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XXXSPLITXXX-The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, with some help from American Management Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va., has launched an online permitting and payment process for the state's 26,000 businesses when they apply for air permits.The site automates the permitting process and slashes the process from six weeks to six minutes, according to New Jersey officials. Large businesses, such as pharmaceutical and petrochemical manufacturers, as well as smaller companies, such as gas stations, are required to file for "air general permits.""With this project we are able to reduce paperwork, shorten approval times, encourage compliance and refocus our staff on issues that have a greater environmental benefit," said Bob Shinn, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. "We also anticipate expanding our use of interactive permitting and mapping applications on the Internet to better serve both the residents of New Jersey and our business community."XXXSPLITXXX-Computer Associates International Inc. of Islandia, N.Y., has formed a dedicated government unit to pull together sales, marketing and services efforts focused on the federal market. Formation of the new organization was triggered in part by the April 3 acquisition of Sterling Software. It will help Computer Associates pursue more government customers, especially among the intelligence agencies.The unit, called CA Federal Systems Group, will be headed by Otto Guenther, who was the first chief information officer of the Army. Guenther joined CA in 1997 as director of strategic initiatives. The unit will be based in Herndon, Va., and will have between 1,800 and 2,000 employees.Before forming the federal unit, CA did not have a dedicated division focused on the federal government market. Sales, marketing and services efforts were conducted from separate units that also were responsible for commercial customers, a CA spokesman said.XXXSPLITXXX-Network consulting and engineering firm Planning Technologies Inc. of Atlanta has been acquired by iGate Capital Corp. of Oakdale, Pa. Planning Technologies will become part of iGate's Enterprise Network Systems unit.Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Planning Technologies has more than 100 employees and serves government customers such as the departments of Agriculture, Defense and Veterans Affairs and the state of Georgia.Planning Technologies provides the consulting services to organizations converting their enterprise networks into the infrastructure needed to be an electronic business.iGate Capital is a holding company that has built a group of companies with more than $350 million in annual revenue providing a variety of online services.XXXSPLITXXX-Twenty companies have grabbed spots on the first two lots of the General Services Administration's $20 billion Millennia Lite contract for information technology and systems integration services. The winners now will square off against each other to win work from government agencies seeking the IT services covered under the different categories, or lots, of Millennia Lite.One company, Sherikon Inc. of Chantilly, Va., won a spot on both the high-end information technology services area and the mission-support services area.Other companies getting a spot on the high-end information technology services lot were: American Systems Corp.; Anteon Corp.; AverStar Inc.; Computer Sciences Corp.; Computer Technology Associates Inc.; GRC International Inc.; New Technology Management Inc.; QSS Group Inc.; Sentel Corp.; and Systems Technology Associates Inc.Other companies winning in the mission support services lot were: ACS Government Solutions Group; Advanced Technology Systems Inc.; Century Technologies; Computer Systems Technology; EER Systems; FC Business Systems; ITS Federal; Rose International Inc.; and VGS Inc.Two lots still to be awarded: information technology planning, studies and assessment; legacy systems migration and new enterprise systems development.XXXSPLITXXX-Two companies are teaming up to provide federal, state and local governments with the opportunity to buy and sell used equipment online, including PCs, laptops, copiers, phone systems, servers and cameras. TechSmart.com, an Edgewood, N.Y.-based, business-to-business, online asset recovery marketplace for digital office equipment, announced April 19 that it was partnering with Digital Commerce Corp. of Reston, Va., which operates the electronic marketplaces FedCenter.com and StateGovCenter.com. "As a one-stop resource for government buyers, FedCenter.com and StateGovCenter.com will continue to offer necessary tools to facilitate a fast, convenient, secure and reliable means to electronic procurement," said Tony Bansal, president and chief executive officer of Digital Commerce Corp.Digital Commerce is in a quiet period in dealings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and could not comment on the partnership's financial implications.FedCenter.com is an online supplier of computer and business items to federal government agencies, and StateGovCenter.com is an online supplier to state and local government. These procurement sites are storefronts for the government agencies.XXXSPLITXXX-A newly formed research and development organization sees high technology as the key to making a better government. "The future of better government lies in putting high technology in the hands of talented people," and the Copernicus Institute, "is about bringing new technology, new techniques and new intellectual capital to the nation's problems," said Jerry Tuttle, one of the group's founders. The Washington, D.C.-based, nonprofit group was formed in response to requests the founders received from the departments of Defense and Education to address future government problems in new ways, said Michael Loescher, another Copernicus founder, who is also chief operating officer. They said the specific problems are confidential, but that the group hopes to gather people who have proven performance in solving problems for government, he said. The founders all have a government background. The institute's first customers are the National Reconnaissance Office and the Education Department. The founders are Tuttle, Loescher, Charles Thomas, Mark Loescher, John Casti and Paul Tobin.