information technology | The Contracting Education Academy

December 10, 2019 By cs

A new rule could allow Commerce secretary to ban certain tech buys

A proposed rule will allow a government department’s secretary to block the purchase of foreign technology that pose an “undue” risk to the U.S. information and communications infrastructure.

The rule, published by the Department of Commerce Nov. 26, establishes procedures for Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to “identify, assess, and address” information and communication technology (ICT) transactions he deems risky to national security.

The proposed rule stems from an executive order President Donald Trump signed on May 15, which gave the secretary the authority to prohibit or mitigate transactions that involve ICT technology developed or supplied by entities located in adversarial nations.

Transactions will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and the secretary will take a “fact-specific approach” to evaluation, according to the Commerce Department announcement.

Specifically, transactions will be blocked or mitigated if they are found to have an “an undue risk of sabotage or subversion ICTS in the United States; an undue risk of catastrophic effects on the security and resiliency of critical infrastructure or the digital economy in the United States; or an unacceptable risk to national security or to the security and safety of U.S. persons.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fifthdomain.com/civilian/2019/11/26/a-new-rule-could-allow-one-department-secretary-to-ban-certain-tech-buys/

July 24, 2019 By AMK

Procurement chiefs are watching the spread of RPA

Robotics process automation use across government “is exploding,” Joanie Newhart, associate administrator of acquisition workforce programs in the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said at the Shared Services Leadership Coalition RPA conference.

Newhart said OFPP is closely watching how RPA is being leveraged by agencies such as Health and Human Services for acquisitions and the General Services Administration, which is using it to smooth out some of its internal processes such as sifting through data to find unpaid invoices.

The Department of Treasury, she said, is using RPA to do background reviews of contractor performance to help its contracting officers with their due diligence in awarding contracts.

Those kinds of RPA applications could transform federal acquisition in only a few years, as they take over repetitive internal tasks, according to Newhart. OFPP, she said, is planning to share some of its observations on RPA with agencies soon.

Keep reading article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2019/05/29/rpa-ofpp-rockwell.aspx

June 20, 2019 By AMK

Government innovation? Weirdness comes in threes

How often have you heard that the government is stodgy and resistant to change? Large bureaucracies, both in business and government, do trend that way. But three curious initiatives from federal agencies occurred in the days leading to the long Memorial Day weekend.

Unrelated, they nevertheless connect thematically by showing an instinct towards government innovation, that is, a government willing to try something different.

First was the appointment of Jose Arrietta as the chief information officer of the Department of Health and Human Services. I’ve interviewed Arrietta a couple of times. He’s a smart cookie. He’s possesses good technology chops, having been one of the people trying to prove how blockchain can work in federal settings. In his relatively short time at HHS, Arrietta saw to it that the first blockchain application received authority to operate. That in itself is radical.

But as Jason Miller reported, Arrietta is an unconventional choice to lead an IT complex as vast and diverse as that of HHS. It’s government innovation in personnel. He’s mainly an acquisition guy, and acquisition is an important part of technology and information management. The blockchain application is in fact acquisition. Now Arrietta will have to show he can widen his viewpoint and make things happen in all areas overseen by a CIO.

Keep reading article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2019/05/government-innovation-weirdness-comes-in-threes/

May 21, 2019 By AMK

Software acquisition – still a tough nut to crack

Effectively acquiring and sustaining the massive number of software systems the Pentagon employs is a perennial problem, experts say. It often takes too long for the Defense Department to purchase and deploy new, cutting-edge software or upgrades.

Despite efforts by Congress to root out the problem through various well-intentioned reports, issues persist, said Jeff Boleng, a special assistant for software acquisition at the Defense Department. He is a key member of Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord’s executive leadership team.

“We’ve got a whole bunch of numbers staring us down — we’ve got 804, 805, 809, 813, 872, 873, 874, 868,” he said, referring to sections of recent National Defense Authorization Acts.

“Essentially, Congress is inside DoD’s decision loop here telling us how to fix software more quickly than we can actually address some of the problems and implement them,” he noted.

Boleng is working closely with the Section 872 panel which — alongside the Defense Innovation Board — is focusing on software acquisition regulations, he said during a recent event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

The report will soon wrap up and is slated to be delivered to the Pentagon in April and then to Congress in May, he added.

“There’s a lot in there. Surprisingly, there’s not a ton that’s new,” he said. “I hope that the timing is right for some of these recommendations. We’ve been looking back in history at various other studies that have been done on acquisition reform, software technology, information technologies. [And] we’ve been lamenting about this problem since the ‘70s — literally when software first started to even be created for defense systems — and a lot of times we say the same things.”

Keep reading article at: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2019/3/19/algorithmic-warfare-software-acquisition—still-a-tough-nut-to-crack

May 15, 2019 By AMK

How GSA is making software contracts more like commercial sales

The General Services Administration has adjusted some components of its IT Schedule 70 contract, the federal government’s largest IT purchasing vehicle, to give agencies a more efficient way to buy software services, the agency announced April 16.

Three special item numbers on the contract, which more narrowly define IT services the government wants to purchase, were updated to help agencies better comply with policy and purchase new technology.

“Now our offerings align better with the way software is sold commercially,” Bill Zielinski, acting assistant commissioner of GSA’s Office of Information Technology Category, wrote in a blog post. “Now it’s easier for our customers to get what they need, including transferring software licenses among federal entities.”

The three changes adjusted language related to term software, perpetual software license and software maintenance service contracts.

The updates better define term software as distinguished from software-as-a-service, include identification tags and transferability rights for perpetual software licenses, add utilization limitations across all three special item numbers and define commercial supplier agreements to include enterprise user license agreements and terms of service agreements.

Keep reading article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/acquisition/2019/04/17/how-gsa-is-making-software-contracts-more-like-commercial-sales/

A proposed rule will allow a government department’s secretary to block the purchase of foreign technology that pose an “undue” risk to the U.S. information and communications infrastructure.

Robotics process automation use across government “is exploding,” Joanie Newhart, associate administrator of acquisition workforce programs in the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said at the Shared Services Leadership Coalition RPA conference.

How often have you heard that the government is stodgy and resistant to change? Large bureaucracies, both in business and government, do trend that way. But three curious initiatives from federal agencies occurred in the days leading to the long Memorial Day weekend.

Effectively acquiring and sustaining the massive number of software systems the Pentagon employs is a perennial problem, experts say. It often takes too long for the Defense Department to purchase and deploy new, cutting-edge software or upgrades.

The General Services Administration has adjusted some components of its IT Schedule 70 contract, the federal government’s largest IT purchasing vehicle, to give agencies a more efficient way to buy software services, the agency announced April 16.

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