CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story contained an inaccurate description about the change to the public feed from the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation. Federal News Radio regrets the error. This story has been updated.

The Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation will change the way it provides public feeds of procurement data on Nov. 21.

The General Services Administration, which runs FPDS-NG, said the public ATOM feeds will be updated by masking select data elements, specifically company’s DUNS number.

Why is this important?

Experts say the impact likely will be felt most by government contractors and good government groups.

A GSA official said the ATOM feed no longer will include the DUNS numbers for the intermediary companies, only the parent company, called the Global Ultimate DUNS Number, and the part of the company subsidiary that won the award from the government.

The change to the ATOM Feed only applies to the need to mask four data elements representing the headquarters/parent DUNS numbers and domestic ultimate DUNS numbers and the corresponding names for each.

The official said the change is necessary because under the contract with Dun and Bradstreet the government doesn’t have access to the other data to make it public.

Guy Timberlake, chief visionary officer and CEO of the American Small Business Coalition, wrote in a recent blog post that the change in the ATOM feed would be significant because of all the different numerical codes the government requires, making it more difficult to understand the data.

He said vendors need to register in the System for Award Management (SAM) to get a CAGE Code in order to do business with the government. To get a CAGE Code, a company needs a number from Dun and Bradstreet. The DUNS number and CAGE code are different, and they two are bound only by the company’s Tax ID number (TIN).

The CAGE code could be the next step in mapping the hierarchy internally of contract awards. It’s unclear whether the government will use CAGE Codes to replace D&B numbers, but some experts say it’s certainly a first step to expand the potential tracking of awards at a higher level and one that’s not tied to one, proprietary approach.

The change to FPDS-NG isn’t new, Timberlake said vendors have had more than a year to prepare.

At least for one market research firm, Deltek, the change isn’t a big deal.

Kevin Plexico, Deltek’s vice president of information solutions, said his company’s approach to tracking and mapping contracting opportunities will not be affected.

“I do think as the government makes this data less useful, they will need to take on a greater role of managing company hierarchies, such as through CAGE codes to accomplish what they are currently leveraging D&B to accomplish,” Plexico said by email. “I think it will impact any organization trying to make use of the data for competitor intelligence.

“It will make it much more time consuming to rationalize. For commercial providers, they are going to have to have other techniques to rationalize their data, but it will help justify the need for companies to leverage commercial providers who’ve done the heavy lifting for them. It is not a major problem but it is frustrating for transparency unless the government comes up with another method of their own for managing company associations.”

It seems GSA gave companies plenty of warning and time to prepare for the change — which is the good news. But it also signifies increasing concerns about using DUNS’ proprietary numbering system, which are mostly raised by good government groups in relation to the DATA Act.

V endors should get ready to do the two-step for the Veterans Affairs Department.

VA will release by Nov. 21 a request for proposals for a new commercial scheduling system and integration services for that scheduling software with its VISTA health IT system.

Steph Warren, the VA chief information officer and executive in charge of Information and Technology, said Friday during a press call with reporters that the second of two solicitations is just about ready.

“We are looking for a commercially available solution. Something that is already out there and already in play and already being used to do scheduling,” Warren said. “The only development we are looking for is the connection between that product and our existing VISTA system. We are interested in any and all that can bring the solution to the table.

“It’s free and open. You don’t need to have a pre-existing relationship with the VA to compete. We are doing it as a two-step. The first step is a paper submission in terms of how you would meet what we are asking for. At the end of a 30-day period, we do an evaluation of the paper responses and we downselect to a smaller group. Those teams will be doing a demonstration of their capability to VA schedulers, so it’s not focused on headquarters, but individuals who are scheduling day-in and day-out so we can make sure the functionality that is claimed is delivered. We will have technical folks there just to make sure the connection pieces also are dealt with, but the primary focus is usability that is why we are asking for something that already exists.”

Warren said the winning vendor will provide its commercial system as well as API standards and valid interfaces to connect and share information among more than 100 modules.

Warren said in June soon after the patient scheduling scandal became public that VA would be improving the scheduling process through two contracts.

VA awarded the first contract in August to Hewlett-Packard to improve the current scheduling system.

“We already have awarded a contract to take the existing scheduling software and change the interface and make it easier to use. That is supposed to drop in the spring,” Warren said. “The team is making great progress and we are expecting the first delivery in the December time frame to go to the first site for testing. We are bringing relief, we are bringing that capability out to the schedulers to make their lives easier so they can do the scheduling right has allowed us to make sure when we do the buy and we are buying that commercial product and we are paying for somebody to build the interfaces and put out in the open source, we do it right.”

