People
HHS posts comparative price data on medical procedures
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services today posted on its Web site what Medicare pays for 30 common elective procedures and other hospital admissions.<@SM>
Modernization
OPM taps Accenture for retirement system support
Under the $40 million contract, Accenture will provide more efficient IT and business systems to expedite how federal retirees receive retirement benefit checks.<@SM><@SM>
People
OMB’s Koller moving to DOD
Jack Koller, the government-to-citizen portfolio manager for the Office of Management and Budget’s e-government projects, is joining the Defense Department.<@SM>
People
SBA's Business Gateway has new leader
The Small Business Administration has named Nancy Sternberg project manager for its fledgling Business Gateway e-government initiative and plans to relaunch the project in September.<@SM><@SM>
Modernization
OMB releases financial-management guidance
The Migration Planning Guidance aims to answer procedural questions and provide insight when agencies conduct competitions for financial-management services from a public or private shared-service provider.<@SM>
Modernization
DOD, NewVectors in deal for business transformation support
The Defense Department has awarded a $7.7 million contract to NewVectors LLC that extends and expands the scope of the company’s efforts in support of DOD’s Business Transformation Agency.<@SM>
People
Commerce signs up for security training
The Commerce Department has awarded a task order to the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, or (ISC)2, to provide an expanded information security education program for the department’s information security employees.
Modernization
Too much for NSA to mine?
The commotion over allegations that the National Security Agency has been secretly compiling data on millions of telephone calls made by ordinary citizens raises an interesting question: With the technologies in place today, how well can NSA actually mine the information it gathers?<@SM>
Modernization
Intelligence community to reboot security
The intelligence community is turning to Defense services and agencies, industry and academia to help them overhaul their outdated and ineffective certification and accreditation processes. This month, personnel will begin receiving invitations to participate in one of two teams that will ultimately make suggestions on how to improve certification and accreditation processes across the intelligence community.
People
White House wants limits on competitive sourcing out of funding bill
The Bush administration wants Congress to alter language in pending appropriations legislation that prevents several key agencies—such as the Agriculture and Interior departments—from participating in certain E-government initiatives and limits the agencies' use of competitive sourcing.
People
Justice to gauge agencies' case management needs
The Justice Department will gather case management requirements through the summer of other agencies that conduct law enforcement.<@SM>
Modernization
OMB to spell out financial LOB process
If competition is the foundation of the Office of Management and Budget’s Financial Management Line of Business Consolidation initiative, the administration’s migration planning guidance will be the blueprint agencies need to really understand how to assemble it.<@SM>
Modernization
HUD’s team effort
In its Vision 2010 document released in February, the Housing and Urban Development Department laid out its modernization strategy around its core lines of business. To get there in about four years, the department will rely on portfolio and project management—the basic tenets of any large system modernization effort.
Digital Government
When data centers lose their cool
Lately, the weather inside data centers has grown unmanageably hot, forcing IT managers to reconsider plans they’d taken for granted. And data center modernization—the unglamorous second cousin to today’s business systems modernization—has become essential.
People
Agencies are enlisted to help lobby Congress for more support of e-gov
As the Office of Management and Budget steps up efforts to lobby Congress on the benefits of E-government, officials want agencies to do their share, too. In the latest President’s Management Agenda scorecard, nine agencies slipped in the E-government portion, and OMB officials are putting agencies on notice that they must do a better job of promoting their case on Capitol Hill.
Modernization
How to chill out
It isn’t sexy, but IT managers will tell you that keeping a data center properly cooled is an ongoing challenge. An average rack of servers once consumed roughly five kilowatts per hour. Today it’s not unusual for a rack of servers to consume seven, 15 or up to 30 kWh in ultradense, blade-filled racks. That’s expensive—and hot.<@SM>
People
OPM finally gets rolling on a new retirement system
It has been a long time coming, but the Office of Personnel Management seems to be on track to revolutionize how the government tracks, maintains and processes retirement information for its employees.<@SM>
Modernization
Agencies chip away at BSMs
GAO has for years critiqued the efforts of federal agencies to modernize their business processes and the IT that drives them. A report released earlier this year highlighted a continuing lack of discipline on processes including requirements management, testing, data conversion, system interfaces, and risk and project management.
Modernization
Energy contract stirs conflict
Problems with large government IT contracts grab headlines every day, but small awards can be just as much trouble. Just ask the Energy Department. A recent award, to a software supplier whose offer was priced substantially higher than two competitors and rated lower on technical merits, is one example.
People
GSA awards Raytheon FirstGov.gov task order
The General Services Administration has tapped Raytheon Co.’s Information Solutions to provide new hosting and professional services solutions to a handful of government Web portals, including FirstGov.gov.<@SM>
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