DorobekInsider.com

Frank DiGiammarino

Amazon’s Web Service’s government arm has scored a coup — hiring Frank DiGiammarino, who left the White House late last year.

The DorobekINSIDER has confirmed that DiGiammarino has been named Amazon Web Service‘s director of innovation and global expansion for Amazon Web Services, which is mostly known for books but has been making a big play in the cloud — and in government. And that includes some smart hires. Last year, Amazon hired Teresa Carlson, who had led Microsoft Federal.

DiGiammarino left the White House earlier this year where he served as an advisor to the Vice President for recovery implementation and director of the Recovery Implementation Office. In that job, he was responsible to ensuring the $787 billion in stimulus got out into the economy as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Here he is at 2010′s Gov 2.0 Summit talking about the stimulus spendings impact on innovation:

DiGiammarino is widely respected, previously serving as the vice president of strategic initiatives for the National Academy of Public Administration, where he helped created the innovative Collaboration Project. The Collaboration Project was developed along with Lena Trudeau, who is now at the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service’s Associate Commissioner, Office of Strategic Innovations. It was designed to be a place where government could collaborate around collaboration.

This is only the latest in some high profile people jumping into the cloud. Carlson joined Amazon Web Services last year, and Viveck Kundra, the former federal chief information officer, announced that he is joining Salesforce.com.

After the break… read DiGammarino’s full bio…

Read the rest of this entry »

Federal workers and contractors seemly have dodged yet another shutdown — I’ve actually lost count about how many there have been this year. (Federal Computer Week says there have been five.)

Last night, I was invited to the annual holiday party hosted by ASI Government, formerly Acquisition Solutions. Not surprising, the buzz of the night was about… the change of leadership at ASI Government — former Agriculture Department CIO Anne Reed stepping into the role of chairwoman after seven years, and Kimberly “Kymm” McCabe has taken over the role as ASI Government’s President and Chief Executive Officer…

McCabe specifically mentioned the end of the war in Iraq…

But most of the focus was on… the then potential of a government shutdown. Last night, as the festivities were going on, there seemed to be progress toward a resolution, but it was only late last night that the sides announced they had found common ground. But there was still interesting discussion around the topic. One person — now in industry after a distinguished government career — said that the shutdown threat had almost become SOP. It has become standard operating procedure. Yet several govies showed up late specifically because they were working on shutdown contingency plans.

But 1105 President Anne Armstrong asked about the costs of all this.

The short answer is… there is no easy answer.

The Congressional Research Service actually looked at the shutdown issue back in September 1995.

The estimated costs of shutting down the federal government during a lapse in appropriations are incomplete and sketchy at best. That is especially true in the brief shutdown periods that occurred prior to 1995. In those federal shutdown experiences, the General Accounting Office (GAO) attempted to evaluate such government-wide costs, but incomplete and lack of response by various agencies hampered this undertaking. Certain limited costs have been identified over the years, however. GAO found costs of about $1 million resulting from having to issue split or late paychecks in October 1979 and approximately $1.1 million from having to prepare agency shutdown plans in 1980.

In 1991, GAO found that the estimated partial costs for the federal government shutdown over the Columbus Day Holiday week-end in 1990 was $1.7 million.

There have been two other CRS reports — one on September 27, 2010: Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Processes, and Effects. The other is more of a round-up of information about shutdowns from April 8, 2011: Past Government Shutdowns: Key Resources.

Regardless, there was almost uniform agreement among government insiders that the shutdown threats, ongoing continuing resolutions and general budget upheaval have an enormous impact on the government’s ability to accomplish agency missions. (Going out on a limb there, aren’t we?)

To be honest, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has seemed to put forward 12 fairly reasonable principles for the discussion — regardless of political viewpoint.

The 12 principles are:

• Make Deficit Reduction a Top Priority.
• Propose Specific Fiscal Targets.
• Recommend Specific Policies to Achieve the Targets.
• Do No Harm.
• Use Honest Numbers and Avoid Budget Gimmicks.
• Do Not Perpetuate Budget Myths.
• Do Not Attack Someone Else’s Plan Without Putting Forward an Alternative.
• Refrain From Pledges That Take Policies Off the Table.
• Propose Specific Solutions for Social Security, Health Care, and the Tax Code.
• Offer Solutions for Temporary and Expiring Policies.
• Encourage Congress to Come Up With a Budget Reform Plan as Quickly as Possible.
• Remain Open to Bipartisan Compromise.