The second RFP will be for the new commercial system based on what VA found during its October 2013 contest. During that challenge, three teams showed it’s possible to meet VA’s scheduling needs with commercial products.

VA also has received input to the upcoming RFP from the Veteran Service Organizations, which received briefings on the requirements, on the contract, its structure and the process and methodology VA is planning on using. Additionally, the agency received insights from the Northern Virginia Technology Council on Oct. 30.

So close, yet so far… that could be theme for the Food and Drug Administration’s quest for a new chief information officer.

In September, acting FDA CIO and chief operation officer Walter Harris said he’d name a permanent CIO in the next few months. But now it seems the FDA will have to wait a bit longer. The agency re-advertised its CIO position on Oct. 30 in USAJobs.gov with a closing date for applications of Dec. 1. The FDA has been without a permanent CIO since April 2013.

For the first time in years — maybe as much as a decade — TechAmerica opened up its annual Vision conference to the press. A happy occasion for those us who felt left out for so many years.

If you are looking to understand the trends and drivers in the federal contracting market, few events are better.

There is a ton of information about upcoming contracts, including the timing around the release of solicitations and potential awards, and current and forecasted spending data, but what stands out to me is in the interviews with federal executives and the trends they show.

Let me start with some of the items that stood out during the Defense Department day:

• Katrina McFarland, the undersecretary for acquisition, offered a startling figure around DoD’s ability to stay on top technologically. She said over the last five years, the funding for design engineering has decreased by almost 50 percent.

  “That’s not trivial. That’s engineers, the basic foundation of innovation. History, however, has shown us when you invest in research and development during the times that we see threats on the horizon and in a period of declining economy or declining budget or complacent periods, those that have prepared themselves by investment are prepared for the future,” she said.

  McFarland is beating DoD’s latest drum — first it was budget cuts, then sequestration and both of those impacts on readiness. Now, the Pentagon is trying to drive home the point that if the R&D budgets are cared for, the next generation of technology are at a higher risk. A recent analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on fiscal 2013 contract shows that may be a valid concern. CSIS found that spending in 2013 on R&D dropped by 21 percent.

• The Defense Information Systems Agency is close to finishing its major reorganization into four functional directorates with senior staff reductions and realignments. It’s part of the DoD move to re-establish at joint task force for cyber. Gerry Robbins, the team lead for the 2015 TechAmerica Foundation Visions Defense IT market forecast, said DoD is formalizing the cybersecurity mission as U.S. Cyber Command is relinquishing its operational role to DISA’s new JTF. Robbins said this is part of the shift from where a big chunk of the $5 billion DoD cyber spending will come. To that end, DoD needs help around identity management and access control from an enterprise level, and there is a growing desire to standardize and add more rigor to the data tagging, security and trust processes. Watch out for the formal DISA reorganization announcement in the coming weeks.
• DoD and the military services are providing a roadmap to industry through the vision conference. The voice of the customer as told to the TechAmerica folks:
  • “Adopting open standards is crucial to achieving DoD’s vision for a knowledge-based force.”
  • “We know Industry will protest, so we will be ultra careful and try for a perfect RFP.”
  • “Risk management is a key to success and we have not figured out how to balance the risk factors.”

  The call for open standards and open systems resonated throughout the conference. The TechAmerica Navy team found that service wants open system and open standard to reduce software spending.

  McFarland said interoperability, modularity and open systems are part of how DoD wants to create a competitive environment to keep up with the changing threats and technological needs that DoD faces.

  Nearly every military service is planning for protests, adding as much as 100 days to the acquisition timeline.

  Risk management is a growing trend not just in DoD but across the government. Watch out for the Office of Management and Budget to issue guidance around risk management in the coming months.

I ‘ve heard rumors over the last few months about a possible reconsideration of the identity management technologies agencies are implementing under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 (HSPD-12). It’s not so much about how the National Institute of Standards and Technology has been updating its Personal Identity Verification (PIV) standard over the years, but more about the fact that HSPD- 12 is 10 years old and the thinking about how to securely access networks and verify identities has made several leaps forward since 2004.

The latest sign that change is coming are the new co-chairmen of the Identity, Credential and Access Management Subcommittee of the CIO Council’s Information Security and Identity Management Committee (ISIMC).

In an email obtained by Federal News Radio, the ISIMC named Grant Schneider, a senior advisor for cybersecurity in the Office of Management and Budget, and Jim Sheire, who will be on detail to GSA’s Office of Governmentwide Policy from NIST in the coming weeks, as the new leaders of the subcommittee.

