DOAN: SAD CASE, BUT DON'T READ TOO MUCH INTO IT
It all became too much of a distraction to the White House, to use the term Doan said was used in her dismissal meeting, which asked for and got her resignation. -> Read More

AGENCIES ROLL THEIR OWN IN DEPLOYING SOCIAL SOFTWARE
When you go from CIO in the insular setting of a large federal agency to the nation's most populous metropolis, you might expect it to feel like being on different planets. -> Read More

LOOMING TRANSITION ISN'T SLOWING TECH
Technology advances are alive and quite well, thank you, in the federal government. -> Read More

• HP + EDS = New Powerhouse; Booz to Carlyle: Business as Usual

  On the Washington Technology Top 100 federal contractors list, they are numbers 10 and 39 respectively. But the combination of Hewlett-Packard and EDS will make a very powerful competitor in the federal market. As has been widely reported, the $104 billion HP is hankering to increase its footprint in professional and IT services. So it plunked down $13.25 billion for EDS. HP already passed IBM and Dell Computer in PC and other hardware sales, but IBM is ahead in services.

  No sooner had the market digested that news when the announcement came of the long-anticipated sale by Booz Allen Hamilton of its government operation to venture capital and holding company Carlyle Group. Booz's government unit, headquartered in McLean, Va., had grown bigger than the 94-year-old commercial part of the company. Bigger and different.

  First, an analysis of the HP-EDS deal:

  The combined company would have federal contracts in the neighborhood of $3 billion, still number 10 behind Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, SAIC, General Dynamics, KBR, L-3 Communications, and Computer Sciences Corp. By contrast, IBM is number 16 on the Top 100 list, with $1.6 billion in contracts. Still, there are synergies, as the management pashas like to say.

  Dell is the king of the federal hill in PC sales, but with EDS using HP, in effect, as a captive supplier for services contracts, HP could catapult ahead in hardware. Being more of a joining of complimentary companies than a buyout of a direct competitor, this merger is likely to produce more growth than the two companies could generate on their own.

  Meantime, there is little “channel conflict” in their principal federal contract vehicles. HP lists mainly hardware contracts such as ADMC-2 with the Army and ECS III, the National Institutes of Health governmentwide acquisition contract. EDS lists both hardware and services contracts such as Eagle at Homeland Security, ITES-2S at the Army, SeaPort-e at the Navy, TIPPS-3 at Treasury and GSA Alliant.

  About Booz and Carlyle:

  This isn't a merger, but an acquisition by a holding company. It is likely that what both companies are saying is true, that Booz will continue to operate as it has. Unlike its commercial half, the government side of Booz has been increasing its depth in technology consulting and systems integration, as opposed to simply management consulting—although it does plenty of that for federal customers.

  Particularly for the Defense Department, where it has in Carlyle a kindred soul mate. Defense is the fastest growing part of the federal market, and Booz has the experts, such as former DOD chief financial officer Dov Zakheim and former multi-program boss Ron Kadish, and the lines of business to support what Defense will need in the immediate future.

  Carlyle's management is well populated with former DOD officials and from time to time has garnered the kind of suspicion often reserved for the Trilateral Commission. But basically it is a spectacularly successful investment company, having owned companies as diverse as Dunkin' Donuts and toy distributor Oriental Trading Company. It buys and also sells, which means Booz Allen could be in play again some day, possibly spun out to public ownership.
  
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• Doan: Sad Case, But Don’t Read Too Much Into It

  I agree with Rep. Tom Davis, who spoke to Federal News Radio on April 30 about the resignation of Lurita Doan as administrator of GSA. She was caught between a White House becoming increasingly dysfunctional in its waning days, and certain folks on the Hill who have been after Doan's scalp almost from the beginning.

  As expected, there was a media stormlet over this, partly because it seemed as if most of the controversy was behind her. And partly because Ms. Doan made great copy and great radio. But don't expect any changes in GSA policy. David Bibb, a 36+ year career civil servant, was been acting administrator after Stephen Perry left, could well take GSA into the next administration, until an appointee is confirmed.

  You know the litany of Ms. Doan's alleged offenses:

  • Seemed, to some anyhow, to violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits campaign activity by feds on the job, in a conference call
  • Got into a donnybrook with GSA's inspector general, Brian Miller, and tried to cut the IG budget. She carried on the feud even after the IG was exonerated of wrongdoing in a whistleblower case
  • Tangled with powerhouses on the Hill, including Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Finance Committee.

