Network Associates buys up rival security, management products
A string of acquisitions during the past three years has made Network Associates Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., into an enterprise security and management conglomerate. Network Associates gobbled up Cyber-Media Inc., Dr. Solomon's Software Inc., Magic Solutions Inc., McAfee Associates Inc., Network General Corp. and Trusted Information Systems Inc. As independent companies, all had federal users as customers.
Navy hospital moves to NT
Lt. Kevin Darnell, the hospital's CIO, says one of the biggest challenges was integrating 50 legacy medical apps. Between June and mid-August last year, Lt. Kevin Darnell managed a migration to Microsoft Exchange and Windows NT Workstation 4.0 from three different e-mail systems and Windows for Workgroups 3.11.
Computer training apps grow on Agriculture agency
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is hybridizing the way it does training. The Agriculture Department agency prefers to train employees in person, said Charlotte I. Miller, information technology training coordinator in Fort Collins, Colo. But the cost is high when the agency has to lease classrooms with networked computers, she said.
Verity makes a plug-in that works as a file translator
Verity Inc. has developed a client package through which PC users can exchange and review files without having the native applications installed. The company also has a server product that can convert proprietary documents for viewing by Web browser. The $65 KeyView Pro 6.5 handles 225 application formats including Applixware Office, Corel WordPerfect Suite 8, Lotus SmartSuite 97 and Millenium Edition, and Microsoft Office 95, 97 and 2000. Users also
SGI debuts its new multiprocessor systems for NT 4.0
Using its own graphics accelerator and architecture, Silicon Graphics Inc. has ventured into the Intel-powered PC market with 2-D and 3-D graphics-oriented systems running Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0. The dual- and quad-processor 320 and 540 systems can handle four streams of uncompressed video, said Cliff Apsey, director of product marketing. They transfer up to 3.2G of graphics and video data per second, he said.
With deals like these, who needs RFPs?
What's "in" in procurement? RFP avoidance. To satisfy needs not easily met by schedule contracts, agencies are turning to big existing requirements contracts rather than drafting requests for proposals for midsize buys, said Bob Dornan, senior vice president of Federal Sources Inc. of Vienna, Va. "Everybody pretty much accepts that as the trend," Dornan said.
DOT seeks employees' views
"I wanted to do surveys using the Web and found SurveyWin very difficult," he said. EZSurvey 98's $399 price—low when compared with other survey packages, which had price tags as high as $5,000—persuaded him to give Raosoft a second shot. Woodmansee, a personnel management specialist in human resources automation at the office of the Transportation secretary, used EZSurvey 98 to query 100,000 civilian and Coast Guard employees via DOT's Web site.
Air Force groups set controls on use of products
But SSG and AFMC will have to rely on friendly persuasion, mindful of each unit's control over its own budget, Air Force officials said. Debra Haley, AFMC's chief information officer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, said she is careful to refer to the command's users as customers. At SSG, the mandated presence of Microsoft Exchange Server and a modified version of the Exchange client for the Defense Message System forced officials to implement more central
IRS will take delivery of 10,300 Micron PCs
Through a $26.7 million order from a General Services Administration schedule contract, the IRS last year bought 10,300 PCs from Micron Electronics Inc. IRS tax examiners will use the 6,800 TransPort Trek2 notebooks and 3,500 Milennia desktop PCs, ordered through ComTeq Federal Inc.'s Treasury Department Acquisition blanket purchasing agreement, said Greg Roseman, IRS contracting officer for TDA BPAs.
FTS IT Solutions program picks 10 vendors for $25 billion global ANSWER contracts
Ten vendors last month won contracts with a combined $25 billion ceiling under the Federal Technology Service's IT Solutions Concept of Operations program. Through ANSWER, which stands for applications and support for widely diverse end-user requirements, FTS will replace many contracts that underlie its Federal Information Systems Support program. Awarded by the General Services Administration's Pacific Rim Region on Dec. 30, the 10 indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts will run for two base years with eight one-year options.