Find the September 1997 CRS report after the break…

Read the rest of this entry »

Align the Acquisition Process with the Technology Cycle
13. Design and develop a cadre of specialized IT acquisition professionals
14. Identify IT acquisition best practices and adopt government-wide
15. Issue contracting guidance and templates to support modular development
16. Reduce barriers to entry for small innovative technology companies

Just before the end of the year, a significant reorganization coming to GSA’s acquisition leadership.

Ed O’Hare, Assistant Commissioner for the Integrated Technology Services (ITS) portfolio, who took the post in March 2009, will retire effective January 15, 2011, according to a memo by Steve Kempf , the commission of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service sent to employees today. Mary Davie, presently the Assistant Commissioner of FAS’ Office of Assisted Acquisition Services (AAS), will serve as the ITS portfolio’s next leader effective January 16, 2011.  ITS oversees some of the government’s biggest and most important contracts including the GSA schedule contracts, GSA’s governmentwide telecommunications contracts such as Networx , and GSA’s governmentwide acquisition vehicles , including the just announced Alliant.

Joe Jeu, Assistant Commissioner for FAS’ General Supplies and Services (GSS) portfolio, has accepted an opportunity to continue his career at another federal agency, effective January 2, 2011.

Kempf stressed that the Federal Acquisition Services has a deep bench of executives with extensive experience. Therefore, as part of those changes:

* As I mentioned, Mary Davie, presently the Assistant Commissioner of FAS’ Office of Assisted Acquisition Services (AAS), will serve as the ITS portfolio’s next leader effective January 16, 2011.
* Bill Sisk, presently the FAS Southeast Sunbelt Region Commissioner, has agreed to act as the GSS Assistant Commissioner effective January 2, 2011.
* Michael Gelber, presently the FAS Northwest Arctic Region Commissioner, will become the new FAS Pacific Rim Commissioner effective January 16, 2011.

The following people will act in these positions during the upcoming transition period:

* Tim Fleming, presently AAS’ Deputy Assistant Commissioner, will be the Acting Assistant Commissioner for AAS.
* Kelley Holcombe, FAS Deputy Regional Commissioner, will serve as the Acting FAS Southeast Sunbelt Region Commissioner.
* James Hamilton, the Northwest Arctic Region’s Director for Customer Accounts and Research, will serve as the Acting FAS Commissioner in Region 10.

Deltek to Acquire INPUT to Power the Complete Government Contracting Value Chain

Together, Deltek and INPUT offer the only solution that manages and streamlines the entire government contracting value chain – from opportunity identification and capture management, to successful project initiation and execution; combination also creates the industry’s largest government contracting network

HERNDON, VA – September 30, 2010 – Deltek, Inc. (Nasdaq: PROJ), the leading provider of enterprise applications software and solutions for project-focused businesses, today announced that it will acquire INPUT, Inc. for $60 million in an all cash transaction.  The transaction is expected to close on October 1st, 2010.

The addition of INPUT’s industry-leading opportunity intelligence and business development capabilities to Deltek’s comprehensive portfolio of government contracting solutions and its govWin network expands Deltek’s product offerings to manage all facets of the government contracting value chain from opportunity identification to project delivery.

Based in Reston, VA, INPUT has nearly 200 employees and had revenues of $26.2 million for 2009 –an increase of 13% from 2008.  With more than 2,100 customers, INPUT enables companies to successfully identify and develop new business opportunities with federal, state and local government and other public sector organizations.  Many of the largest government contractors and agencies rely on INPUT for the latest and most comprehensive opportunity database and market research information.  INPUT powers an active network of over 30,000 members that collaborate on federal, state and local government opportunities, develop teaming relationships and win new business.

