Horn Keeps Spotlight on Year 2000 Progress

FDC Acquires Software Company

Federal Data Corp. of Bethesda, Md., continued its shopping spree this week with the acquisition of Technical and Management Assistance Inc., an Absecon, N.J., company with 160 employees.

The March 17 deal is the fifth this year for FDC and its primary investor, the Carlyle Group of Washington. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Just last month, FDC bought ROW Sciences Inc. of Rockville, Md., and Telos Information Services, a unit of Telos Corp. of Ashburn, Va.

TMA, which will become part of the FDC Science & Engineering Group, provides air traffic management software and support services to Lockheed Martin Corp., Computer Sciences Corp., and the Federal Aviation Administration.

DoD Delays Travel Award

The Department of Defense has postponed its Defense Travel System contract award until May to continue discussing the cost and scope of the project with the two bidders.

"We'd like to have more information before we make an award," said Commander Bill Schworer, deputy project manager. The Defense Department issued amendments to the contract after receiving proposals from Electronic Data Systems Corp. of Plano, Texas, and BDM International Inc., which was acquired in December by TRW Inc. of Cleveland. Neither EDS nor TRW would comment on the delay.

The Defense Department is moving cautiously because the project, expected to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, will replace the current paper system with an electronic one. "We are doing something here that has never been done before," Schworer said.

Cisco, NASA Forge Internet Collaboration

Cisco Systems Inc. and NASA have agreed to work together to establish policies and procedures to further the goals of the Next Generation Internet.

San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco will team with NASA's Ames Research Center to develop technology to handle operations 100 times more complex than the current Internet can handle.

Cisco has been working informally with NASA for several years, said James Massa, director of Cisco's federal operations. A memorandum of understanding signed by the two parties last week "reinforces [our] commitment and elevates the arrangement to a more formal effort."

Gore Wants Live Satellite Images of Earth on Internet

In keeping with his earth-hugging persona, Vice President Al Gore is proposing a satellite be launched to beam live images of the Earth onto the Internet.

Gore wants NASA to launch a new micro satellite that would provide live images of the planet, depicting cloud patterns, developing hurricanes and even large fires in oil fields or forests. The images would foster better understanding of weather conditions on Earth, and help educate children around the world, White House officials said.

Veritas Opens Government Office

Veritas Software Corp. of Mountain View, Calif., opened a government office March 16 after seeing federal sales of its storage management solutions grow by 60 percent last year. The new office also will serve the company's state and local government customers.

Mike Coney, a 20-year veteran of Sun Microsystems, was named regional sales manager for the federal office, located in Vienna, Va.

Veritas has seen increased demand from federal and state government customers, said Paul Sallaberry, senior vice president of worldwide sales and operations. Customers want enterprise storage management technologies to increase manageability of their data, he said.

BDM Executives Lost in TRW Shuffle

Several senior executives from BDM International Inc. of McLean, Va., will soon be looking for new jobs.

Only a handful of BDM's old senior management team is making the switch with Phil Odeen, who is heading the newly formed TRW Systems & Information Technology Group. Roger Young, Bob Waters and Don Hirsch, all former corporate and senior veeps at BDM, made the cut for Odeen's new 12-person management team.

Notably absent were Todd Stottlemyer, a senior vice president of corporate government affairs who is active in Northern Virginia's technology community. Also missing were: Thomas Faulders, BDM's chief financial officer; William Hoover, the company's executive vice president and second-in-command; and John McCabe, secretary and general counsel for BDM.

Logic Works Proves Golden to Platinum Technology

Platinum Technology Inc. of Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., said this week it will buy Logic Works Inc., a Princeton, N.J., designer of databases and data warehouses. The stock transaction is valued at $161 million.

Platinum, with revenue last year of more than $600 million, provides database management and other information technology solutions to businesses and government agencies. Logic Works posted $50 million in revenue last year and comes with $40 million in cash reserves. Both companies trade on the Nasdaq National Market.

The deal between the two companies was originally valued at $175 million, but the value dipped 8 percent when Platinum's stock price fell after the announcement. The deal is expected to close this summer.

Federal Sources Branches Out

Federal Sources Inc. has opened its first regional office, offering consulting to local governments and to the companies interested in contracting with those entities.

The Indianapolis office is headed by Michael Yoder, who is the research firm's vice president for local government, another first.

Yoder had been chief of staff to Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith since 1994, where he was instrumental in the mayor's privatization of data processing outsourcing and other key initiatives.

Horn Keeps Spotlight on Year 2000 Progress

Steve Horn

But Capitol Hill's year 2000 watchdog, Rep. Steve Horn, R-Calif., saw things differently. He recently gave the government a D-minus for its overall performance in addressing the year 2000 problem.

Horn said his staff's analysis of data on where the largest federal departments and agencies stand in fixing this problem resulted in "grades you would not want to take home to your parents."

The government has identified 7,850 mission-critical systems. Of these, 35 percent are year 2000 compliant, 45 percent are being repaired, 14.6 percent will be replaced and 4.6 percent are being retired.

- Milton Cooper, president of CSC's Federal Sector, on whether its realignment makes the company more attractive for a buyout or merger.

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