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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
ROSTER
The FBI named Charles Archer assistant director of its Criminal Justice Information Services Division (CJIS), the national repository for criminal justice information and fingerprint services. Archer, a former FBI legal attache in Ottawa, Canada, replaces Steven Pomerantz, who retired in June. Arch
Digital Government
Bosnia support nets to get upgrade
The Defense Information Systems Agency plans to upgrade by spring the communications networks that now support U.S. and multinational forces of Operation Joint Endeavor in Bosnia with advanced bandwidth on demand and Global Broadcast Services. According to DISA director Lt. Gen. Al Edmonds, in the
Digital Government
Kendall, others opt for DOD buyout
Cynthia Kendall, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Defense information management, is retiring at the beginning of March. One of several highranking DOD executives taking an early buyout, Kendall plans to take several months of personal leave before making any plans, according to a DOD spo
Digital Government
Oracle offers product for mobile applications
Oracle Corp. plans to tap the growing market for mobile applications with a new version of its relational database management software (RDBMS) that is slim enough to run on a laptop computer. Personal Oracle Lite, now available, fills out the low end of racle's RDBMS offering. The product fits in l
Digital Government
INDUSTRY WATCH
DOJ Withdraws GTSI Probe The Justice Department has withdrawn its Civil Investigative Demand (CID), which sought information relating to Government Technology Services Inc.'s sales on the General Services Administration schedule dating back to 1988. Now GTSI is working with GSA to provide the infor
Digital Government
Novell links GroupWise to the Internet
Novell Inc. last week unveiled an extension to its groupware product line designed to provide collaborative computing over the Internet. Novell's GroupWise WebAccess is a serverbased product that allows users to access their GroupWise mailboxes through any PC with an Internet connection and a Hype
Digital Government
Ex-GSA exec looks back with pride
William Cunnane, former General Services Administration deputy assistant administrator for FTS 2000, left his 35year career of government service last month with a sense of tangible accomplishment in helping shape today's advanced, as well as lowcost, federal telecommunications system. In a post
Digital Government
SET-ASIDES
Tech hearings planned Rep. Steve Horn (RCalif.) plans to launch a series of six hearings on federal information technology policies later this month. Topics will include best practices, management issues, financial systems, public access to information and measuring the benefits of information sys
Digital Government
AWARDS
Severn Companies Inc. A $627,017 award for directaccess storage devices. Division of Acquisition Management, ADP Acquisitions Branch, 5600 Fishers Lane, Parklawn Building, Room 595, Rockville, Md. 20857. Silicon Graphics Inc. A $193,450 award for a nextgeneration reality engine. NCCOSC, RDTE Div
Digital Government