Deltek and INPUT Offer Unmatched Solutions for Government Contractors
With over 60 years of combined experience, Deltek and INPUT will provide the broadest and most comprehensive range of technology solutions, specialized content and services all focused on meeting the unique needs of government contractors including:

·         Delivering comprehensive enterprise software solutions that power the entire government contracting value chain – Deltek is the gold standard solution to manage and streamline the project execution and critical financial management processes of its customers.  By leveraging valuable, time sensitive content from INPUT, Deltek now will offer game-changing business development solutions such as opportunity information and identification, pipeline development, and capture and proposal management that complement Deltek’s project initiation, project execution and delivery, and financial management  capabilities to power the complete government contracting value chain.

·         Creating the largest online business development network in the world exclusively for government contractors, containing more than $500 billion in active government contracting opportunities – By combining the marquee lists of government contractors that are members of INPUT and Deltek’s govWin networks, Deltek creates the world’s largest online government contractor network exclusively dedicated to winning more government business.  The combined networks represent more than 45,000 participating individuals and over $500 billion in active government contracting opportunities.  The massive network delivers all of the tools that participants need to win business – including cutting-edge task order management capabilities – and will empower network members to identify, pursue, and win federal, state and local government contracts.

·         Providing the industry’s broadest and deepest actionable intelligence on the government marketplace – With more than 60 years of combined experience and thousands of customers across the government contracting landscape, both Deltek and INPUT have unparalleled knowledge and expertise about what is happening across this ever-changing industry.  Combining Deltek’s landmark GovCon Clarity reports that analyze financial management, project management and best practices, with INPUT’s comprehensive government market analysis and insight reports, Deltek will offer deep, actionable intelligence that helps government contractors navigate their dynamic industry and develop strategies for continued growth and future success.

“Deltek has a well-earned reputation for consistently delivering innovative, industry-focused solutions to government contractors and professional services firms worldwide,” said Mike Fauscette, Group Vice President of Software Business Solutions for IDC.  “While Deltek has long offered extremely broad and deep enterprise software solutions that have helped contractors streamline the back-office and drive compliance, its strategic move to acquire INPUT to deliver differentiated business development solutions and time sensitive intelligence and content as well sets Deltek apart in the marketplace today.  INPUT’s capabilities are a great complement to Deltek’s existing enterprise applications, and the combination of INPUT and govWin is yet another compelling reason for government contractors to leverage Deltek’s network to grow their businesses.”

“Our entire INPUT team is extremely proud of the great company that we have collectively built over the years,” said Peter Cunningham, Chairman of INPUT.  “Our services provide a unique combination of content and context (software). This is the direction for the information services industry in the 21st century, and we are ahead of the game.  The combination of INPUT with Deltek makes for a perfect match to accelerate our growth and commitment to our members.  Deltek’s enterprise software capability, industry expertise, and customer list are completely synergistic with INPUT’s capabilities and customer base, creating a combined organization that no competitor can match.  Our association with Deltek will provide a wonderful opportunity for our 2,100 member organizations to get increased value from our services and for our staff to have an almost unlimited career growth opportunity.  I cannot imagine us finding a finer and more appropriate partner to carry out our mission.”

“Acquiring a market leader like INPUT is a landmark move for Deltek,” said Kevin Parker, President and CEO of Deltek. “We are fully committed to investing in INPUT to expand its offerings, deliver new capabilities, and ensure that its customers continue to receive tremendous value from its products and services.  We also look forward to combining INPUT’s world-class business development and market research capabilities with our existing solutions.  Together, we are now powering the entire government contracting value chain, while providing our customers with the timely, data-driven market research they need to navigate their way to success.  This move solidifies Deltek’s standing as the premier government contracting solutions provider and thought leader in the market today.”

About INPUT
INPUT is the authority on government business. Established in 1974, INPUT helps companies develop federal, state, and local government business and helps public sector organizations achieve their objectives. More than 2,100 member organizations, including small specialized companies, new entrants to the public sector, and the largest government contractors and agencies, rely on INPUT for the latest and most comprehensive procurement and market information, consulting, a 30,000 strong teaming network, powerful sales management tools, and educational and networking events.  For more information about INPUT, visit www.input.com or call 703-707-3500.

About Deltek
Deltek (Nasdaq: PROJ) is the leading global provider of enterprise applications software and solutions designed specifically for project-focused businesses and professional services firms globally.  For nearly three decades, we have enabled government contractors and professional services firms to automate mission-critical business processes around the engagement, execution and delivery of projects. Over 13,000 customers use our solutions to measure business results, optimize performance, streamline operations and win new business. For more information, visit www.deltek.com.

