China telecom dumps fed market

New restrictions on what the federal government can buy from China have led one company to leave the U.S. market, FCW is reporting.

Huawei, a China-based telecom company, is no longer interested in the United States, one of their executives told the China Morning Post. Instead they will look to Europe to expand.

8 "can't miss" health IT opportunities

Health IT is often mentioned as one of the hot niche markets in the federal space. Along with areas such as cyber and big data, it’s seen as a market with long term growth potential.

But it also is a market rife with political and cultural challenges. Just look at the problems the Military Health System and the Veterans Affairs Department have had in developing an integrated electronic health record.

Alliant Techystems expands support with Iraqi Air Force

Alliant Techsystems has won a $31.4 million contract modification with the Air Force to continue logistic support services for the Iraqi Air Force’s Cessna 208s.

The company will also provide maintenance student training on both aircraft under this firm-fixed-price contract modification.

Work will take place in Tikrit, Iraq, and is expected to be completed in April 2014.

Funds in the amount of $13.8 million will be obligated at the time of the award, and there is no word whether they will expire at the end of fiscal 2013.

Dell's Newstrom on the 3rd Platform of IT

The landmark technology shift that the market research firm IDC has dubbed the 3rd Platform in a whitepaper sponsored by Dell, is to say the least, a whole lot more than a place to catch a train.

To clarify, and simplify a bit, the IDC whitepaper "Making the Case: IT Consolidation and Powerful New Platforms — A Call to Action for Boosting Government Productivity," [Document #GI238094, April 2013] outlines the concept like this:

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.

Raytheon scores $50.6M contract for air traffic control systems

Raytheon Co. has won a $50.6 million contract to provide the U.S. Air Force with 19 D-RAPCON air traffic control systems.

The D-RAPCON system is a deployable air traffic control surveillance system that provides a supportable, adaptable, persistent, expeditionary terminal approach and enroute surveillance and control capability for joint, coalition and civil aircraft worldwide, the Defense Department said in a release.

Northrop Grumman wins $23M order for software sutainment of Hawkeye aircraft

Northrop Grumman has won a $23 million firm-fixed-price delivery order against a previously issued basic order agreement with the U.S. Navy for software sustainment support of the E-AD Advanced Hawkeye aircraft.

Under the delivery order, the company will provide full rate production lot 1 software sustainment.

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.

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.