AFFIRM

The Next Big Issue Federal IT Officials Will Need To Tackle

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Procurement is emerging as one of the most significant issues facing federal information technology leaders as the Obama administration begins its second term, a top ranking government IT official said this week.

More and more federal agencies are making the leap to cloud computing, adopting mobile technologies and developing APIs to share information. But agency IT leaders remain hampered from moving faster by contracting constraints that make it hard to make cross-agency buys, said Richard Spires, chief information officer for the Department of Homeland Security and vice chairman of the Federal CIO Council. Keep reading →

Published November 16, 2012 at 8:00 AM

VanRoekel, Park Dive Deeper Into Digital Strategy

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Fresh off of a splashy announcement of the new federal digital strategy in New York, Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel and Federal Chief Technology Officer Todd Park described some of the details of the plan on home turf Thursday.

The pair addressed about 200 government insiders at an event hosted by the ACT-IAC and AFFIRM in a Department of Interior auditorium. (Watch the recorded video.) Keep reading →

Published May 24, 2012 at 7:00 PM

OMB Releases White House Digital Strategy

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The Office of Management and Budget unveiled a long-awaited roadmap today on how federal agencies are to more fully embrace, and prioritize the use of, digital technology.

The new strategy — “Digital Government: Building A 21st Century Platform To Better Serve The American People” — lays out a framework and a set of action plans over the next 12 months for moving information safely and securely to the right stakeholders while using fewer resources. Keep reading →

Published May 23, 2012 at 10:11 AM

VanRoekel Hints At Plans Behind Digital Strategy Due Out This Week

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Federal CIO Steve VanRoekel is expected to release the details this week of a long-awaited digital strategy document, laying out his vision and direction for how federal agencies should expect to use information and mobile technologies moving into the future.

Agency CIOs and others who’ve seen the document aren’t saying what’s in it. And VanRoekel didn’t tip his hand Sunday evening during a keynote speech to a group of government and contracting executives gathered in Baltimore to attend the Government Information Technology Executive Council (GITEC) summit. Keep reading →

Published May 21, 2012 at 7:05 AM

Emerging Technologies Point To New Potential For Innovation

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The convergence of several rapidly evolving technologies is creating new potential for innovation at federal agencies, a group of senior government officials said at a technology and innovation forum held in Washington, D.C., April 24.

The accelerating adoption of cloud computing strategies, the consumerization and commoditization of IT, the integration of mobile devices and applications in the workplace, the rise of social media, and the need to process exponentially greater volumes of data are each unleashing new and more cost effective ways to work, the officials said. Keep reading →

Published April 26, 2012 at 1:33 PM

Centralized Services Make More Sense As Mobile Movement Grows

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Government has never lacked for big ideas. Getting them accomplished has been another story, although the nation’s interstate highway system, the Internet and landing men on the moon are among just a few examples of where the federal government has succeeded in doing amazing things.

One of the big–if not quite so lofty–ideas now being floated in planning discussions among senior IT leaders at the Office of Management and Budget, is a long term view towards developing a government-wide entity to supply the back office computing systems and core business services for federal agencies. Keep reading →

Published March 16, 2012 at 3:00 PM

VanRoekel To Elaborate On 2012 Federal Mobility Plans In Live Video Event

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Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel is expected to elaborate on a new set of mobile government initiatives during a speech scheduled this Friday that will be broadcast live over the Internet by the trade group AFFIRM and by Breaking Gov.

The broadcast will appear on AFFIRM’s website and carried by Breaking Gov on this page Jan. 13, beginning at noon eastern standard time. (A recorded version of VanRoekel’s remarks are now available here.) Keep reading →

Published January 12, 2012 at 11:51 AM

Government Contracting Opportunities Remain Vibrant Despite Budget Cuts

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UPDATED Dec. 13 with video synopsis. Despite the looming threat of significant, across the board budget cuts for federal agencies, there are still major government contracting opportunities that will remain vibrant into the near future. And regardless if you’re a large government contractor, small business or agency program manager, you need to know where to look before you can take advantage of these opportunities.

That was the underlying message at a monthly luncheon forum on Government Acquisition Trends and Techniques Dec. 8, hosted by the Association For Federal Information Resources Management (AFFIRM). Keep reading →

Published December 12, 2011 at 3:34 PM

Why Agencies Are Racing To Embrace Agile Development

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When it comes to buying and delivering government technology projects, few approaches seem to have caught the attention of federal officials the way agile development has.

And there’s good reason, according to management specialists from the Department of Defense, the Department of Agriculture, the FBI and the General Services Administration who spoke at a Washington forum Oct. 14 about how agile development is making inroads in government. Keep reading →

Published October 17, 2011 at 10:05 AM