Jane Garvey, F
Digital Government
Small biz snags $1.25B FAA pact
In an effort to silence criticism that it does not give more business to small and minority businesses, the Federal Aviation Administration last week awarded 14 contracts exclusively to small and disadvantaged businesses under a $1.25 billion information technology services contract. The Broad Info
Digital Government
SmartDB upgrades app integration tool
SmartDB Corp., a Palo Alto, Calif.based provider of enterprise application integration software, last month announced a new and improved version of its SmartDB Workbench tool for enterprise application integration. The move to distributed networks and data warehousing has created a need for applic
Digital Government