The two, who officially take over Nov. 5, will replace Deb Gallagher, GSA’s director of the identity assurance and trusted access division, and Paul Grant, the Defense Department’s strategy advisor for cybersecurity in the CIO’s office, and Mike Maraya, the Commerce Department’s acting chief information security officer, all of whom have led the subcommittee for the last few years.

“Their leadership has been key to coordinating government-wide identity credential and access management efforts. We thank them for their dedication and tremendous contributions to the ICAMSC and look forward to their continued involvement in this area,” said the email from Kevin Deeley, the Justice Department’s CIO, David De Vries, acting principle deputy CIO for DoD, and Leo Scanlon, CISO for the National Archives and Records Administration, the co-chairman of the CIO Council’s ISIMC.

The potential decision to reconsider how agencies should best verify and authenticate employee and contractor identities comes at a time when agencies still have not fully issued the technology to protect their computer networks. The Homeland Security Department issued a memo in 2011 requiring an implementation plan. OMB said starting in fiscal 2012 agencies had to update existing systems to fully implement HSPD-12 and strong authentication. OMB reported in the third quarter of fiscal 2014 on Performance.gov that the use of HSPD-12 increased governmentwide by 3.7 percent for a total of 64.6 percent of all agencies having met the White House’s goal of 75 percent implementation across all CFO Act agencies. But eight agencies have not even started implementation yet, including the departments of Interior and Labor.

And with President Barack Obama’s recent executive order to implement more secure PIN and chip technology on government credit cards and other transactions, there is a growing shift in the thinking about how best to secure online transactions and access.

So the continued agency struggles, the rise of cyber threats and attacks and the new technology all point to new thinking behind strong authentication.

The General Services Administration is giving Booz Allen Hamilton the reins to modernize the Integrated Acquisition Environment (IAE).

Quietly, GSA awarded Booz Allen a $64.5 million contract over the next five years to develop a cloud service broker model using open source and cloud technologies to modernize the 10 databases that make up IAE.

This is the second time GSA has hired a contractor to bring together the disparate databases into the System for Award Management (SAM).

In 2010, GSA hired IBM under a similar long-term, relatively high dollar contract. But Big Blue and GSA faltered under the $74.4 million, eight-year contract for several reasons, including a modernization plan that didn’t evolve with the technologies.

Now GSA is turning to Booz Allen and the use of open source technologies.

Under the new contract, Booz Allen said in a press release that it will “design, develop, implement and operate a single, common services platform that will provide future IAE core applications with hosting, search, database and data store, reports, visualization, identity and access management (IAM) and application programming interface (API) management.”

An email and phone call to Booz Allen for comment on the award was not returned.

In the release, Booz Allen said it also will help GSA “apply cloud and open-source solutions across the Federal Acquisition Service’s entire acquisition life cycle. Users — federal agencies looking to acquire goods and services, external contractors bidding for and securing contracts — will enjoy a faster, more streamlined service.”

GSA righted the IAE ship after a problematic launch in 2012 that included a host of software development and platform instability shortcomings. At one point, IAE and the System for Award Management, which is where these 10 databases now reside, was on life support with GSA having to send the rescue crew in and give IBM a “cure” letter to fix the initial problems.

Since then, however, GSA has seen few problems with IAE and SAM, but still the approach to integration and modernization needed to be addressed.

Now Booz Allen gets its shot at this challenge.

Let’s hope IAE isn’t like the retirement system modernization program that chewed up and spit out three contractors over the last 15 years.

O verall themes from the civilian day were a bit different than the DoD forecast. Civilian agencies are trying to figure out how to take all the money they spend on operating and maintaining (O&M) legacy technology and shift more of it to new or updated technology. That’s where the increasing push for development and operations (Dev/Ops) is coming into play, as well as the continued push for lowest price, technically acceptable (LPTA).

TechAmerica reports that O&M spending has and will continue to hold steady between 2011 and 2015 ranging from 70 percent to 78 percent of the total IT budget. Meanwhile, money for new technology or modernization has been dropping since 2010 from 32 percent to an estimated 22 percent in 2015.

Overall, TechAmerica forecasts the federal IT budget to drop to $73.7 billion in fiscal 2015, but rise slowly to $84 billion by 2020.

