A New Procurement Model And Why You Need Enterprise Architecture by cdorobek
On Today’s Edition of the DorobekINSIDER
- We often hear about government and industry partnering. There are many challenges. And many challenges to changing government procurement to make it better. The CIO for the state of Oklahoma is trying, and he will tell you about his effort. We’ll also talk about how an enterprise architecture can help improve procurement.
The Seven Stories That Impact Your Life
- Apple has reversed the company’s decision to remove itself from the green electronics registry. The situation could have prevented governments — including the federal government — from buying Apple products. But Apple announced the company has reintroduced its products to the government-supported green electronics registry it ditched two weeks ago. In a letter posted Friday, Bob Mansfield, senior vice president of hardware engineering, said removing the products was a “mistake” that “disappointed” many of its “loyal customers.”
- The Obama administration failed to meet a legal deadline for scanning all shipping containers for radioactive material before they reach the United States. The requirement was aimed at strengthening maritime security and preventing terrorists from smuggling a nuclear device into any of the nation’s 300 sea and river ports. The Washington Post reports that the Homeland Security Department was given until this month to ensure that 100 percent of inbound shipping containers are screened at foreign ports. But the department’s secretary, Janet Napolitano, informed Congress in May that she was extending a two-year blanket exemption to foreign ports because the screening is proving too costly and cumbersome. She said it would cost $16 billion to implement scanning measures at the nearly 700 ports worldwide that ship to the United States
- Yet another group is balking at the prospect of having all personal financial disclosures posted online: The American Foreign Service Association. The group is the latest to protest the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (Stock) Act, which became law in April. The law was designed to prohibit members and employees of Congress from using insider information that could affect stock prices, for example, for personal gain. The provisions of the law also apply to other federal employees who file publicly available financial disclosure forms. AFSA said those disclosures could threaten personal and national security.
- Agencies have made progress moving into the cloud, but there needs to be greater planning. That is the assessment coming from the Government Accountability Office, which looked at how agencies are implementing the Obama administration’s ‘cloud first’ policy. OMB says there have been challenges with meeting federal security requirements; obtaining guidance; acquiring knowledge and expertise; certifying and accrediting vendors; and overcoming cultural barriers.
- With two major deadlines looming for the federal government’s adoption of IPv6, the Chief Information Officers Council released an updated version of its roadmap for IPv6 adoption. The guide, posted on CIO.gov and titled “Planning Guide/Roadmap Toward IPv6 Adoption within the U.S. Government,” seeks to assist federal agency leaders in the IPv6 transition with best practice guidance on how to successfully integrate to the next generation Internet within their agencies. NextGov reports that half of agencies Web sites are already IPv6 compliant.
- And the most awesome digital counties in the country include Charles County, Md.; Sussex County, N.J.; Dutchess County, N.Y.; and Fairfax County, Va. Government Technology announced those counties were tops in the 2012 digital county survey as conducted each year by the Center for Digital Government and Government Technology. Government Technology says that the winners aligned strategies that means IT improved the counties meet their mission.
- And on GovLoop… restructuring government. It has been tried before. GovLoop member Bill Brantley writes about some of the lessons learned — and the pitfalls. He says that like an auto repair shop: much of the agency work is determined by what arrives in the garage that morning, meaning the uncertainty of the yearly budget cycle and the uncertainties around elections prevent building sustainable long-term processes.