People
NIH to offer training
The National Institutes of Health next week plans to launch a training course in recent procurement and information technology management reforms that it expects will eventually be open to students from throughout the government and from industry. Jefferson Solutions LLC a subcontractor to Cordant
People
Feeling at home at the Pentagon
Not many people can claim to have landed the ultimate job perfectly geared to their interests. Anita K. Jones director of Defense research and engineering can. 'If you are interested in science and technology policy if you want to make a difference at that level in the U.S. this is the best job
Digital Government
FEDERAL BYTES
To market to market When is a computer like a fish? Ask Skip Kemerer who runs NASA's Scientific and Engineering Workstation Procurement. At the Federation of Government Information Processing Councils technology acquisition conference last week Kemerer said buying computers wasn't so different from
Acquisition
Network buy pared in favor of governmentwide pacts
The National Institutes of Health has scaled back a network procurement thought to be worth about $70 million and instead plans to purchase much of the equipment software and services it needs from other contracts. 'It would be silly to duplicate something that's already been done " said John Dick
Digital Government
Ipsilon products to support Cisco's router protocol
In an escalation of the market battle between Ipsilon Networks' Internet Protocol switching technology and router leader Cisco Systems Inc. Ipsilon officials said last week they now support Cisco's router protocol. Larry Blair vice president of marketing at Ipsilon said last week that the new capab
Digital Government
Switches challenge routers
Federal agencies are turning increasingly to switching equipment and less to traditional routerbased networks in their quest to meet users' seemingly boundless appetite for bandwidth according to resellers manufacturers and federal network managers. Although the router market is thriving in the fe
Digital Government
E-FOIA expected to spur agency demand for systems
A new law requiring agencies to make documents available to the public in electronic form is likely to cement demand for systems to automate processing of Freedom of Information Act requests according to vendors. The Electronic FOIA Amendments of 1996 (EFOIA) require agencies to provide documents
Digital Government
Report suggests GILS, X.500 link
Agency users will find it a lot easier to track down government information if the recommendations are followed from a recent study that suggested connecting two major data systems.
Digital Government
Features make Warp 4.0 unmatched by competition
Early reviews of IBM Corp's OS/2 Warp 4.0 generally were positive with the majority of journalists recommending the product as a "musthave for current OS/2 users." Unfortunately that type of endorsement does little to convince nonOS/2 users that OS/2 Warp 4.0 is a platform worth considering. He
People
Sprint team lands $50M pact to upgrade distance-learning net
The Army's Training and Doctrine Command has awarded Sprint a contract worth nearly $50 million to upgrade its dedicated video distancelearning network in a deal the company says is the largest of its kind in the government. Under the fiveyear Video TeleTraining (VTT) Network contract Sprint and
People
Navy favors outsourcing IT smorgasbord
The Navy plans to conduct a pilot information technology outsourcing program in the Pacific Fleet that could lead to a whole new way the service acquires computer and communications products and services used on shore and at sea.
Digital Government
ROUND TWO
In a Nov. 4 article on Cabletron Systems Inc.'s new ATM products FCW should have reported that the MMACPlus SmartCell switch can accommodate up to 16 OC3 ports per module and a total of 224 ports in a fully configured system.In a Nov. 4 article on the National Imagery and Mapping Agency's Geospat
Digital Government
Can a contractor rely on the minimums in an IDIQ pact?
A company official asked the following question: It is common for agencies to specify minimum and maximum anticipated quantities in their indefinitequantity contracts in order to give the offerors guidance on how to price their proposals. To what extent is the government bound by these estimates?
Digital Government
Informix shuffles federal unit; Hammersla departs
Informix Software Inc. last week folded its Vienna Va.based federal division into its commercial sales organization as part of a corporatewide restructuring. As part of the reorganization Edward Hammersla III executive director of Informix's federal operations has left the company. Under the new c
Digital Government
Health benefits see little change in open season
The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program began its open season last week during which federal employees retirees and survivors can switch their health benefit plans. Very little has changed in terms of the benefits being offered by individual plans. That is because the Office of Personn
Acquisition
GTSI retools for changing market
Government Technology Services Inc. in the midst of a major makeover under the watch of chief executive officer Dendy Young this winter will expand its business beyond the namebrand PC market and reposition itself for new opportunities in the federal market. During the next several months GTSI pla
People
GTE, PRC snag $674M support services contract
The Air Force last week awarded contracts to GTE Government Systems and PRC Inc. as part of a $674 million program to provide support services for information systems at 20 bases under the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC). Under the MIS Technical Support II program the two contractors will fill ta
People
ROSTER
Col. Otis Ferguson took over as chief of the Army Space Command Colorado Springs Col. Ferguson who previously served as deputy commander for the Space Command's Theater Missile Defense Element succeeded Col. Bill MacArthur who retired. Col. Teddy Bitner replaced Ferguson as commander of the Theater
Digital Government
USDA slaps new moratorium on large buys
The Agriculture Department has frozen all spending on information technology products and services until it develops an agencywide plan for how its IT purchases should be conducted.The moratorium affects all orders over $250 000 from existing IT contracts and the General Services Administration's m
Digital Government