It's a question that crops up with increasing frequency: How does industry stay relevant to agencies' enterprise architecture initiatives when EA has largely become an issue of internal management practices?
The federal government has long imposed unique ethical responsibilities on its contractors. Following the defense procurement scandals of the 1980s such as Operation Ill Wind, Congress considerably increased the number and types of ethical considerations governing federal contracts.
As officials at BAE Systems North America Inc. saw the federal landscape change, they decided to make some aggressive moves. Government agencies were contracting out more of their information technology needs, but they were bundling projects into fewer large contracts.
The Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command wants a contractor to develop and host an integrated digital and collaborative environment service center network to connect with Army and Marine Corps IT systems. The service center must provide one-stop, integrated services to support application and storage services; technical design capture, storage and access; development and maintenance; condition-based maintenance; supply chain management; and e-commerce environments and Web order interfaces.
Sandia National Laboratories wants information on licensing, manufacturing and selling integrated hardware and software architecture, called Sensor Management Architecture, to support sensor network integration and control. Sandia's architecture was designed to support weapons of mass destruction detection technologies into unified sensor networks.
The Army Armament Research Development and Engineering Center wants help developing advanced armament and energetics technology and with systems engineering and manufacturing processes to support its industrial base.
I was surprised when reading the article "The money trail: Contractors lean to the right" [Oct. 11] to find Mitre Corp. on a list of companies tracked by dollars contributed to political campaigns. Although you said these contributions include those made by "company employees and spouses," your story leaves the distinct impression that these monies are going to campaigns from companies on your Top 100 list of federal prime contractors. At Mitre, nothing could be further from the truth.
Amit Yoran brought to his former job as director of the Homeland Security Department's cybersecurity division the perspective of an engineer and entrepreneur. "Maybe that's not the right fit for the job," he said.
Government IT administrators sweat over FISMA compliance, but pity the poor private-sector security officers who find they must meet the same systems security requirements.
Within the next week, the Government Accountability Office will add another chapter to the ongoing drama of the Housing and Urban Development Department's IT Services buy when it rules on the second protest filed by the losing vendor.
More than three quarters of aerospace and defense industry company officials say their IT and business strategies are either well or very well aligned, according to a survey by Computer Sciences Corp.
Congress has given the Homeland Security Department's Privacy Office a fivefold budget increase for fiscal 2005, to $35 million, and the office is trying to establish a framework for evaluating new data collection technologies and information sharing with other agencies and jurisdictions.
The Homeland Security Department plans to open an information technology acquisitions center next year and is trying to improve its disjointed procurement program, DHS' chief procurement officer said today.
I didn't find much on the Web site about doing business with ITA. You may want to follow the advice of CIO Renee Macklin and first contact one of the agency's senior functional leads.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, there has been a steady stream of proposals to structurally and operationally reform the U.S. intelligence community. Now, with Congress and the president focused on implementing at least some of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, reform has gained new ? and possibly unstoppable ? momentum.
Sun Microsystems Inc. this month opened an iForce Government Solution Center in McLean, Va., inviting systems integrators and federal officials to view thin-client interoperability demonstrations and test proof-of-concept applications.