Deltek also offers govWin, an online community dedicated to solving common business problems for government contractors. The govWin network delivers unique and specialized content, offers innovative matching capabilities to establish and manage teaming opportunities, and provides applications to identify, pursue, and win government contracts. Over 15,000 registered members, prime contractors, and small businesses are part of the govWin community. For more information, visit www.govwin.com.
Follow the conversation at http://govwin.com/deltek-input
Participate in the conversation on Twitter #DeltekInput

The Obama administration’s chief performance officer self-assessment of how the federal government is doing so far: “I believe we are off to a good start, and that we are developing the momentum required for meaningful, sustained improvements in how the government works for the American people.”

In a memo to the Senior Executive Service from Jeff Zients, OMB’s Federal Chief Performance Officer and Deputy Director for Management, titled, “The Accountable Government Initiative – an Update on Our Performance Management Agenda,” Zients lays out the administration’s management plan — and how the administration is doing so far.

Here is the memo:

The DorobekINSIDER has confirmed that the Office of Federal Procurement Policy has recertified the National Institute of Health Information Technology Acquisition & Assessment Center’sChief Information Officer – Solutions and Partners 3 (CIO-SP3), one of three governmentwide acquisition contracts.

There was widespread speculation that OFPP might not recertify the NIH contract — and Federal News Radio’s Jason Miller has been reporting that there has been a real focus whether there was a proliferation of multiple-award contracts. (See Federal News Radio 1500 AM’s special report — Contract Overload, which focused on the multiples of multiple-award contracts out there.)

Here is the OFPP decision:

On July 20, 2010, the OMB Director designated NIH as an executive agent for the Chief Information Officer Solutions and Partners 3 (CIOSP3) GWAC and the CIOSP3-Small Business GWAC.  Each GWAC will offer a wide range of IT services, with a particular focus on health-related IT services.

In deciding whether to grant the designation, OMB carefully evaluated a business case NIH developed to justify the need and value of its proposed GWACs.  To supplement this information, OMB conducted a significant amount of outreach with different stakeholders in the acquisition community, including agency users of NIH’s existing GWACs, agency managers of GWACs and other interagency contract vehicles, Chief Acquisition Officers and Senior Procurement Executives, trade associations, and Congressional staffers.

OMB approved the request based on several factors that promise enhanced value for the Government and our taxpayers.  NIH’s proposed GWACs will fill an important need by agencies with health-related responsibilities, including those in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  The programmatic expertise of its in-house scientists and medical experts will provide strong support for the award and management of its contracts.  The new GWAC vehicles will also provide increased opportunities for small businesses in Federal contracting, allowing agencies to tap into the talents of this community as they work to achieve best value for their missions and our citizens.

I had the pleasure of moderating a panel last week… ostensibly on green IT, but it ended up being about the larger issue of green government.

The program was sponsored by the Java Team of the American Council on Technology and Industry Advisory Council’s Partners program, which is a marvelous development program designed to help government and industry understand each other better.

And we had a great line-up:

Jeff Eagan, Energy Department, who is on assignment at the White House reviewing the agency sustainability plans. I should note he is a 2010 Fed 100 winner.
Emile Monette, director of GSA’s Federal Technology Service’s sustainability division
Kimberly T. Nelson, Microsoft and former EPA CIO
Marian Van Pelt, a principal at ICF and a carbon inventory expert.

And we discussed Executive Order 13514: Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance [PDF] — read more from the White House about EO 13514 here… and a WhiteHouse.gov blog post on the green initiative here.

The executive order essentially calls on agencies to cut energy use by 28 percent… and they were required to submit “sustainability plans” to the Office of Management and Budget by the begging of this month. (I understand all are in now.)

There were several issues that came out of our discussion.

One was that this just seems overwhelming. One CIO for one of the big agency departments asked, essentially, help me know what are the best things to do out there. Agencies — and agency CIOs — have scores of mandates on them… and most of them generally want to be as green as possible. That being said, the greening discussion became so broad that it became almost overwhelming.

The general response was…
1. Work with your sustainability officer… Each agency is required to appoint a chief sustainability officers. I can’t seem to find a list of those names, unfortunately, but the first recommendation was to find out who that person is and work with them.

