Digital Government

Date-conversion biz lags for vendors

Although the government predicts it will spend billions of dollars fixing potential Year 2000 problems in its software programs most of the activity to date has been done within agencies with little business surfacing for product and service vendors. Federal agencies now have less than 30 months to

Digital Government

FAA, partners mold free flight

Partnering agreements with federal agencies and private organizations are helping the Federal Aviation Administration develop its revolutionary concept of air traffic management called free flight FAA officials testified at a hearing last week. The free flight system will use an integrated network

Digital Government

ITG protests courts'$30M award to BTG

Integration Technologies Group Inc. this month filed a protest against the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts' (AOUSC) recent award of a 10year $30 million contract to develop a nationwide relational database management system for judicial applications. ITG which bid on the SQL Database Mana

Digital Government

Report: Agencies' Internet, BBS tab hits $349 million

Federal agencies spent $349 million on Internet and electronic bulletin board system activities from fiscal 1994 through 1996 according to a report that was released last week by the General Accounting Office. The bulk of the expenditures about $325 million was spent on giving employees access to t

Digital Government

Net fills FACNET void

After several years of feetdragging on a government mandate to do business electronically federal agencies are embracing the Internet as an inexpensive easy and fast way to conduct electronic commerce. The availability of new commercial products and tools along with easy access to the Internet are

Digital Government

FAA's new aeronautical system will ease flight-plan filing

The Federal Aviation Administration plans this year to roll out a new intranet system that will make it easier and faster for military pilots to plan and file flight plans and to access uptotheminute weather data.The Aeronautical Information System (AIS) will replace the current 20yearold text

Digital Government

Motorola taps Entex for GSA push

In an effort to attract new business for the federal state and local governments Motorola Inc.'s networking unit plans to offer its complete product line on Entex Information Services' General Services Administration schedule. "This will be the beginning of a change for us " said Scott Merriman d

Digital Government

USPS nixes $30M contract, opts for 'preferred' partners

The U.S. Postal Service last week canceled a $30 million contract for software to manage its air highway and rail transportation networks in favor of procuring the services under its recently announced "master" contracts. The Transportation and Logistics Software contract called for winning vendo

Digital Government

Vendors work for one e-mail protocol

Security vendors are working to merge two security standards for electronic messaging that would make it easier for military and civilian agencies to send secure electronic mail to each other. For years there have been several competing standards to secure email but none of these could interoperat

Digital Government

Unisys offers feds on-line ordering

Unisys Federal Systems Division has formed a new venture called Select IT that will let government users order offtheshelf computer products online and have them delivered within one to two days. The new service announced last week gives users access to more than 35 000 products sold by six majo

Digital Government

'Master' agreements to integrate agency

In what it characterizes as a new way of doing business for systems development the U.S. Postal Service has announced plans to award seven longterm 'master' contracts for particular functional areas that span the department. With the socalled Preferred Supplier/Partner Agreements USPS will hire o

Digital Government

Five vendors tappedfor $100M Y2K work

The U.S. Postal Service this week is expected to sign ordering agreements with five vendors to provide wideranging Year 2000 services for the agency nationwide agreements that could be worth $100 million in business according to industry sources. The five vendors Computer Sciences Corp. Unisys

Digital Government

Census launches pact to outsource data centers

The Census Bureau last month released a statement of work for the second part of a system that will for the first time electronically capture data for the 2000 census. With the Data Capture Services Contract (DCSC) the bureau is looking for a contractor that will acquire and manage a number of data

Digital Government

FAA weighs leasing option for computer equipment

Looking for more flexibility in how it procures computer equipment the Federal Aviation Administration is considering leasing computer equipment including its desktops and servers instead of buying what it needs outright. The FAA is looking at the benefits of leasing on a broad scale with interGMT

Digital Government

ICEMAN goes to the White House

Members of Congress sent a letter to the White House late last month expressing concerns about a recent $250 million Federal Aviation Administration award to the Agriculture Department for data processing services. The FAA awarded the Integrated Computing EnvironmentMainframe and Networking (ICEMA

Digital Government

GAO: IT projects need financial makeover

The General Accounting Office told Congress last week that the Transportation Department must improve the way it buys and accounts for costs on information technology projects.

Digital Government

Census counts on Lockheed to build $49M imaging system

The Census Bureau this month awarded to Lockheed Martin Federal Systems a $49 million contract to build the system that will digitally capture data from the tens of millions of census forms sent in for the 2000 census. Lockheed Martin and its subcontractors Electronic Data Systems Corp. and CACI In

Digital Government

USPS delivers $3 billion MNS contract to MCI

The U.S. Postal Service last week awarded the largest telecommunications contract in its history to MCI. Called Managed Network Services the contract may be worth as much as $3 billion over 11 years as MCI builds manages and owns the telecommunications infrastructure that will support retail termin

Digital Government

NOAA and NASA prep for launch of next GOES

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA are preparing to launch a new weather satellite next month that will provide realtime weather data that will be used to develop shortterm weather forecasts. Data from the satellite called Geostationary Operational Environmental Satell

Digital Government

FDA lures 8(a)s to IT buy valued up to $200 million

The Food and Drug Administration issued a solicitation last week for networking services and products thought to be the largest 8(a) information technology buy ever launched by the FDA.The FDA Network Acquisition and Support contract a multipleaward indefinitedelivery indefinitequantity contract