Red River, a technology transformation company, announced today it has been selected as a 2021 US Best Managed Company. Sponsored by Deloitte Private and The Wall Street Journal, the program recognizes outstanding U.S. private companies and the achievements of their management teams.

The 2021 designees are U.S. private companies that have demonstrated excellence in strategic planning and execution, a commitment to their people and fostering a dynamic, resilient culture, as well as strong financials, all while facing the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite major challenges and immense pressure, they continued to lead with purpose and the vision to make significant contributions to their industries, communities, workforces and the economy.

“We are proud to be named a U.S. Best Managed Company as it recognizes the amazing commitment, adaptability and strength displayed by our entire team in a challenging year,” said Alan Dumas, CEO of Red River. “In difficult times, we were able to maintain and nurture a supportive and purpose-driven culture, which allowed Red River to positively impact our customers and the communities we live and work in.”

Akima announced Tuesday that its subsidiary, Akima Global Technology (AGT), has been evaluated at level three of the CMMI Institute’s Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Version 2.0 (CMMI V2.0) for development and services. The appraisal was performed by the Integrated Quality Corporation (IQ).

“As our customers’ mission requirements become increasingly complex, it is vitally important that we have a strong service delivery strategy and an enhanced commitment to continuous improvement. This latest appraisal validates our ability to exceed customer expectations while simultaneously lowering costs and improving time-to-delivery,” commented Juvy McCarthy, president of Akima’s Technology Solutions and Products Group.

The CMMI maturity level 3 appraisal illustrates that AGT's work and processes have received the highest form of third-party validation. Also, it demonstrates the company takes proactive approaches to manage operations and projects. AGT’s last appraisal in 2019 was at maturity level 3 for Development under CMMI Version 1.3.

AGT is not the only Akima subsidiary to be rated at CMMI V2.0 three. In March, Akima subsidiary Tuvli also received the coveted level three designation for exceptional business processes. 

About Akima

Akima is a global enterprise with more than 7,500 employees, delivering agile solutions to the federal government in the core areas of aviation, construction, facilities and logistics, IT and mission support, protective services and detention management, and systems engineering. As a subsidiary of NANA, an Alaska Native Corporation owned by more than 14,000 Iñupiat shareholders, Akima’s core mission is to enable superior outcomes for our customers’ missions while simultaneously creating a long-lived asset for NANA. In 2020, Washington Technology ranked Akima #39 amongst the top 100 government contractors.

The General Services Administration (GSA) will waive certain requirements for vendors under the Multiple Award Schedule (MAs) program to expand the availability of products and services in support of the U.S. government’s COVID-19 pandemic response efforts.

GSA issued a letter stating that it will not require contractors to meet three specific MAS requirements: a minimum of two years of corporate experience, submission of annual financial statements for the previous two years, and one relevant project experience per special item number, the agency said Thursday.

“This is a great opportunity for companies, including start-up companies,” said Jeff Koses, senior procurement officer at GSA’s office of acquisition policy. “The letter applies to both companies not yet doing business with GSA, as well as existing MAS contractors who are able to provide products and services that directly support COVID-19 efforts.” 

The temporary waiver is “effective immediately and will remain in effect until rescinded,” the letter reads.

Check out GovConWire's Innovation and Modernization in Federal Acquisitions Forum coming up on Thursday, April 15th. Visit GovConWire Events to learn more and register for Thursday's event. 

While the federal acquisition systems continue to evolve to meet the demands of the market, challenges still remain. Join GovConWire’s Modernizing Federal Acquisition Forum to hear notable industry and federal leaders discuss the new modernization priorities, innovative solutions and future plans for acquisition.  

The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Security Operations Center (JSOC) has passed an assessment conducted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

DHS said Thursday that its Cybersecurity Service Provider delivered the assessment with staff from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The assessment screened the Justice SOC across multiple assessment areas, such as threat response, malware security, vulnerability management and threat intelligence analytics.

JSOC exceeded standards in 35 of 40 assessment areas, and is now certified as a CSP Center of Excellence. The assessment also marks DHS CSP's first evaluation of a non-DHS federal component.

“The success of the DHS CSP program and the partnership between DHS and DOJ has shown that despite very different missions and compositions, DHS and other federal agencies can collaborate from a mature and common framework to effectively enhance our national cybersecurity posture,” said Kenneth Bible, the chief information security officer at DHS.

JSOC offers security operations services to help agencies respond to cyber incidents, gather threat intelligence and monitor networks.

The Department of Defense (DoD) has entered into an agreement with six allied counterparts to conduct research into the environmental conditions of the Earth’s polar regions, C4ISRnet reported Sunday. 

The DOD will work with the governments of New Zealand, Canada, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden to study the Arctic and the regions south of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans as part of the International Cooperative Engagement Program for Polar Research (ICE-PPR) program.

ICE-PPR comes as part of the U.S. Navy’s efforts to survey the Arctic landscape to potentially gain an advantage over Russia and China.

The memorandum of understanding, signed in November, tasks the group to conduct environmental observations and modeling as part of initial research activities. The group will also facilitate exchanges and study underwater phenomena as well as human factors as part of ICE-PPR.

“ICE-PPR is unique from NATO working groups and other activities in that the goal is for project work, not just information exchanges,” noted John Woods, deputy director of the Office of Naval Research Global's International Engagement Office.

The agreement will expire in 25 years.

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) wants to make every non-secret government document digitally available via the govinfo website and the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications. GPO said it will gather these documents from the National Collection of U.S. Government Public Information.

“GPO’s pledge to make every U.S. Government document publicly accessibly is another way GPO is keeping America informed and is an important pillar supporting our democracy,” said Hugh Nathanial Halpern, director of GPO.

The office said it will identify, gather, digitize, authenticate and catalog these publications for public access. The govinfo website is a digital repository compliant with the International Organization for Standardization.