The Department of Veterans Affairs uses a platform that allows for secure data exchanges between the country's veterans and third-party organizations.

VA said Friday its Lighthouse Application Programming Interface allows veterans to share VA health data with third party entities such as iBlueButton and Apple Health. The new API-driven approach also reduces the time needed for veterans to access data and services from the department.

Veterans may use the Benefits Intake APIs to digitally send claims without the need for heavy paper work. Digital submissions now make up more than 5 percent of veteran-sent claims, as a result of Benefits Intake APIs' implementation.

VA plans to further develop API services in support of health data collection and management. The department also wants to apply API technology to appeal submissions and engagements with other federal agencies.

NASA intends to hold the final green run test for the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) on Jan. 16th. 

A team of engineers will fill the tanks with over 700,000 gallons of fuel, power up the core stage's systems and ignite all four RS-25 engines simultaneously to simulate the stage's operation during launch, NASA said Tuesday.

The agency seeks to thoroughly evaluate the SLS rocket's core stage prior to the first Artemis mission through the green run tests. NASA wrapped up seven of the eight tests under the green run effort.

The SLS core stage houses four RS-25 engines as well as various avionics, computers, electronic components, liquid oxygen and hydrogen tanks. The Artemis I mission will demonstrate the Orion spacecraft and the SLS rocket's capacity to operate as an integrated platform in preparation for future manned lunar flights.

The General Services Administration (GSA) has selected Everbridge’s Mass Notification platform to secure the agency’s employees, facilities and operations, the company reported on Monday.

“The threats that organizations face are constantly evolving. Leveraging a unified solution with situational awareness to know where your people and assets are, combined with the ability to coordinate and communicate across all stakeholders, could be the difference between success or failure,” said Mike Mostow, vice president of Federal at Everbridge.

Everbridge’s CEM platform will help keep employees safe and informed across a variety of threats such as a global pandemic, hurricanes, wildfires, cyberattacks, IT outages and more.

The company’s platform supports more than 70 federal agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Departments of Defense (DoD), Commerce, Energy (DOE), Interior, Justice (DOJ), and Health and Human Services (HHS) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), among others.

With the selection, Everbridge will expand its Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Agency Authorization. The FedRAMP Program Management Office (PMO) has certified that Everbridge meets the standards for the 325 controls in the FedRAMP Moderate baseline and passed the security and risk management renewal process required to support the operational resilience needs of federal agencies.

Everbridge received its FedRAMP authorization in 2018. “Our FedRAMP initiative has been a multi-year, strategic project with the goal of expanding our overall addressable market for our broad Critical Event Management suite,” said Jaime Ellertson, executive chairman of Everbridge’s Board of Directors.

“We are proud to enter into a partnership with the General Services Administration to help them mitigate risks quickly and decisively,” Mostow added.

Avaya has extended its Amazon Web Services (AWS) relationship, to expand artificial intelligence (AI)-powered customer experience capabilities for Avaya OneCloud CCaaS customers, Avaya reported on Tuesday. Avaya will serve as an AWS Partner offering AWS Contact Center Intelligence (CCI) solutions. 

“Avaya continues to expand AI capabilities that are evolving the contact center into what is now the customer experience center,” said Eric Rossman, VP of Technology Partners and Alliances for Avaya. 

In partnership with AWS, Avaya can enable customers to leverage AWS AI Services and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities to enhance customer and employee experiences across voice and digital channels. Avaya will integrate natural, conversation-driven interactions, leveraging AI and ML.

Avaya’s integration with AWS CCI will strengthen its portfolio of contact center solutions by providing enhanced customer engagement through greater insights, building brand preference and improving operational efficiency. 

The integration with AWS CCI will extend Avaya’s AWS-based cloud efforts and grow Avaya’s vision for AI in the contact center. AWS is also a member of A.I.Connect, an Avaya-led initiative that unites vendors and developers that develop AI-driven solutions. 

“With AWS, Avaya delivers new AI and machine learning innovation that improves the performance and efficiency of customer experience teams, but more importantly, enables deeper and more meaningful human connections between organizations and their customers,” Rossman added. 

About Avaya

Businesses are built by the experiences they provide, and everyday millions of those experiences are delivered by Avaya Holdings Corp. (NYSE: AVYA). Avaya is shaping what's next for the future of work, with innovation and partnerships that deliver game-changing business benefits. 

Our cloud communications solutions and multi-cloud application ecosystem power personalized, intelligent, and effortless customer and employee experiences to help achieve strategic ambitions and desired outcomes. Together, we are committed to help grow your business by delivering Experiences that Matter. 

MetTel has partnered with Geotab to deliver government vehicles access to a suite of managed services that provide critical intelligence, MetTel reported on Tuesday. The suite will help streamline compliance and reporting; reduce total cost of ownership and improve citizen and employee safety; and minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

“Government agencies are looking for ways to provide more transparency, while providing the tools to help reduce costs and increase the safety of government employees and the citizens they serve. MetTel-enabled IoT solutions help provide that, through an easy to use “single pane of glass,” said Robert Dapkiewicz, senior vice president and general manager of MetTel Federal.

Under the partnership, Geotab will leverage its telematics and MetTel will provide its full service fleet management portal to enable government fleets to increase visibility into their vehicles to create efficiencies and help reduce overall costs.

The MetTel-Geotab team will help managers of government vehicles have access to critical intelligence that will deliver enhanced visibility into MetTel-enabled vehicles. The companies’ offerings will include reduced costs; improved driver safety; streamlined compliance and reporting; GHG and EV battery reporting and compliance; and increased efficiency.

The offering will provide a configurable dashboard and reporting software to reduce mundane processes of manual reporting for government regulations, odometer readings and fuel economy. Featuring increased visibility into the availability of vehicles will enhance data-based decisions concerning vehicle and driver utilization.

“We are excited to add our leading telematics platform to MetTel’s expansive technology offering for the U.S. Federal Government,” said Jean Pilon-Bignell, vice president of Business Development, Government and Smart Cities, Geotab. “We are committed to connecting Federal agency vehicles and integrating them into broader IoT strategies.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has recommended operating three satellites over the U.S. as part of the proposed Geostationary and Extended Orbits satellite constellation, SpaceNews reported Monday.

NOAA’s national satellite, data and information service considers the Geo-XO constellation as a potential replacement to the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R Series and expects it to help track ocean color and air quality in addition to obtaining lightning observations and imagery.

NOAA expects to equip the GEO-East and GEO-West satellites with ocean color instruments, lightning mappers and infrared imagers. A hyperspectral infrared sounder, atmospheric composition sensor and a partner payload would fly on the GEO-Center satellite.

“The approximate investment that would be needed for the Geo-XO constellation is that GOES-R $12 billion number inflated to the Geo-XO timeframe,” Pam Sullivan, GOES-R system program director, said Monday during the virtual American Meteorological Society meeting.

The agency intends to carry out the first technical review of its plan for the Geo-XO constellation in March 2020 with plans to conduct a system requirements assessment by 2022, preliminary design review by 2025, critical design evaluation by 2027 and initial launch by 2032.