Industry
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The General Services Administration's Federal Acquisition Service will launch the first set of initiatives under its new category management approach, called hallways, in the next six weeks to cover office supplies, IT hardware and IT software. FAS Commissioner Tom Sharpe detailed the strategy to give customer agencies more data to make better acquisition decisions.
August 22, 2014 -
The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity award will converge the heterogeneous IT architectures aboard Navy ships - all 630 of them - into a single, standards based architecture.
August 21, 2014 -
It looks like congressional reform of how agencies buy technology won't happen. Industry experts hold little hope that any of the multiple bills attempting to fix long-standing problems with IT acquisition will pass before the end of the year. Federal News Radio's Executive Editor Jason Miller joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive with details on why all the pessimism. Read Jason's related article.
August 07, 2014 -
IT Alliance for Public Sector experts say there are two major reasons for their fleeting hope—one is the little time lawmakers have in Washington over the next four months; and second is the continued impasse among the Senate and House over the role of agency CIOs. ITAPS says a two-and-a-half month continuing resolution is likely and an omnibus spending bill for 2015 is gaining support.
August 07, 2014 -
When it comes to lowest price, technically acceptable policies, the Defense Department wants more than "acceptable" for its acquisition services. Even with looming sequestration forcing DoD to stretch financially, Frank Kendall, undersecretary of Defense acquisition, technology and logistics, said the department must incentivize contractors to provide better value as well as best prices.
August 06, 2014 -
Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, sent a letter to Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) back in June detailing how Congress can help DoD improve its acquisition outcomes. The list includes stopping sequestration, continued support of workforce training and simplifying rules and regulations.
August 06, 2014 -
For the first time since 2005, the government awarded at least 23 percent of all prime contracts to small businesses. The Small Business Administration reported Friday small firms received $83 billion out of a possible $355 billion in 2013.
August 04, 2014 -
President Barack Obama signed an executive order Thursday creating yet another set of compliance requirements for more than 24,000 companies that work for the government. Vendors will have to certify they have not violated any of the 14 federal labor laws in order to win new contracts.
August 01, 2014 -
The Army says the alternative and renewable energy industry should not look to the military as a giant source of investment capital for new technologies. But there are a few exceptions to that rule.
August 01, 2014 -
The Professional Services Council is the latest group to weigh in after members of Congress sent out the call for contributions to next year's likely round of acquisition reforms. PSC's reply rests largely on the idea that the executive branch can fix most of the current problems on its own.
July 30, 2014 -
Kay Ely, GSA's director of IT schedule programs in the Federal Acquisition Service, said removing 1,000 vendors who weren't meeting the minimum annual sales requirement of $25,000 a year is saving the agency about $3.2 million a year in administrative costs. At the same time, GSA is adding 30-to-40 new vendors each month to Schedule 70 as part of its effort to make sure agency customers have access to new, innovative companies.
July 30, 2014 -
The National Association of Corporate Directors' (NACD) Handbook on Cyber-Risk Oversight, introduced Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington, outlines five key principles that aim to move forward the collaborative cybersecurity effort.
July 29, 2014 -
U.S.-Russia tensions over Ukraine haven't yet impacted the flow of critical rocket engines to the U.S. space program, but that could change at any time. The military's top space official says another reason to get going on an American-made alternative is to sustain a deteriorating portion of the defense industrial base.
July 23, 2014 -
The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council would require all contractors at the prime and sub levels to report counterfeit or suspected counterfeit parts to the government.
July 21, 2014 -
Lawmakers and small business contractors are wondering why the Small Business Administration has not implemented the procurement reforms that President Obama signed into law 18 months ago.
July 16, 2014