Digital Government

GSA plan to keep sked partners 'evergreen'

The General Services Administration this month completed work on a plan to let multipleaward schedule vendors remain in the program indefinitely through new 'evergreen' contracts that run five years and are followed by continuous fiveyear option periods. Bill Gormley, assistant commissioner for a

Digital Government

IAC elects new board members

The Industry Advisory Council, a group of private companies that sell information technology products and services to the federal government and a member council of the Federation of Government Information Processing Councils, this week announced its new executive board members, who will take office July 1.

Digital Government

TimePlex acquisition fills product line gapFCW-MKTT

TimePlex Federal Systems plans to begin offering to federal agencies an Asynchronous Transfer Mode concentrator that the company will sell as a result of its parent company's purchase of Simulation Laboratories Inc., a Defense Department contractor based in Ijamsville, Md. Leaders of TimePlex Inc.

Digital Government

CIO keeps focus on people

Perhaps no chief information officer in government has a past as varied as the General Services Administration's Shereen Remez. She has worked as a psychologist, an archivist, a marketing executive and a public affairs official. If that weren't enough variation, Remez plays classical guitar and is

Digital Government

Air Force cuts quick deals for PC BPAs

In an action that caught many PC manufacturers and resellers by surprise, the Air Force Standard Systems Group (SSG) last week quickly and quietly awarded two blanket purchase agreements for desktop computers and servers to Micron Electronics Inc. and Dell Computer Corp. The awards mark the end of

Digital Government

Contractors believe the GSA schedule is necessary for government business

Bowing to the wishes of their longstanding federal customers, information technology vendors have flocked to the General Services Administration's multipleaward schedule (MAS) this year in record numbers. Bill Gormley, assistant commissioner for acquisition at GSA's Federal Supply Service, said t

Digital Government

Protest delays N.Y. telecom buy

The General Services Administration's procurement for telecommunications services around New York City will be delayed at least a month by a protest charging the program is not sufficiently competitive. WinStar Communications Inc., a wireless communications service provider, filed the preaward pro

Digital Government

New Federal Grants System to Eliminate Confusion, Bureaucracy For State and Locals

New Federal Grants System to Eliminate Confusion, Bureaucracy For State and Locals

Digital Government

Protest delays GSA's N.Y. telecom buy

The pace and intensity of cyberattacks against Defense Department computers and networks has increased so much that the Pentagon now considers itself continually at war.

Digital Government

Sprint unveils new ATM-based service

Although no federal agencies will serve in the first round of beta tests of Sprint's new Project FastBreak, officials at the company said they believe the government eventually will take advantage of the plan to offer customers unlimited bandwidth for simultaneous voice, data and video transmissions.

Digital Government

GSA sets its sights on Web-based employee IT training

The General Services Administration is planning a World Wide Webbased information technology training program for agency employees that may eventually be opened up to other agencies, according to Shereen Remez, GSA's chief information officer.

Digital Government

Senate panel berates OMB over outsourcing

Members of a Senate oversight committee today criticized the Office of Management and Budget for failing to push civilian agencies to identify commercial activities within their organizations that could potentially be outsourced to the private sector.

Digital Government

New switch products from GDC, Fore improve ATM bandwidth

Asynchronous Transfer Mode technology, still viewed as the preferred future networking technology by most agencies, continues to move forward with announcements by General DataComm Inc. of an upgrade to its voiceoverATM technology and by Fore Systems Inc. of a new highbandwidth switch. GDC offic

Digital Government

AMS to update financial management system

The General Services Administration in May began switching its decadesold, mainframebased financial management system to a new offtheshelf, client/server system provided by American Management Systems Inc. Bill Topolewski, director of GSA's Office of Financial Management Systems, said the agenc

Digital Government

GAO: GSA's performance plan 'falls short' of results act

The General Accounting Office reported this month that the General Services Administration's fiscal 1999 performance plan, which is required by the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), fails to take into account that problems in the agency's administrative information systems will have a

Digital Government

School district extravagance jeopardizes E-Rate program

The Clinton administration's plan to offer discounted telecommunications services to school districts so they can connect students to the Internet may be jeopardized by school districts abusing the program and by too little oversight on the part of the federal government.

Digital Government

GSA will offer agencies acquisition training pacts

Looking to help agencies better educate their procurement personnel, the General Services Administration plans to issue a solicitation next month for the government's first series of interagency contracts for acquisition training courses. Ida Ustad, GSA's deputy associate administrator for acquisit

Digital Government

GSA, vendors near legal battle over universal service fees

The General Services Administration appears headed for a legal confrontation with AT&T and Sprint over $6.6 million that the companies have charged users of the FTS 2000 contract to fund the Clinton administration's universal service plan. AT&T and Sprint have been charging agencies a 4.9 percent u

Digital Government

Bell Atlantic gets jump on Pentagon overhaul

While the Defense Department evaluates finals bids on the longawaited contract to provide the aboveground communications infrastructure for the Pentagon renovation project, Bell Atlantic Federal Systems has been working for months on the new infrastructure in the basement and mezzanine levels of

Digital Government

Intergovernmental Open System Awards Announced

Intergovernmental Open System Awards Announced