People

USDA secretary takes e-gov case to Congress

With e-gov funding at risk, Agriculture secretary Ann M. Veneman took the unusual step of writing directly to Congress.

Modernization

Points of order

Agencies struggling to manage their electronic records are getting some direction from the E-Government Electronic Records Management initiative.

People

Records are records, no matter what the format

A case a few years ago involving the Bureau of Indian Affairs underscores what can happen when an agency hasn’t implemented effective policies and procedures to preserve and protect electronic correspondence.

Modernization

Formatting the future

Five years ago, U.S. Courts started putting in place an electronic docket-filing system.

Modernization

Data management’s misconceptions

On his way to an academic career, Fabian Pascal took a detour into database management systems.

Modernization

TSA site lets travelers check wait time

The Transportation Security Administration didn’t wait around when it decided to put security checkpoint length-of-wait information online.

Modernization

Complexity slows FAA Delphi rollout

The Federal Aviation Administration’s installation of a new financial system has created a steep learning curve for its users.

Modernization

Army centralizes IT services and applications

The Army’s third version of its knowledge management portal will make it easier for users to share a key resource—information.

Modernization

OMB to call for shared finance and HR apps

The Bush administration is crafting a plan to outsource the government’s financial and human resources processing to vendors and federal service centers. <b>Tim Young</b>, OMB’s associate administrator for e-government and IT, has said the plan involves “...IT hosting services at a minimum."

Modernization

Power of the portal

Technology has always been an enabler for knowledge management, but “for the first time portal technology is now the driver,” the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.’s Elsa Rhoads says.

People

Unisys to help DOD with health care records

The Defense Department has awarded Unisys Corp. a contract potentially worth more than $130 million to provide worldwide implementation and training services for the department’s electronic medical records system.

Modernization

From e-forms to workflow

When sales representatives from Adobe Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. come calling to chat about electronic forms, they will say that e-forms and workflow are closely intertwined.

Modernization

Navy may face problems with DD(X) engineering development models

As the Navy builds and tests 10 subsystems under its multibillion-dollar DD(X) warships program, the Government Accountability Office has found that none of the technologies used in the engineering development models will demonstrate a high level of maturity before a contract is awarded for construction of the first ship.

Modernization

SBA attributes agency ‘greening’ to better management, accountability

Not too long ago, the Small Business Administration’s IT projects were in disarray. But management practices instituted by Stephen Galvan, now SBA’s chief of staff and chief operating officer, and deputy CIO Jerry Williams started to take hold. <@SM>

Modernization

Five lines-of-business projects are under way

Finance and human resources are two of five lines-of-business consolidation efforts.

Modernization

Paper Cut

The Office of Management and Budget last year began requiring all Exhibit 300 data to be tagged in Extensible Markup Language—a change that distressed more than a few agency planners.

People

Council sets $35m plan for e-acquisition in ’06

The government’s procurement chiefs know what they want to spend on a federal acquisition portal; now they have to make sure the government’s money chiefs will pony up the funding.

Modernization

Sharing-in-savings leaves many in the dark

There’s been much talk this year about the potential in government for share-in-savings contracting, in which a vendor provides some or all development funds for a project and gets paid out of the resulting savings.

Modernization

Input sought on governmentwide case management system

The Office of Management and Budget and the Justice and Homeland Security departments are asking for vendor input on how to develop a governmentwide investigative case management system.

People

On-the-record discussions

A conference this month in Washington sponsored by the Federal Library and Information Center Committee took a close look at progress on e-government, including such aspects as categorizing information, and managing records and Web content.