In January, Texas attorney Riecke Baumann filed the first electronic lawsuit in Fort Bend County, Texas, while sitting in his Houston office, an hour drive from the courthouse.
Homeland security contracting has emerged over the past 18 months as an area of intense interest in the contracting community. Many large systems integrators have shuffled priorities and resources to go after this growing market, and hosts of smaller companies, many of them new to the government market, have set their sights on entry into this field.
Federal agencies missed their aim of sending 23 percent of prime contracting dollars to small businesses for the third straight year, according to the annual scorecard produced by Democratic members of the House Committee on Small Business.
Optimism and frustration represent an unusual ying-yang, especially for technology entrepreneurs who are living through - "surviving" may be a better description - this era of unprecedented change.
From their offices in Vienna, Va., the four founders of Appian Corp. can look down on the apartment complex where they lived, played basketball and, in August 1999, began their software and professional services firm.
Affiliated Computer Services Inc., Dallas, won a five-year, $6 million task order to provide the Air Force Materiel Command with information technology support services.
Recently, the Small Business Administration announced its intention to institute "re-certification procedures," applicable to companies seeking to continue their work under small business contracts beyond the initial contract period.
Executives at NCI Information Systems started planning for the firm's 1999 graduation from the 9-year-long 8(a) program five years in advance, said Linda Allan, executive vice president of strategic programs for the McLean, Va., firm. Small firms compete for set-aside contracts through the 8(a) program, which is run by the Small Business Administration.
A successful small business excels at a few things, said Valerie Perlowitz, president and chief executive officer of Reliable Integration Services Inc. in Dunn Loring, Va.
One of the first things Michael Barbee did after joining WAM!NET Government Services in 2001 was move the unit of Eagan, Minn.-based WAM!NET Inc. to Herndon, Va.
Michael Barbee believes his company is not quite ready for prime contracting in the federal information technology arena, so it works as a subcontractor about 80 percent of the time.
Raytheon Co., Lexington, Mass., has reorganized its government and defense businesses into seven separate units, the company announced. "This new, leaner government and defense structure ... eliminates layers and cost and will enable us to move with greater speed and agility," said Daniel Burnham, chairman and chief executive officer of Raytheon.
Computer Sciences Corp. has won a four-year, $157 million extension to continue providing a variety of information technology services to the Australian Federal Government.
The federal government has increased its reliance on small, disadvantaged businesses for information technology goods and services during the past four years, according to Input Inc.
Unisys Corp. will receive $244 million over the next 13 1/2 months for a wide range of outsourcing and infrastructure services under two task orders awarded last week by the Transportation Security Administration.
Computer Sciences Corp. confirmed Aug. 16 published reports that it has asked its 66,000 employees to volunteer to take extended leaves of absence ? at least six months ? and receive 20 percent of their pay. The El Segundo, Calif.-based company said it decided to pursue this measure because the global information technology market has been suffering from a slowdown, according to company spokesman Frank Pollare, not because of any specific incident or concern.
Affiliated Computer Services Inc. reported an increase of 71 percent in net income for fiscal 2002, which ended June 30. Net income for fiscal 2002 was $229.6 million compared to $134.3 million for fiscal 2001.