2. Measure… The second was to come up with a plan for measuring what your organization’s energy footprint is… so you can then determine if you are having an impact.

3. Just do it… Start doing something… turning off computers at night… turn off lights in buildings… reduce your data centers… GSA Administrator Martha Johnson has actually taken this issue quite seriously. At recent conferences, GSA executives were prohibited from renting their own cars. Instead, GSA organized a bus to shuttle people where they needed to go. And, it was pointed out to me, GSA actually sought public input on its sustainability plan.

4. See helpful links below for other ideas.

The other big issue that was discussed was — ready for it — telework. I should note that this is now the third green focused panel that I have moderated — and it is the third time the panel has been dominated by telework issues. And again, people asked why the government seems to be so reluctant to institute telework — and why there isn’t more of a push for telework.

Last week on Federal News Radio 1500 AM’s Dorobek Insider, we spoke about telework — and a new FedScoop survey on the government’s attitudes towards telework [PDF]. The survey shows the government is still behind, but that attitudes are changing.

Anyway, during the discussion, there were a number of helpful sites mentioned… I promised I would round them up.

* The Federal Electronics Challenge: http://www.federalelectronicschallenge.net
The Federal Electronics Challenge (FEC) is a partnership program that encourages federal facilities and agencies to:
Purchase greener electronic products.
Reduce impacts of electronic products during use.
Manage obsolete electronics in an environmentally safe way.

* EPEAT: http://www.epeat.net
EPEAT is a system that helps purchasers evaluate, compare and select electronic products based on their environmental attributes. The system currently covers desktop and laptop computers, thin clients, workstations and computer monitors.

* Energy Department’s Federal Energy Management Program
The Energy Department’s Federal Energy Management Program’s (FEMP) mission is to facilitate the Federal Government’s implementation of sound, cost-effective energy management and investment practices to enhance the nation’s energy security and environmental stewardship.

Other resources from Federal News Radio 1500 AM:

* For Earth Day, we spoke to Michelle Moore, Federal Environmental Executive in the Executive Office of the President. She is the person who is leading the oversight of the agency sustainability plans. Hear that conversation here.

* Somebody who just did it: Want to have hope in what you can do… and in young people… Last week, I got to talk to a 29-year-old woman who is making a difference. Saskia van Gendt is a resource conservation specialist at the EPA… and she is working in the field of “climaterials” — essentially the greening of all the materials to make buildings. And she launched a contest — the Lifecycle Building Challenge, a yearly online competition that recognizes cutting-edge building design and challenges students, architects and builders to reduce the environmental impact of buildings. This ‘just do it’ attitude scored her a place as a finalist for the Service to America Medals — the SAMMIES. Hear Ms. van Gendt talk about what she did here.

* Beneath the Green Dome: My colleague Amy Morris did a series looking at the greening of the Capitol. Find that series here.

Tomorrow… is there a better way to do sustainability plans?

Many GSA watchers believe that one of the longstanding systemic issues within GSA were regional administrators. The issue: Did the regional administrators report to the GSA administrator. Because the regional administrators are political appointees, it was a cloudy issue.

Earlier this year, GSA renamed the regional administrations as ‘regional commissioners’… and named regional senior executives…

But last week, GSA Administrator Martha Johnson issued a memo titled “Regional Leadership Structure” — posted below — which seeks to define the role of the regional administrators.

The regional administrator is the GSA official in the region who represents the administrator, and is the face of GSA and the White House in the region. There is new significance to this role because GSA, for the first time, is in a limelight position with an administration. We are being asked to do much more and do it in a much more visible and governmentwide arena.

While previously, the regional administrators were expected to “run” the operational divisions of the region, that ends up being “somewhat foolish” as the expertise, situational knowledge, and functional clustering was in the Federal Acquisition Service and the Public Building Service, she said. “Asking a regional administrator to assume a knowledgeable oversight role did not regularly match their qualifications.”

Read the full memo here:

Previous posts:

DorobekINSIDER: GSA renames regional administrators as ‘regional commissioners’ — the first step to a broader reorg? [March 18, 2009]

DorobekInsider.com: Many changes at GSA – this week, it’s the regional senior executives [April 25, 2009]