Acquisition

Top 10 Proposal Mistakes – and How to Avoid Them Teleseminar

As I am spending time at the beautiful Wild Horse Pass Resort and Spa in Arizona, getting inspiration and ideas from the international Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) conference, I got the idea for my next complimentary webinar – “Top 10 Proposal Mistakes – and How to Avoid Them.” The title is self-explanatory –Read… Read more »

GovLoop Member of the Week – Mary Davie, GSA’s Assistant Commissioner, Office of Assisted Acquisition Services, Federal Acquisition Service

When I am asked for best practice examples of how GovLoop is accelerating knowledge exchange and breaking down traditional barriers that hinder interagency communication, I immediately cite Mary Davie. A few months ago, Mary launched the Acquisition 2.0 group with the following comment: “Would love to hear from gov and industry – best practices andRead… Read more »

KnowItAll_Tweets 06.08.09

Good morning, I will continue trying to eliminate all of the RT’s and re-posts. If I miss some, please forgive me. Caroline Jerry_Bio: @govloop Department of the Army allows access to Facebook & Twitter from BEHIND .mil firewalls. Still no access to govloop #govloop #gov20 21 minutes ago from HootSuite • Reply • View TweetRead… Read more »

Federal Eye: More Storm Clouds for FAA and Weather Service?

By Ed O’Keefe and Steve Vogel The National Weather Service today finally got around to delivering those long-anticipated recommendations on changing the FAA’s use of government meteorologists at its Air Route Traffic Control Centers. The basic plan calls for downsizing the 20 National Weather Service Center Weather Service Units (or CWSUs for short), to justRead… Read more »

Billions of dollars lay in wait for technology companies serving the government. Will you get your share?

The $789 billion stimulus package dictates spending in specific areas to improve our highways, our electrical grid, and our healthcare system, just to name a few. Almost every aspect will involve an investment in technology. Join us on June 4th to explore how contract vehicles can be used to maximize opportunities. It’s a team effortRead… Read more »

Past Performance Data and the Need to Change the Source Selection Paradigm

The GAO report entitled Better Performance Information Needed to Support Agency Contract Award Decisions (GAO-09-374), lays out a disturbing trend in government oversight and contract management that needs to be corrected on many levels if the government is to increase performance of federal contracts. As noted in the report, the typical information management problem ofRead… Read more »

Performance Management Reporting

In my previous post I outlined a 4 step process for a successful performance management program. to recap: 1. Report performance metric data on pre-defined schedule. 2. Analyze data for troubling trends or missed targets. Operationally research root cause of problems. 3. Provide corrective action for metrics where target was missed or data is trendingRead… Read more »

Federal Eye: Interior Dept. Bungles Passport Records

The Interior Department’s inspector general has found widespread mishandling and tracking of highly valuable passports issued to department officials traveling overseas, alleging that in numerous instances employees violated federal privacy laws. Several expired passports could not be accounted for and inspectors also could not locate the passports once issued to Interior Secretary Gale Norton andRead… Read more »

Interior cannot find 20 percent of its laptops

It’s pretty amazing, but the Interior Department has not been keeping tabs on its laptops. According to an Inspector General’s report, the agency cannot find 20 percent of its laptops. And that’s a pretty bad report card for any agency and raises real questions about what information was stored on those laptops and why wasn’tRead… Read more »

Open Source Success Through Understanding the Acquisition Process

The criticality of contractors understanding the government acquisition process is vital to their success and the widespread adoption of open source software. Government transparency, openness and sharing will be significanty facilitated through this comprehension. This concept is superbly underscored through this article by Chet Hayes. While the intricacies of the acquisition process are often complex,Read… Read more »