This is from my blog: blogs.infostrat.com Responding to a government RFP is often a guessing game, and the biggest guess that contractors have to make is the budget for a project. The unwillingness or inability to share a budget for a product or a service hurts both the bidder and the government purchaser. It leadsRead… Read more »
After working on information technology projects for many years, I’m here to declare what may be obvious — it’s not the technology that’s the problem, it’s the constraints. Software and hardware technology keeps improving, and offers many innovations that can dramatically change how government and business work. But the constraints remain intractable. Project management literatureRead… Read more »
Many government agencies are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM to build line of business solutions using an approach that Microsoft calls xRM. One of the challenges is to calculate the cost of such an implementation. One of the questions I am asked most frequently by clients is to estimate the cost of a software implementation project.Read… Read more »
When I took the SAT in high school, we were asked what career we planned to pursue. I said I wanted to be a doctor. Now, after over thirty years in international affairs and information technology, I am becoming more like a doctor after all. No, I’m not healing anyone and my medical knowledge isRead… Read more »
Today I was saddened to read of the passing of Maynard Hill in the Washington Post. Mr. Hill was a pioneer in unmanned aerial vehicles, and set many records for speed, duration, and altitude for radio-controlled aircraft. His most recent was the first trans-Atlantic flight of a model aircraft in 2003. I interviewed Maynard HillRead… Read more »
Today I saw an RFP on GSA eBuy for a single Apple MacBook Pro. I wonder how much the RFP, bid evaluation, and award will cost for this commodity item. How many vendors will respond? Does USDA not have a more efficient way to purchase this hardware? Here are the details: RFQ ID: RFQ555223 ReferenceRead… Read more »
As part of my Grumpy Old Man series, today I’m taking a look at the challenges that lie ahead of todays most widely hyped technology — cloud computing. Before government agencies can realize the benefits of cloud computing, a number of challenges must be overcome. Government information technology must conform to rules and regulations thatRead… Read more »
Although it was developed for the XBox360 game system to compete with the Nintendo Wii, the Kinect motion sensor also has serious applications. Developers have created drivers to use Kinect on your PC, enabling control of applications with large and small gestures — no mouse or touch screen required. Here is a video that illustratesRead… Read more »
On September 20, 2010 Microsoft released Grants360, a solution accelerator for grantee organizations. InfoStrat and its partner TrueTandem developed the solution to provide end-to-end management of the grant process, from soliciting applications to review, award, and post award tracking. Grants360 (databasheet) is build using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for the management module and Microsoft Azure forRead… Read more »
This week witnessed one of the most dramatic government information technology failures ever, with an outage that paralyzed twenty six state government services for days in Virginia. The Department of Motor Vehicles was the most visible outage, leaving thousands of frustrated motorists and forcing law enforcement to relax enforcement to allow time for drivers’ licenseRead… Read more »