NTOPS ahoy! The Naval Information Systems Management Center definitely plans to award its longawaited, $170 millionplus desktop and portable PC contract on Thursday. If the NTOPS award date slips yet again, NISMC boss Rear Adm. James Davidson promised to buy the Interceptor a drink. I hope Davids
NTOPS ahoy! The Naval Information Systems Management Center definitely plans to award its long-awaited, $170 million-plus desktop and portable PC contract on Thursday. If the NTOPS award date slips yet again, NISMC boss Rear Adm. James Davidson promised to buy the Interceptor a drink. I hope Davidson can find sarsaparilla in Crystal City. Confirmed bidders include ZDS and EDS.
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The Navdesk launch. Davidson said NISMC plans to quickly roll out the follow-on Navdesk PC buy, valued at $400 million to $500 million, with the first procurement documents ready to go in the first quarter of fiscal 1997.
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Three Navy CIOs? That's a distinct possibility because the Marines and the Navy inhabit one department, and each entity—the Navy, the Marines and the department as a whole—requires a CIO.
Vice Adm. Walt Davis has already been tapped as the service CIO for the Navy, and Maj. Gen. David Richwine has been selected as the Marine CIO.
I hear that the department is mulling whether to dual-hat Davis as the overall CIO. Other choices include RD&A head John Douglass or Marv Langston, head of the widget, intell, space and EW office.
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Ahh, GCCS nomenclature. As anyone who went through boot camp knows, the military approaches naming stuff with a semiotic fervor. Rear Adm. John Gauss, head of the JIEO office within DISA, is no exception to this rule, based on an e-mail of his that set down ironclad rules on GCCS nomenclature.
Some briefers, it turns out, summarize GCCS capabilities by referring to the names of the service systems that contributed pieces to the GCCS architecture.
No more, Gauss pronounced. GCCS is "NOT a system of systems," Gauss said. "It is DOD's INTEGRATED C4I system." Therefore, "all system names [except GCCS] must be removed and replaced with functional names.... This is not a guidance. It is a direction."
One can only hope when Gauss retires he goes to work for VDOT and assumes the same attitude toward the confusing signs on I-95, I-395 and I-495.
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No DCTN frequent flyer miles? The Interceptor has figured out the real reason for the falling-out between DISA and AT&T over DCTN: The company has canceled its "True Rewards" incentive calling program, good for redemption in frequent flyer miles.
The Interceptor recently received a letter announcing this cancellation and figured the same thing happened to DISA—which has probably racked up enough miles on DCTN to fund all DOD-scheduled air travel for a year. No wonder DISA wants to go the multiple-award route for DISN after this breach of faith.
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Feeding the Interceptor? According to a recent AT&T filing, MCI and Sprint have been spoon-feeding the Interceptor information to influence coverage in the never-ending litigation over DISN.
The Washington-based Sprint PR manager must find this one amusing; I'm quite sure she would agree that during the 10 years of our former marriage she could not influence me to do much of anything at all.