BREAKING NEWS
SALT LAKE CITY—Dolores Etter, deputy undersecretary of Defense for science and technology, has taken on a new job: executive agent for software acquisition at the Defense Department. At the annual Software Technology Conference last week, Etter said half of DOD software projects end up costing twice their estimates, and the average schedule slippage is three years. The department spends up to $10,000 per software function point on military systems vs. $100 for typical desktop PC applications,
SALT LAKE CITYDolores Etter, deputy undersecretary of Defense for science and
technology, has taken on a new job: executive agent for software acquisition at the
Defense Department.
At the annual Software Technology Conference last week, Etter said half of DOD software
projects end up costing twice their estimates, and the average schedule slippage is three
years. The department spends up to $10,000 per software function point on military systems
vs. $100 for typical desktop PC applications, she said.
Etter said she would seek more discipline in software development, better collaboration
among DOD software shops, enhanced career development for software engineers and increased
funding for software research.
DOD needs to develop expertise in future technologies such as real-time network
protocols that can support quality of service and fault tolerance, she said.
The Coast Guard last month awarded Computer Sciences Corp. a task order worth $6.9
million to modernize the services pay and personnel system.
The Coast Guard will install human resources software from PeopleSoft Inc. of
Pleasanton, Calif., at its Human Resources Service and Information Center in Topeka, Kan.
The center runs human resources, benefits and payroll systems for the services
active, reserve and retired guard members.
CSCs consulting and civil groups in Falls Church, Va., will help Coast Guard with
the installation, said Michael W. Laphen, civil group president.
The Coast Guard awarded the task order under the Transportation Departments $1.13
billion Information Technology Omnibus Procurement. The task order has a six-month base
with an 18-month option.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.The Federal Technology Service wants to expand its share of local
telecommunications business through a program called Local Storm.
The program will target metropolitan areas underserved by FTS programs, FTS
commissioner Dennis J. Fischer said last week at the FTS users conference. The
General Services Administration agency will use competitive pricing to attract federal
users and enlarge FTS domain as a value-added reseller to other agencies, he said.
FTS has not set a target date for the programs kickoff, but Local Storms
initial markets will include Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Colorado Springs, Colo.,
Dallas, Huntsville, Ala., Kansas City, Mo., Los Angeles, New Orleans, Washington and West
Virginia.
The Army late last month canceled plans for two site licenses for intrusion detection
software but expects to award two firewall site licenses this month.
None of the intrusion detection software bidders met the services statement of
work requirements, said Connie Avallone, contracting officer at the Army
Communications-Electronics Command Acquisition Center-Southwest at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.
The Directorate of Information Systems for Command, Control, Communication and
Computers had set out plans for two lots of site licenses: one for network intrusion
detection and the other for host detection, Avallone said.
The firewall deals will include licenses for WAN products and LAN protection, Avallone
said.
The General Services Administration has named Mary Mitchell as its new deputy associate
administrator of electronic commerce in the Office of Governmentwide Policy.
Mitchell, who starts today, replaces Tony Trenkle. He left earlier this year to become
electronic services director for the Social Security Administration.
Mitchell will coordinate and monitor government e-commerce programs. She will focus on
electronic catalogs, smart-card technology, electronic grants and security. She will also
be co-chairwoman of the Federal Electronic Commerce Program Office.
Before coming to GSA, Mitchell was a program manager in the Information Technology and
Applications Office of the National Institute of Standards and Technologys Advanced
Technology Program.
Seagate Software Inc. has announced certification of its Backup Exec Shared Storage
Option for Microsoft Windows NT and Novell NetWare on Fibre Channel storage area network
components from a dozen hardware vendors.
The Seagate Backup Exec software for end-to-end Fibre Channel arbitrated loop and
fabric SANs works with host bus adapters, hubs, drives and firmware from Compaq Computer
Corp.; Dell Computer Corp.; Emulex Corp. of Costa Mesa, Calif.; Exabyte Corp. of Boulder,
Colo.; Hewlett-Packard Co.; QLogic Corp. of Costa Mesa, Calif., and Storage Technology
Corp. of Louisville, Colo.
A list of the Seagate-certified hardware appears on the Web at www.seagatesoftware.com.
The subsidiary of Seagate Technology Inc. of Scotts Valley, Calif., sells the Seagate
Backup Exec Shared Storage Option starting at $4,995, which includes license fees for two
shared tape drives.
Contact Seagate Software at 407-531-7500.
The year 2000 problem will have a minimal impact on 911 systems across the country,
according to the General Accounting Office.
We believe that basic 911 service will work come the year 2000, said Jack
L. Brock Jr., director of governmentwide and defense information systems in GAOs
Accounting and Information Management Division, testifying before the Senate Special
Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem.
Brock said the public, however, should be prepared to find alternate ways to get help
in case 911 systems fail.
An April GAO report said only 18 percent of the 4,300 Public Safety Answering Points
across the country have responded to a Federal Emergency Management Agency survey on their
year 2000-readiness.
The report, Year 2000 Computing Challenge: Status of Emergency and State and Local Law
Enforcement Systems is Still Unknown, said only 16 percent of the 911 call answering sites
were year 2000-ready.
The newly released federal version of PeopleSoft HRMS 7.5 from PeopleSoft Inc. has
enhanced Web interfaces for administering benefits, analyzing work force requirements and
managing compensation.
Agency employees can make their federal benefit selections via the Web, for example,
said Jon Klem, PeopleSoft Federal vice president and general manager. Other
federal-specific additions include expanded payroll and leave processing functions plus
support for retirement, transfer and separation transactions.
Contact PeopleSofts federal office at 302-571-5800.
Thomas R. Temin, Frank Tiboni, William Jackson, Bill Murray,
Christopher J. Dorobek, and Florence Olsen