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Weekly Roundup
May 26 – May 29 2015


A Note From Our President & Founder Jim Garrettson

The chief executive for one of GovCon’s most storied companies commented this week on calls from both the public and private sectors for the government — and the military in particular — to make greater use of technologies from the commercial sector.
Wes Bush, CEO Northrop Grumman, told a CSIS-hosted event in WashingtonTuesday defense agencies should not solely rely on commercial technologies as a substitute for federal investments into research-and-development efforts.
“Commercial technology, quite correctly, follows the money wherever it leads,” Bush said.
“This is not to say that commercial has no utility to defense. Of course it does. But that utility is as leverage not a substitute.”
Bush’s comments came nearly a week after the National Science Foundationpublished a new report on the federal government’s funding for R&D, which said that support declined 9 percent in FY 2013 from 2012 figures.
The Pentagon’s individual R&D support fell 14 percent during that same time frame and NASA’s R&D funding went down 3 percent, NSF said.
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The Potomac Officers Club‘s next event for public and private sector leaders will kick off the “CIO Summer Series,” where IT leaders from federal agencies will offer their perspectives on spending priorities and what is in store for the year ahead.
POC’s first event of the series will feature Terry Halvorsen, the Defense Department’s chief information officer, with more CIOs to come for the remainder of the series.
After that, POC’s June 16 “Internet of Things” summit will feature discussions on how the Internet has converged with appliances, automobiles and building systems.
Vint Cerf, widely recognized as a “father of the Internet” and Google’s chief Internet evangelist, will address the executive audience at the half-day event in McLean, Va.
Other speakers include Dan Doney, chief innovation officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Kevin Kampschroer, GSA’s director of federal high-performance green buildings.
Click here to register for these events and to view POC’s full calendar.

THIS WEEK’S TOP NEWS STORIES

EMC Signs $1.2B Cash Deal to Buy Virtustream
Bethesda, Maryland-based Virtustream develops technologies for organizations in the public and private sectors to manage cloud computing applications.
Boeing Announces Exec Moves After Data Analytics Team Launched; Chris Chadwick Comments
Dewey Houck will serve as chief data analytics officer and lead the new team, which seeks to build information capability onto product and service offerings.
SAP NS2 Vet John Tomaselli Joins Govini as Chief Revenue Officer
Tomaselli is the former chief operating officer of SAP NS2 and served for two years as a regional VP of business analytics and technology.
Tony Frazier: DigitalGlobe-Saab JV Sees Market Opportunity for 3-D Model of Earth
Frazier, DigitalGlobe’s U.S. government lead, said the Vricon JV will build models that use commercial satellite imagery to support sharing with other parties.
Steve Risseeuw on SAP’s ‘Co-Innovation’ Tech Approach With Agencies, Push for Collaboration
Risseeuw also overviews the public sector IT trend he views as the “most disruptive” in Q&A with ExecutiveBiz.
Ken Asbury: CACI Adds Business Systems Work Through Army IPPS-A Contract
CACI will serve as system integrator for the program, which will work to standardize and consolidate pay processes and personnel data.
Tom Romeo: Maximus, MicroPact Partner to Help Manage Gov’t Programs with Technology
The companies aim to help agencies manage cases and business processes in the health, financial and civilian areas.
Joe Jordan: FedBid Marketplace Now Includes Contract Mgmt Tool
The company developed the tools for acquisition personnel to manage contract vehicles by functional category.
Microsoft’s Susie Adams: Data Governance Critical for Federal BYOD Programs
The software maker’s federal CTO says agencies should maintain control over employee access to data regardless of the device.
James Stavridis Takes Senior Fellow Role at Johns Hopkins APL; Ralph Semmel Comments
The former NATO Forces chief served as the supreme allied commander of the NATO Alliance in global operations between 2009 and 2013.
DOE Plans New Contract for Sandia Nat’l Labs Operations
The contract has an estimated annual value of $27 million and follows several extensions to Lockheed Martin’s contract.
DOJ Issues Drone Usage Policy Guidance for US Law Enforcement
Component agencies are also required to submit an annual report to the deputy attorney general on their use of UAS.
Denise Turner Roth’s GSA Mgmt Agenda Includes Transparency Reports, Shared Services
The nominee for GSA’s administrator post overviews her plan for the agency to continue its federal property management initiatives.
GAO Reviews Pentagon’s Budget Mgmt Strategy Under Sequestration
DoD’s operations and maintenance account absorbed 55 percent of $37 billion in FY 2013 mandated defense budget cuts.
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