Modernization News

Washington Technology (August 27, 2019)

We talk to John Wood, CEO of Telos Corp. as we continue our exploration of innovation and  disruption in the government market.

John shares his views on the challenges and obstacles to bringing innovation to the government market. He brings nearly 30 years of government contracting experience and holds the point of view that the challenges to innovation aren’t about the technology but the culture and the vested interests that resist change.

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Federal News Network (August 24, 2018)

When Congress passed the FY2018 omnibus in the spring, a little noticed provision allowed federal agencies to spend up to 25% of their total annual budgets in September.  This, coupled with the fact that agencies were slow to get their FY18 allocations has set up a perfect storm of year-end spending.  According to NextGov and our friends at The Pulse agencies could potentially spend as much as 40% of their total FY18 budgets in the next 6 weeks.  The real questions are do we have enough contracting personnel to get this money out the door and are you ready?

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The Hill (December 14, 2018)

There have been a number of stories over the past year about how the federal government is moving at a glacial pace in its journey to the cloud. Much of the reporting has left me shaking my head and wondering if those reporting really understand what cloud technology is all about and why the cloud is so critically important from a global technology leadership perspective.

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Morning Consult (August 28, 2018)

Eight years after the “25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal IT Management,” the federal government information technology landscape has evolved quite a bit, and it’s important to reflect back on the progression of federal IT modernization efforts in the United States as we all plan for the future.

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Nextgov (August 18, 2018)

When Congress passed the FY2018 omnibus in the spring, a little noticed provision allowed federal agencies to spend up to 25% of their total annual budgets in September.  This, coupled with the fact that agencies were slow to get their FY18 allocations has set up a perfect storm of year-end spending.  According to NextGov and our friends at The Pulse agencies could potentially spend as much as 40% of their total FY18 budgets in the next 6 weeks.  The real questions are do we have enough contracting personnel to get this money out the door and are you ready?

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Federal News Network (August 8, 2018)

The Department of Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service rolled out a new 10-year plan this week to transform the role of federal chief financial officers.   The main focus of the plan is automation, aiming to leverage new technologies to improve service delivery.  The 10-year vision contains 4 core focus areas – optimize the disbursement of funds by reducing the number of paper checks, replace the current lock box systems with digital ones, strengthen reporting by making more financial data available, and expand analytics through the “do not pay” portal.  Federal News Radio has the report.

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FCW (August 8, 2018)

GAO is out with a report this week on how the 24 CFO Act agencies are doing when it comes to imple­menting IT policies consistent with federal law and regulation in 6 key areas.  According to an article inFCW agencies scored the “best on policies that address IT leadership and accountability — 11 had policies fully addressing this category, and all 24 at least partially addressed it.” For the most part, agencies also had policies in place addressing IT budgeting and information security, even if the vast majority had not fully addressed them.  Agencies lagged behind on IT investment management, strate­gic planning and the workforce, with not one fully implemented policy in any of these three areas.  This in spite of the 2014 passage of FITARA and a May 2018 executive order calling for greater CIO authority.  Here’s the GAO Report. 

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Federal News Network (August 7, 2018)

It looks like the Administration is planning an executive order to move the security clearance process from the recently created National Background Investigations Bureau to the Pentagon although the ex­act timing of this is unclear, according to an article this week in Federal News Radio.  The move comes amid other changes proposed as part of the government-wide reorganization plan the Administration unveiled earlier this summer, which includes plans to transfer some of OPM’s HR operations to GSA.  Security clearance backlogs have plagued the federal government for decades.

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Washington Technology (June 14, 2018)

Every day, American consumers enjoy the benefits of cloud computing. From streaming music to online shopping to social media, our daily lives are shaped by cloud-driven technologies that enable virtually unlimited information and content to be more securely stored and accessed from any location.

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Defense News (May 8, 2018)

Like many in the technology sector, I’ve watched with great interest the contracting community’s maneuvering on the Pentagon’s upcoming Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud computing contract, marked by vigorous jousting among competitors to gain ground in new markets or protect existing ones.

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