Digital Government
GAO: 'No one in charge' of Y2K
The General Accounting Office's chief scientist last week said 'no one is in charge' of the federal government's Year 2000 preparations and that nobody knows for sure just how much headway the government is making in its battle against the clock. Speaking at the Year 2000 National Security and the
Digital Government
PC vendors deliver on new PII
Major PC manufacturers are supporting Intel Corp.'s new Pentium II processor with highend servers and workstations that target a more lucrative market that is dominated by Unix workstations from Sun Microsystems Inc. and HewlettPackard Co. Intel formally announced the new 32bit Xeon processor la
Digital Government
FWS system arms inspectors with fresh data
The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) plans to launch a new computer system this year that will give more uptodate information to the people who enforce wildlife trade, helping them keep a tighter rein on illegal animal trade. Each year, about $3 billion worth of legal wild animals and wildanimal
Digital Government
How do agencies check references?
A reader asked the following question: Many solicitations require offerors to identify references in their proposals to assist agencies in the evaluation of the companies' experience or past performance. Is an agency obligated to check with all the listed references? What are the rules on reference
Digital Government
GAO to Navy: Get control of your Year 2000 efforts
In the latest of a string of reports criticizing the Defense Department's efforts to address its Year 2000 problems, the General Accounting Office took aim at the Navy with a searing indictment of the service's Year 2000 management and oversight controls. In a report released last week, 'Defense Co
Digital Government
House backs telecommuting
With funds to operate telecommuting centers around the Washington, D.C., area almost depleted, a provision in an appropriations bill could breathe new life into the program. The fiscal 1999 appropriations bill (H.R. 4104) that would fund the Treasury Department, the U.S. Postal Service and other ag
Digital Government
HUD to test handhelds in housing review
The Department of Housing and Urban Development this month launched a program that will rely on handheld computers to revolutionize the management of the nation's 14,000 public housing developments nationwide. Under the Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS), HUD plans to outfit contracted public
Digital Government
Round Two
The May 11 Industry Watch column in FCW incorrectly stated that a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration blanket purchase agreement awarded to Federal Data Corp. subsidiary Sylvest Management Systems Corp. would carry Sun Microsystems Inc. equipment. Sun Microsystems is not part of the NOA
Digital Government
Lexmark unveils new color printer
Lexmark International Inc. fortified its line of color printers with the announcement earlier this month of five machines ranging from inexpensive inkjet printers for home and smalloffice use to a highend color laser printer that can turn out pages at a rate of 12 per minute. Speed, not price, i
Digital Government
New CEO, government VP look to replicate Dell's success with direct-sales model
Micron Electronics Inc., which this month appointed a new chief executive officer and a new toplevel official in charge of government business, has set out to finetune its directsales effort and to climb into the top tier of PC manufacturers within the next few years. According to Harry B. Heisl
Digital Government
GAO rips SSA's $1B modernization project
The Social Security Administration's $1 billion modernization effort faces significant technical and management challenges, thereby threatening the program's continued progress and success, according to a report released this month by the General Accounting Office. Under the Intelligent Workstation
Digital Government
Editorial
Not too late for training investment For the federal information technology acquisition community, last week's announcement that the Air Force had awarded two blanket purchase agreements to fulfill its desktop and server needs marked the end of an era. The Air Force's move away from its long and st
Digital Government
Cognos upgrades query, report tools
As part of a strategy to create more sophisticated methods of managing and distributing reports, software vendor Cognos Inc. this month announced forthcoming new releases of two of its database querying and reporting tools. Cognos develops 'business intelligence' software that helps organizations e
Digital Government
Government execs should try marketing
In line with Vice President Al Gore's directive to reengineer government, and to offset some of the effects of downsizing and budget cuts, savvy government executives are turning to business marketing and public relations techniques to improve communications with their constituents employees, cu
Digital Government
GSA develops sked for records
The General Services Administration is developing a new schedule program that would offer records management and archival services to federal agencies. Agencies could use the schedule to outsource the tracking, maintenance and storage of both paper and electronic records, said Patricia Miller, dire
Digital Government
USGS, Microsoft unveil Web database
Microsoft Corp. last week unveiled what it describes as the largest database ever to be put on the World Wide Web a 1 terabyte file of aerial images of the United States and other regions of the globe. The image file is the product of a research project with the U.S. Geological Survey. The databa
Digital Government
Feds question Seat Management
Despite the buzz surrounding the General Services Administration's award of the Seat Management contract expected this week, some agency representatives said they have doubts they would use the contract. The Seat Management contract, like the Outsourcing Desktop Initiative for NASA contract awarded
Digital Government
House strikes compromise for Year 2000 funding
House leaders plan to move emergency spending proposals for the federal Year 2000 problem out of the Defense and Treasury departments' appropriations bills and into a separate appropriations bill to allay concerns of conservative balancedbudget advocates. If the Year 2000 proposals were to remain
Digital Government