Here are some other items that stood out from civilian IT day:

• The rise of software-as-a-service will take off in the coming years. TechAmerica found virtualization of at the application level means bulky, hard-to- develop apps such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can be pushed to the cloud more easily. This relates to the broader message to industry, “Everyone is speaking ‘innovation.’ Bring us innovation that is tangible and shows better, faster, or cheaper.”
• Contractor’s as piñatas. Vendors are feeling the pressure from the assortment of new rules and regulations coming from the administration. Whether it’s a new minimum wage or supply chain security management requirements or DoD’s pass through rules for FAR Part 15, contractors believe all of these new requirements will add costs to the federal acquisition process. Again, this relates to a broader theme of “contractor Darwinism” where initiatives such as strategic sourcing, LPTA and other similar initiatives are hurting the government’s industrial base. TechAmerica reported that since 2009 the use of LPTA has increased by 10 percent to 36 percent of all new, competitively awarded contracting actions worth $25 million or more.
• Current cyber approaches need to change. That was a “no-duh” moment for anyone who follows federal cybersecurity. But what stands out from TechAmerica is how the change has to happen: “Moving from signature-based to behavior-based intrusion detection tools.” TechAmerica predicted current cyber tools such as anti-virus and signature-based tools would be obsolete in two-to-three years.

From the Really? file of federal procurement: The Army is conducting a reverse auction for Catholic priest services.

The line items in the notice on FedBizOpps.gov released Oct. 16 include:

• Holy Days of Obligation
• Sunday Mass
• Saturday Mass
• Sacraments
• Emergency Calls
• Contract manpower reporting

As one industry executive wondered, “When did religious services become a commodity?”

Over the last 90 days on FedBizOpps.gov, there are nine procurement actions with the term “religious services,” and only the Army is using reverse auctions.

On top of the commoditization of religious services, the Army is using FedBid to conduct the reverse auction. The company remains in good standing with the government, but given the concerns with the Veterans Affairs Department, it seems the service is setting itself up for a double shot of criticism.

The Air Force has too many applications on its network. The latest count is about 5,000 software titles, all at different parts of the lifecycle, which leaves IT officials guessing about security vulnerabilities and risks.

Frank Konieczny, the chief technology officer of the Air Force, said the service took its first step to begin gaining more control over the number of applications and where they live on the network. Konieczny said during an upcoming panel discussion on Federal News Radio sponsored by Red Hat and Carahsoft that the Air Force in October named mission area managers who are looking across the board to find apps that need to be rationalized.

“Rationalization means you may get rid of the apps, merge it with other apps or you may just modernize it,” Konieczny said. “The issue becomes you have to look at what mission the app is actually being used for and we do that by mapping against our enterprise architecture that has all the mission statements in it. What do we have to do to categorize those apps? We categorize by whether it’s JAVA based, is it unknown based, how old is it, and then we determine based on all of that whether we should modernize it.”

He said the mission area managers are broken down across four basic mission areas: business, warfighter, enterprise and intelligence.

The Air Force also is looking to control the growth of apps in the future. Konieczny said the service established four platforms-as-a-service — three JAVA and one .Net — that will eventually contain the set of rationalized software titles.

“We’ve been working on this for quite a while. We know based upon our experience at Hill Air Force base where we already rationalized 400 or 500 apps there, that the way to do this was standardize on a set of platforms and the reasons why, licensing and maintenance are easier,” he said. “We decreased our personnel staff significantly, because it’s the same platform across the board so you can patch it quickly and patch it across the board.

All four just received approval from the configuration control board in mid-October.

“The mission area integrators are the ones who are supposed to coordinate with the user community to determine what platform they should be using based on mission needs and performance criteria,” Konieczny said. “That’s the governance. You can’t go any farther to the mission area integrators without saying you have a new app or to modernize. That’s their job to figure it out and work with portfolio managers to make sure they have the money to get the job done.”

If you’ve ever dreamed of having a good reason to wear a jacket with elbow patches and smoke a pipe, then the National Defense University has a job for you. NDU is looking for an assistant/associate professor in the Information Resources Management College (iCollege). Among the duties for this position are the preparation of the curriculum and instructional materials for programs, including the Advanced Management Program, Chief Information Officer Program, IT Program Management and Enterprise Architecture Program. The position also requires the person to conduct studies, prepare papers for publication, and deliver presentations in relevant areas of ICT and IT Acquisition. Applications are due Oct. 28.

READ PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF INSIDE THE REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK:

Inside the Reporter’s Notebook: VanRoekel legacy highlighted by digital services; more openings at OMB

Inside the Reporter’s Notebook: Labor, GSA forced to buy systems from bankrupt vendor; dashboard fever strikes DHS