In honor of Women’s History Month, Breaking Gov highlights women’s relatively recent breakthrough in the growing and increasingly crucial world of federal IT. This is the first of a three-part series on women in federal IT that reveals who these leaders are and how they’re making a difference.
Just 15 years ago, women were the exception in federal IT roles. In fact, at the time, men claimed every top federal technology job in government. Keep reading →
To say the odds are stacked against small businesses targeting federal government contracts can be an understatement. At times, it can resemble a storybook version of David vs. Goliath.
Some of the standard challenges that pester all government contractors are lack of education and understanding of small business programs, lack of time and resources, extended long sales cycles and procurement red tape. So when small businesses manage to beat these odds, they definitely deserve recognition. Keep reading →
Nearly 300 government, health and education IT officials trekked to the 10th annual Public Sector CIO Summit in Redmond, Wash., last week sponsored by Microsoft. For those who couldn’t make the trip, Breaking Gov sat down with Greg Myers, who heads Microsoft‘s federal business, to get his read on what agency officials are asking for most – and what he thought were the highlights for federal IT officers at this year’s summit.
Myers, a former Oracle and BearingPoint executive who joined Microsoft in 2009, spoke with Breaking Gov Editorial Director, Wyatt Kash, about the coming merger of IT and telecommunications, the growing importance of cross platform eDiscovery, what’s ahead in cloud computing and mobility, and what federal officials can expect from Windows 8, Skype, and other Microsoft products. Keep reading →
More than a dozen CIOs and senior IT managers from the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday told a gathering of industry executives that mobile computing and communications technologies are among the agency’s top strategic IT imperatives.
Speaking at the DHS Information Technology Industry Day, members of the DHS CIO Council and other senior IT program managers underscored the urgent need to modernize outdated systems for new mobile applications while maintaining the agency’s need for security and reliability. Keep reading →
A GAO report to Congress has identified several areas where the government duplicates efforts, creating unnecessary costs and inefficiencies, but also reflects an improvement over last year.
The 2012 Duplicative Program Report, recently released by the Government Accountability Office, identified 51 areas “where programs may be able to achieve greater efficiencies or become more effective in providing government services.” Keep reading →
As economic challenges remain across the board, and budget cutting becomes a reality, government organizations are particularly sensitive to implementing new IT programs at minimal cost, and delivering results as quickly as possible, to ensure projects get funded through to completion – and results justify the resource commitments being made.
Lean Six Sigma approaches help ensure efficiency and stakeholder buy-in, and dynamic Business Process Management (BPM) software delivers the results, with deployments often within 6-8 months. We encourage government IT organizations to consider applying this winning technology combination to their next IT project. Marrying Lean Six Sigma with dynamic BPM can ensure stakeholder engagement and real results – fast. Keep reading →
Non-IT professional services continue to represent a major share of government contract spending. While the General Services Administration’s Schedules program offers technology and other professional services on an a la carte basis, agencies have asked us to provide a total professional services solution, which often requires acquisition of multiple services across separate functional areas.
To answer this request, GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service is preparing a business case for approval by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a new contract vehicle that we are calling Integrations.
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This article was adapted from a blog post originally published on GSA’s website.
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Chris Vein works for two prominent Obama administration officials who are always in the limelight. Consequently Vein doesn’t get a lot of publicity. If you do a search on his name, the “news” results shows very little.
And that’s all fine with Vein, the deputy Chief Technology Officer. He reports to the chief technology officer (the post Aneesh Chopra held before stepping down earlier this month) and also to John Holdren, the senior advisor to the president for Science and Technology. Both have been highly visible – and in Holdren’s case, controversial – appointees.
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This article originally appeared on FedInsider.com
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COMMENTARY – Transparency, accountability and auditability are central to the federal push for open government. Nowhere is the need for improvement and reform greater than in the federal procurement process.
Procurement professionals, however, are hamstrung from being able to answer even the most basic Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) audit questions, in terms of the procurement and delivery of services. Keep reading →
Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel recently announced the development of a new Mobile Strategy at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. I was there, and was glad to hear his perspective on the potential of mobile technology for government, especially since GSA has been working hard to realize that potential.
Putting mobile IT to the test Keep reading →