We mostly think of diversity and inclusion issues as it relates to people and organizations. The benefit of thinking in this dimension comes from bringing in groups of people with a broad range of experiences, styles, and approaches to solve organizational problems in creative ways. Keep reading →
Verizon’s plans to eliminate unlimited use plans should accelerate the federal government’s push to leverage Uncle Sam’s buying power to get lower prices and enhanced services from the carriers and the device manufacturers, a federal IT marketplace expert said Friday.
According to a CNET report, Verizon Wireless officials on Thursday clarified plans to discontinue unlimited data plans, saying customers could keep their existing unlimited data plans if they keep their existing device or buy a new device at the full retail cost of the smartphone. In other words, the report states, if a customer renews a contract and purchases a subsidized phone, they would lose the option to keep the unlimited plan. Keep reading →
The Pentagon’s most expensive program, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, might prove to be as vulnerable to enemy hackers as inadequately armored Humvees were to roadside bombs, and could prove even more costly to remedy, warned former vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. James Cartwright, USMC (Ret.)
“We built the F-35 with absolutely no protection for it from a cyber standpoint,” he said, speaking at the annual Joint Warfighting Conference hosted by the US Naval Institute and the industry group AFCEA, according to a report on Breaking Defense, an affiliate of Breaking Gov. Keep reading →
Recognizing the importance of small businesses to the government IT community, ACT-IAC sponsored the 6th annual Small Business Conference called ConnectSB: Accelerate and Achive earlier this week. The event focused on the unique needs and benefits of small businesses and also tried to promote the value of small businesses to the government and large corporations seeking small business partners.
A frequent theme of government conferences like these is innovation, which has come to mean doing more (work) with less (federal employees).
But I decided what this conference should actually be called is “doing more (work) with more (talent).”
The idea for the suggestion came during the federal agency workshops part of the conference where attendees got to hear from three of nine leading agencies. I elected to listen to the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security – ICE , and Department of Veterans Affairs. During those sessions individuals from the CIO office, the program office, the acquisition office and the small business office, provided a panel that presented their experience and then answered questions.
Keep reading →
The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) released a second “Myth-Busting” memo Monday addressing misconceptions about acquisition processes.
In the memo, Acting Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy Lesley A. Field states that federal agencies have taken significant additional steps to improve communications between federal agencies and the vendor community since the first “Myth-Busting” memo was released last year. OFPP has issued the second memorandum to continue that process. Keep reading →
Navigating the complex federal contracting road that small businesses travel when pursuing business with the federal government can be daunting. The key to successfully partnering with the federal government is through the mutual sharing of information between government and industry and by understanding how the government procures its goods and services.
The challenge for small business is the education required to follow the right road that will lead a small business to accelerate and achieve success. Keep reading →
Women in government technology provide much more than a shift in statistics. The diversity provides a hotbed for innovative ideas, top female executives said during a keynote session at the annual FOSE convention in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
“There’s a real business reason to think about how we bring more women into the workforce,” said Lisa Schlosser, deputy associate administrator in the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of E-Government and Technology. “The fact of the matter is that bringing diversity into the workplace inspires more ideas and innovation.” Keep reading →
The General Services Administration’s decision to abandon a 50-year old conference franchise, known as IRMCO, in favor of a new one-day symposium dedicated to advancing acquisition, proved to be a winning move for GSA Thursday and a step forward for the acquisition community.
The new forum may have done more to reveal than relieve the strains that exist between federal acquisition specialists and those they buy for and from. But it did succeed in bringing together many of the government’s top acquisition and technology officials–and more than 600 government and industry executives–to focus on ways to improve how the federal government buys technology. Keep reading →
Two of the leaders of the Federal Cloud Computing Initiative, Dawn Leaf, NIST Senior Executive for Cloud Computing, and David McClure, GSA Associate Administrator of the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, said building trust between providers and suppliers of cloud computing is a top priority.
Speaking at the Quarterly Meeting of the Cloud Standards Customer Council Summit this week, they addressed members from consumer companies around the world who recognize that a common interoperable platform for the cloud is essential to meet corporate needs today and tomorrow. Keep reading →
“The unthinkable has become thinkable,” a senior federal procurement official declared today as agencies consider new technology solutions in the face of increasingly stark budget choices.
“Five years ago, decisions we would not touch,” such as giving up control over agency IT systems,” today are on the plate and (we are) seriously considering,”said Mark Day (pictured at left above), director for Strategic Solutions the General Service Administration‘s Integrated Technology Services, a part of the GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service. Keep reading →