  It all became too much of a distraction to the White House, to use the term Doan said was used in her dismissal meeting, which asked for and got her resignation. But some good happened in Doan's two-year tenure.

  • GSA found stronger financial footing and a clean audit
  • Networx and other major programs launched; revenues grew quickly in most schedules contracts. Now Networx is starting to take off
  • GSA set agency standard for commitment to telework
  • Launched government-industry panel to take fresh look at the Multiple Awards Schedule program's pricing. Bibb presided over the first meeting, and this initiative will continue.

  Bibb will spread oil on the choppy waters of GSA. While he won't launch any major policy initiatives, he will be a sober steward of the ongoing operations of the agency. Since Doan's departure, the FBI raided the offices of Scott Bloch, President Bush's appointee as director of the Office of Special Counsel. Bloch, whose bizarre behavior included having his office computer erased by Geek Squad, had gone after Doan for the Hatch Act issue. So Doan may yet get some satisfaction, if not vindication.
  
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• Agencies Roll Their Own In Deploying Social Software

  The government continues what is starting to look like a headlong plunge into so-called Web 2.0. No one has a precise definition for this phenomenon, but the way it is used, it means when agencies use any of the following types of software:

  • Wiki
  • Social networking
  • Instant communications
  • Blogs
  • Mashups

  The Web 2.0 use can be as simple as Transportation Secretary Mary Peter's new blog, or as complex as collaboration efforts at the Defense Department, General Services Administration, FAA, NASA, OMB and the State Department. For example, FAA is looking at use of a suite of collaboration tools from IBM for developing its Next Generation Air Transportation system. That was reported by FAA's Giora Hadar, a knowledge architect speaking at last month's Knowledge Management Conference.

  This is an area in which best practices are only just being established. The first thing you usually hear about use of collaboration tools is, how will the government maintain the records? That's certainly an issue, but not the main one. Business class tools have the logging and change recording mechanisms built in. Tools can be set up so there are no anonymous postings.

  The more important question is how these tools will fit into existing project management schema, or if they will change them completely. Agencies will need to figure out how online collaboration, by whichever social networking or wiki tools, will align with their traditional tools for tracking and benchmarking projects.

  Also to be explored is what part, if any, contractors will have in the establishment and maintenance of Web 2.0 tools. Early indications are, not much. Many of the tools require very little investment and can be learned and operated with a little training. IBM even offers online courses for customers of its Lotus Connections suite. Some agency experts report being self-taught in wiki practice. Moreover, communities of knowledge are forming around the knowledge tools themselves. This gives users more power and control over information without the use of massive contractor support.

  Two newslinks from among the many recent articles and broadcasts on this topic:

  http://www.fcw.com/print/22_5/features/151788-1.html Florence Olsen writing in FCW about both federal and state/local Web 2.0 projects

  http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=169&pid=&sid=1395144&page=2 Max Cacas of Federal News Radio on C2pedia at the Defense Department

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Looming Transition Isn’t Slowing Tech

Technology advances are alive and quite well, thank you, in the federal government.

Several systems integrators I have spoken to in recent weeks said that task order activity is quite high now, belying the notion that as the administration winds down so do agency initiatives.

For example, there's lots going on with the FBI's efforts to profoundly upgrade its biometric identification database. DNA from perhaps millions of arrests, facial and iris recognition—it will all be eventually integrated.

The Social Security Administration, with its tens of millions of lines of COBOL code, is looking to update its systems in what officials admit will be a multiyear effort. This effort it hinted at in SSA's budget summary for 2009, and was detailed in Commissioner Michael Astrue's testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee in April. And the IRS, prompted by members of Congress, is looking for ways to expand electronic filing. In one case, the agency has formed an advisory group to help it figure out how to get past its mainframe systems. The tax agency has hired Mitre Corp. to help it get to 80 percent online filing by 2012.

When you add projects such as these to the more well-known, high-profile ones such as a new attempt at an electronic border fence at Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Future Combat Systems at the Army and Next Generation Air Transport at FAA, you see a government that is still at the forefront of developing and using new technology.

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