The Office of Federal Procurement Policy wants to reduce contract duplication, a laudable goal. We’re about to see, however, whether this initiative has any teeth as GSA continues on its path to develop a discreet IDIQ contract for cloud services. Such a contract would be, at a minimum, the 4th GSA contract vehicle through which cloud services could be obtained. A cloud Special Item Number already exists on the IT 70 Schedule. The soon-to-be awarded EIS contract will feature a substantial array of cloud solutions. It is likely that cloud buys are Read more
A lot of ink and radio waves have been dedicated to GSA’s IT innovation lab “18F”. Everyone likes innovation and companies get excited by the prospect of delivering cutting edge solutions that set themselves apart. Let’s take a look at the numbers, though. 18F has recently said it will focus primarily on micro-purchase acquisitions. The federal micro-purchase threshold is $3,500. Even if your company won 20 of Read more
Federal ethics laws sometimes make a hash of common sense. Regardless, they must be followed if your company is to stay on the right side of the compliance ledger. Don’t assume your sales team, or your C-suite executives know the rules. In fact, assume they don’t. Make sure that a well-intentioned favor, like the real example in this headline, doesn’t get you and your government customer in hot water. Allen Federal can help. We provide half-day ethics training that can be tailored to your firm, whether its sales, executives, or contract people (the ones who usually know better). Contact us today to make sure you don’t get taken for an ethics ride. E-mail us at info@allenfederal.com to see about the ethics training we can do for your company.
Cyber spending will see a 35% increase – all the way to $19 billion annually – if President Obama has his way. The number in the President’s FY’17 budget request underscores the importance of cyber protections in virtually every aspect of the federal government. In contrast, projects on IT modernization and cloud would see a modest increase of 1.8% under the 2017 proposed Read more
Look, most government contractors aren’t out to rip off the government. Most people, even many in the IG community, agree to that. At the same time, however, most companies are in business to do business and may not always take the time to get changes in writing, properly document their contract files, or do other “paperwork” that takes time away from closing Read more