Air Force makes NetCents 2 awards, now what?

The Air Force moved ahead late Friday afternoon and has made its second attempt to award the $6.9 billion NetCents 2 Products contract, naming eight prime contractors late Friday afternoon.

The multiple-award task order contract was originally awarded last year to nine companies but after 11 other companies filed protests of the award, the Air Force quickly backed off and rescinded the awards.

Who are the D.C.-areas' top women tech leaders?

Thirteen women have been selected as winners of Women in Technology’s 14th Annual Leadership Awards, which honor leading female professionals who have excelled as mentors, exemplified unique vision and who embody Women in Technology’s mission.

The winners are:

• Corporate: Private Sector Large Business: Elaine Anderson, CSC
• Corporate: Private Sector Small Business: Mary Knebel Gillespie, Alarm.com
• Corporate: Public Sector Large Business: Julie Taylor, SAIC
• Corporate: Public Sector Small Business: Angie Lienert, Intelligenesis, LLC
• Entrepreneur: Dawn Halfaker, Halfaker and Associates
• Government: Lorraine Landfried, Department of Veteran Affairs
• Health IT: Stephanie Pincus, National Academies of Science (Institute of Medicine)
• Rising Star: Marlene Roush, SAIC; Stacy Tedesco, D.C. Public Schools, Thomson Elementary
• Social Impact IT: Donna Rice Hughes, Enough is Enough
• Unsung Hero: Nora Robertson, Navy ERP
• WIT Champion: Kelly Moore, AT&T
• President’s Award: Colleen Oresky; Chair Sponsor Committee; Deb Hennessy; Chair GIT Share Our Success Events
• Founders Award: Nanci Schimizzi; FINRA

Women in Technology also recognized Gannett Co. with its inaugural Corporate Leadership for Women on Boards award for Gannett’s gender diversity on its corporate board and for raising awareness for diversity in the technology industry, the organization said in a release.

Stottlemyer explains Acentia's vision for acquisitions

Bucking the tide of a sluggish and uncertain economy last year, technology and management solutions provider Acentia on April 1, 2012, acquired 2020 Company LLC, a federal health IT provider.

2020 “was a hot, high-growth entrepreneurial business” that had won numerous IDIQs and had generated interest from a number of prospective buyers, said Bob Kipps, principal at Kipps DeSanto, an investment bank that advised 2020 on the deal.

OFPP goes full speed ahead with strategic sourcing

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy wants to move forward with strategic sourcing efforts, and has delivered a set of proposals for how and where to expand the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative, Federal News Radio reported. These efforts include technology hardware and software, laboratory supplies, janitorial and sanitation, mobile and wireless products and services, and others, Federal News Radio quoted Joe Jordan as saying.

Objectives revised for $10B NIH CIO-CS contract

The National Institutes of Health has released a new statement of objectives for the $10 billion Chief Information Officer – Commodity Solutions contract that expands the number of product categories and changes the cloud services to be offered.

The CIO-CS contract will replace the Electronic Commodities Store III contract, a 10-year, $10 billion vehicle with 40 prime contractors. It is being extended another year until the new contract is in place.

Winning is a team sport. Are you getting everyone to play?

Christian Gronroos said, “In a services business, all employees are salespeople.”  I have often heard executives say that they want all of their employees engaged in helping to grow the business.  How does this result actually happen?

There are employees who work on a project for years seemingly not concerned about how the contract was won.  Their employer has the contract and off to work they go.  One day when the work stops, they expect to be hired by the new prime contractor.  For some of these employees, the thought of helping their employer grow the business is not their responsibility.  I have heard project managers say, “BD is not my job.” Business development or BD people win the work; operations people deliver the work. This view has dominated our business and worked, more or less, for many years… until now.

Is the $6.9B NetCents 2 merry-go-round about to start again?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Air Force announces winners of NetCents 2. Click here for the list of winners and more commentary.

3 questions every market newcomer has to answer

Back in the early years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, there was a flood of government spending as homeland security funding grew and the nation took on two wars.

With that flood of cash came a flood of new companies believing they had some technology, solution or other offering that agencies just had to have.

ManTech wins $96M contract to support Customs and Border Protection

ManTech International has won a single-award, $96 million blanket purchase agreement to provide information and enforcement training services to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection organization.

The agreement, which was awarded under the company’s GSA schedule, has a one-year base and four option years.

Big data fuels cross-country acquisition

Haystax Technology Inc. of San Jose, Calif., has acquired Digital Sandbox, a McLean, Va., provider of data analytics products for the public safety, law enforcement and corporate security markets.

The marriage builds out Haystax big data capabilities, which have been focused on helping intelligence, defense and security customers handle ever increasing volumes of information.