Managing any large project is a challenge. Imagine managing a project involving 15 different groups, spread across multiple university labs across the country, dealing with massive amounts of information.
This is the challenge facing the National Human Genome Research Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health, which launched the third iteration of the ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project early in October. Keep reading →
For the past three years, we’ve been studying how the consumerization of IT has been impacting enterprises, including government. As Unisys’ third annual Consumerization of IT research study indicates, the growth of mobile device use in government and the private sector continues – with 44% of workers now using smartphones at work. That’s a 300% increase from three years ago, according to Forrester Consulting, which conducted the study for Unisys.
Tablets, which were rarely used at all two years ago, are now increasingly becoming the computing device of choice for many in today’s workforce. Driven by the adoption of new end user mobile technologies, government agencies are beginning to create innovative new ways of conducting business. Keep reading →
The federal government is on the brink of a perfect storm of management challenges. For better or worse, that also presents the nation’s leaders with an opportunity to dramatically reshape how it delivers services, in part by embracing digital technology in new and more powerful ways.
Either way, national leaders moving into new positions at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in the coming few weeks will have to look seriously at real and “virtual” ways of reorganizing federal bureaucracies, say a group of public administration experts. Keep reading →
How well are you doing and how do you know?
For many federal agencies, answering these questions can be intimidating, because, frankly, measuring mission impact is hard. Keep reading →
Those of us in the airport business take pride in the community and job growth we contribute in good times and bad, so it’s not often we sound the alarm on behalf of more than 400 locally-run economic engines. But sequestration threatens to stall more of our future than many people realize.
Sequestration risks $500 billion in cuts to non-defense federal spending an outcome that is predicted to come down hard on funding for the Next Generation Air Transportation System known as NextGen, and the jobs and economic growth our airports provide. Keep reading →
I ‘m in Seoul, South Korea, this week for a Global e-Government Forum. Seoul is 13 hours ahead of Washington, DC, so for more than half the day, it’s tomorrow. But that’s not the only way that Seoul is in the future. The smell of kimchi mixes with the omnipresent electronica of smartphone rings and tablet notifications.
The Samsung building is visible from my hotel room, and its logo appears on at a majority of devices I’ve seen in this city. I’ve learned that this country is home to nearly 50 million people and 30 million smartphones, about 10% higher than smartphone usage in the U.S. Keep reading →
The IRS, FEMA and a growing number of other federal agencies are turning the art of analytics into an increasingly powerful workplace discipline that is helping agencies and their employees improve their collective performance. Keep reading →
UPDATED with additional data. The federal government’s ongoing budget woes will result in flat-lined technology budgets over the next five years, forcing agencies to move aggressively away from outdated technologies to make the most of limited budgets, a new report by the TechAmerica Foundation predicted.
Compounding the challenge for agencies is Congressional gridlock over the budget and the looming possibility of sequestration which is hitting the government in the middle of an ambitious technology transformation program, said TechAmerica analyst Robert Haas.
The combination of uncertainty and lack of funds is causing agencies to reassess how they manage older systems and acquire new technologies, he said.
All of that is set against a backdrop of broader uncertainty of how Congress will address the so-called fiscal cliff, involving the expiration of tax breaks and forced budget cuts due to trigger in the new year. Unless Congress takes other steps, the Budget Control Act would force automatic cuts of an estimated $1.2 trillion in federal spending spread evenly over a nine year period beginning in 2013.
Many agencies, as a consequence, are pursuing a strategy of shifting existing funds into new systems and away from older systems. This leads to what Haas referred to as “creative destruction” or the withering of older systems in favor of the new.
Spending in the federal IT market will remain relatively flat through 2018, Haas said. The 2013 budget allocates $73.5 billion for IT projects, with a slight rise to $77.2 billion projected for 2018. But inflation will erode the real value of that spending he said, reducing the effective value of the 2018 funding in constant dollars to about $70.2 billion.
Civilian government IT spending for 2013 will be $40.8 billion and raise slightly to $43.5 billion in 2018. Because of the flat budgets, federal agencies are becoming more aggressive in shifting resources away from legacy systems to newer equipment and software, Haas said.
After a series of funding cuts in recent years, the Defense Department IT budget will remain stable for the next five years, Haas said. The 2013 Defense IT budget is $32.7 billion and is predicted to remain steady at $33.7 billion in 2018.
Sequestration, however, would have an overwhelming impact on defense operations, requiring $52.3 billion in DoD reductions in fiscal year 2013, affecting readiness, training, civilian personnel, military families, services and support, all of which would seriously affect DoD technology investments.
Over the next five years, the DOD will focus on integrating its IT infrastructure by merging telecommunications, satellite communications, networks, wireless systems and computers into a single architecture. Part of this activity includes ongoing efforts to consolidate data centers and move to a cloud computing environment, Haas said.
The Federal IT forecasts are part of new report being released at a conference Oct. 17 that provides detailed predictions of future information technology spending for all major civilian and defense agencies as well as the General Services Administration. It also provides an outlook of IDIQ contract vehicles and other acquisition trends.The report outlines five possible scenarios of how Congress might tackle the looming Budget Control Act cuts, summarized in the following slides:
Charts courtesy of TechAmerica Foundation.
Getting better performance out of supply chain and operations activities is not at the top of everyone’s priority list, but it should be. In today’s world, moving things smartly and efficiently – regardless of whether they are people, product or petabytes – is paramount to success.
This challenge is not a new one. But, the pressures of meeting customer demands, fulfilling their mission requirements, and maintaining high service levels is significantly complicated at a time of diminishing budgets. Even though government organizations recognize the importance of making their operations more efficient, leaders must prove the benefit of the change before investing time, people, and money in system and process improvements. Keep reading →
Pentagon Issues Buying Rules For Zombie Apocalypse (Hint: Parody)
By AOL StaffEveryone knows the global zombie apocalypse is coming soon. I’m here to tell you the military acquisition community needs to take it as seriously as the CDC does. If we’re going to survive the Day / Night / Return / Dawn / Shaun of the Living / Evil / Walking Dead, we’re gonna need some rules. For the convenience of my fellow military technologists, I respectfully offer the following:
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This story comes courtesy of our colleagues at Breaking Defense.
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Rule 1: Small Business
More than 1.05 million people are employed in the US aerospace and defense industry. These individuals are often found in big companies and are regularly described as having “big brains.” This concentration of larger than average cranial volume makes these companies prime zombie targets. The most reliable projections indicate complete zombification of all major defense contractors within 28 hours of the initial outbreak. Keep reading →