NWS creates systems bridge
The network makes the weather data available to multiple PCs simultaneously. Delays in the Commerce Department's long-planned, $520 million Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System presented a National Weather Service field forecast office with an operating system quandary in 1995. The field office in Wichita, Kan., needed a multitasking operating system that could run MS-DOS applications linked via PC serial ports to minicomputers hosting the Automation of Field Operations and Services (AFOS)
Civilian agencies replace servers, install software upgrades to be 2000-ready
Yost said he expects a more homogeneous PC environment. With three months to go, increasing numbers of civilian agencies are confident their PCs and servers will be year 2000-ready by the Office of Management and Budget's March deadline. Besides replacing old servers, they are installing software upgrades and vendor-supplied patches.
NASA adopts electronic forms, workflow to manage closeouts of its subcontracts
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has installed electronic forms and workflow software to simplify closing out its subcontracts. The Pasadena, Calif., lab works with scores of aerospace and information technology subcontractors, said Francine Fisher, a member of JPL's Acquisition Division. Operated by the California Institute of Technology, JPL is NASA's lead center for robotic exploration of the solar system.
FAA document management system helps users stay on track
Federal Aviation Administration users turn to their Web browsers and an intranet to file and index regulatory documents and track their revision status. FAA's Integrated Rulemaking Management System, based on the Docs Open document management system from PC Docs Inc. of Burlington, Mass., has 700 users. They can track items by docket number, federal regulation section number or other parameters, said Joseph Hawkins, director of FAA's Office of Rulemaking.
For PC-3, Army officials choose IDIQ contract method over BPA
The Army will award PC-3 contracts by mid-February, said Lee Harvey, a division chief at the Communications-Electronics Command Acquisition Center-Washington. The current PC-2 contracts expire at the end of January. Army officials surveyed vendors about pricing differences before deciding to stay with an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract instead of negotiating blanket purchasing agreements.
GSA's terms for Microsoft site licenses include upgrades of OSes andapplications
The General Services Administration has bought a three-year site license for Microsoft Corp. products for its 13,000 users. The $3.3 million delivery order, under Unisys Corp.'s GSA Systems contract, covers Microsoft Windows 9x, Windows NT Workstation and Server 4.0, Office Professional and Standard, and client access licenses for Microsoft SQL Server and Systems Management Server, said Mark Miller, the team leader for GSA's Acquisition Management Team.
Software training is on course
A distance-learning initiative has cut the Education Department's training expenses by nearly 4,000 percent, an agency official said. Costs have dropped from about $200 per course to just $5.20, said Steven Corey-Bey, director of the Special Projects Group in the Office of the Chief Information Officer. "Given the economies, what's not to love" about software training? he said.
Treasury sets up BPAs for companies competing with Dell
The Treasury Department last month signed three blanket purchasing agreements for file servers, laser printers, PCs, routers and software, in deals that set up competition for its heavyweight supplier, Dell Computer Corp. Under the Treasury Department Acquisition BPAs, Presidio Corp. of Lanham, Md., will provide IBM Corp. portables, PCs and servers, and Government Technology Services Inc. of Chantilly, Va., will sell the same types of products from Compaq Computer Corp., IRS contracting officer Greg Roseman said.
SPAWAR contracts go netwide
A document imaging system lets the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command post on its intranet 100,000 documents and 750,000 pages that represent 125 active contracts and $2 billion in Navy funds. The command's contract paperwork tripled in 1993 when four East Coast naval engineering activities consolidated, said Randy Bryant, an electrical engineer in SPAWAR's Advanced Technology Branch.
Agencies face decision on year 2000: Fix or cut bait
Federal agencies have reached a fork in the road to year 2000 readiness. The choice: either replace unready PCs and servers or upgrade them. Some agencies are using broad-brush software tools to fix their PC LANs. Others are physically checking the BIOS and real-time clock on each machine and applying up-grades and code patches where necessary.
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