2014 budget points way to new opportunities

More shared services, consolidation and cloud computing - that’s where the Office of Management and Budget expects to find IT savings in 2014. More citizen-facing innovative applications, more mobility for the government, and more cybersecurity  - that’s where the White House will support higher spending.

7 steps to better budgets

This probably isn’t much of a news flash, but a lot of people developing budgets in the federal government don’t think the budgets are producing results.

John Saaty, president of Decision Lens, shared with me survey results from a recent conference of the American Association for Budget Program Analysis. A core group of the attendees were budgeteers from the federal government. Budgeteers is Saaty’s’s word, but I like it.

Northrop Grumman wins $13.5 million contract mod for surveillance kits

Northrop Grumman has won a $13.5 million contract modification with the U.S. Navy that adds three years and two additional items to a previous contract.

Due to the modification, the previous contract’s value bumped up to $43 million, and Northrop Grumman will additionally provide (V)4 Electronic Surveillance Enhancement kits and technically refreshed Electronic Surveillance Enhancement kits used in the AN/SLQ-32 anti-ship missile system, the Defense Department said in a release.

Work will be performed in Goleta, Calif., and is expected to be completed by April 2016.

Funding in the amount of $2.1 million is obligated at the time of the award, and will expire at the end of fiscal 2013.

New apps focus on health IT jobs

HealthITJobs.com has launched two mobile applications that will help health IT professionals search for jobs on their smart phones, Pymnts.com reported. 

The company released an apps for the iPhone and Android operating systems, each of which is fully synchronized with the website. Saved searches, applications and messages are updated in real time on both the app and on the website, Pymints.com said.

DynCorp wins $388.5M Army field maintenance contract

DynCorp International has won a $388.5 million contract to provide aviation maintenance services to the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command.

Under this Army Field Maintenance contract, which is firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-incentive, DynCorp will provide services throughout the Regional Aviation Sustainment Maintenance – West Region, which includes forts in Texas and Kansas.

How to react to sequestration? Focus on performance

In the middle of March, MicroTech named two new executives to its leadership team in an effort to work through the challenges of sequestration.

At Deltek’s Clarity event last week, MicroTech’s new chief financial officer, Lynn Wasylina, spoke a bit about how the company is fairing so far.

SEDNA Digital Solutions nabs $56M contract for engineering, technical services

SEDNA Digital Solutions has won a $56 million contract with the U.S. Navy for engineering and technical services in support of simulation and processing software development.

This cost-plus-fixed-fee contract has a base value of $10.2 million, and the services to be provided will go toward high fidelity simulation/stimulation and common processing system software development, the Defense Department said in a release.

What can you do to keep your health IT secure?

As health IT evolves, so do security threats. Modern health IT is not like the health IT of old, and needs to be addressed differently, and for this reason, Health IT Security gave a list of things you can do to make your health care IT infrastructure more secure.

State cancels $2.1B HITSS 2 contract

The State Department has canceled its $2.1 billion Hybrid IT Services for State 2 contract, known as HITSS 2. Instead it’ll issue a small business contract using the General Services Administration’s IT schedule.

The first HITSS contract was a small business contract held by 20 companies. For each of the last four years more than $200 million in task orders went through the vehicle. More than $1 billion has been spent throughout the life of contract, which was awarded in 2007, according to data from the market research firm Deltek.

Sequestration remains a mystery

Listen to the earnings calls from Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics, and they will closely follow the themes struck by Lockheed Martin the day before: When it comes to sequestration, the impact so far is minimal.