Digital Government
Procurement reform moving into next phase
Because they often cost so much money to attend, one hesitates to use the expression 'a dime a dozen' to describe them, but certainly one may say that conferences are a staple of Washington life. Rarely, however, does one describe them as 'breathtaking' or 'historic.' Yet I recently attended an ev
Digital Government
Fight the urge to sole source task orders
The growth of multipleaward taskorder contracting for services opened up by the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) in 1994 and by the growth of the General Services Administration services schedule is an important advance for government information technology customers. Indeed, doubt
Digital Government
Correct use of past performance key
I recently received a phone call from a friend who works for a vendor that had just lost a big award. Company executives learned during the debriefing with the agency that a major reason why the company had not won was that it did not score as well as others on past performance. My friend was somew
Digital Government
Air Force's PC buying strategy on target
The blanket purchase agreements for PC hardware, software and peripherals that the Air Force's Standard Systems Group (SSG) recently negotiated as successors to the Desktop V contract will provide Air Force customers access to uptodate, quickly refreshable information technology. The amazingly co
Digital Government
More feds giving due diligence its due
Over the past year or two, a new phrase has entered the federal information technology acquisition vocabulary: due diligence. When the concept was just beginning to enter the federal lexicon, I wrote a column about the idea [FCW, June 22, 1998]. The phrase is adapted from the commercial mergersand
Digital Government
Reform empowers Air Force, Navy
One of the most basic underlying themes of the reinventing government movement has been greater empowerment of the federal workers to use their heads to come up with ideas for how to make government work better and cost less. A highly educated, generally publicspirited federal work force had for t
Digital Government
Silence of protesters' bark signals new era
In a wellknown Sherlock Holmes novel, the great detective solves a crime based on a dog that did not bark. The dog normally would have been expected to bark, and the fact that it did not do so during the night of the crime gave the detective key information for the case. In the federal information
Digital Government
For creative ideas, ask front-line IT workers
Any time an organization is not performing as well as it should or old approaches no longer solve new problems situations that apply in spades to most government agencies the organization needs creativity to come up with ways to do a better job. Creative ideas involving the use of information
Digital Government
Procurement reform's next big thing
Anybody who reads this column Jan. 11 will have a chance on the morning of Jan. 12 to participate in what I am willing to venture even this early in the year will be one of the most important meetings of 1999. At the General Services Administration Auditorium in Washington, D.C., between 8:30
Digital Government
Raise credit card buying limits, but lower fees
There arguably is no aspect of procurement reform that has positively influenced the everyday life of the average government employee more than the credit card. It has made the difference between getting everyday products and services quickly and conveniently and the old perhaps almost forgotten
Digital Government
Air Force shows how to get more for less
A few issues ago I wrote about Terry Little, an innovative program manager at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., who used various principles of acquisition reform to achieve better than a 50 percent cost savings on a 'smart bomb' kit called joint direct attack munitions (JDAM) [FCW, Sept. 7]. Well, Terry
Digital Government
Feds, industry find GWACs to their liking
Earlier this month, I chaired two breakout sessions with Bob Dornan, senior vice president of Federal Sources Inc., at the Industry Advisory Council's annual government/ industry meeting in Richmond, Va. The sessions, called 'GWACs: Reform or Regression,' used interactive technology that allowed al
Digital Government
Reform wonk applies know-how to PenRen
From 1994 through early 1998, Dave Drabkin was a senior civil servant in the Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition Reform. He was brought in from a legal job at the Defense Logistics Agency by Colleen Preston, acquisition reform's legendary streetfighter during the tough ye
Digital Government
Story provides map for reinvention efforts
While reading Sensemaking in Organizations, by University of Michigan management professor Karl E. Weick, I came across a story filled with significance for anyone engaged in the work of reinventing government.
Digital Government
DOE contracting: 'If at first you don't succeed...'
In February 1994, at the very beginning of the procurement reform movement and several months before passage of the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, the Energy Department issued a report on contract reform that promised drastic changes in how the agency conducted contracting. DOE, the report a
Digital Government
Study shows power of industry/fed union
The Defense Systems Management College at Fort Belvoir, Va., recently published a case study called 'Implementing Acquisition Reform: A Case Study on Joint Direct Attack Munitions.' Joint direct attack munitions (JDAM) is a kit consisting of global positioning satellite equipment and computers, whi
Digital Government
How small biz can get bigger piece of IT pie
Consolidation in the federal information technology industry is on people's minds. The schedule for this year's Executive Leadership Conference includes a workshop on mergers and acquisitions. And rumors have been circulating about smaller companies up for sale. Some are quick to attribute the merg
Digital Government
Ph.D proves DOD on right procurement track
Doctoral dissertations on government procurement are not exactly a dime a dozen. I was therefore interested to see that a Ph.D thesis in public policy recently completed at Carnegie Mellon University, one of the country's most academically rigorous public policy programs, was an empirical study of
Digital Government
Trust your vendor, but verify the prices
I have been spending a good deal of my summer interviewing government contracting professionals for research that examines procurement reform at working levels of government organizations. One of the interesting things I've heard is that a number of government folks are worried that some contractor
Digital Government