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PSC Comments on CARES Act Section 3610; David Berteau Quoted
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PSC Comments on CARES Act Section 3610; David Berteau Quoted

The Professional Services Council (PSC) has commented on the extension of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Section 3610, Continuing Appropriations Act 2021 and Other Extensions Act that was released on Sept. 21, 2020.   

“It is crucial that the House and Senate extend this vital provision to ensure that federal agencies retain the contractor workforce they need to meet their mission needs,” said David Berteau, PSC president and CEO, and Wash100 Award recipient. “Retaining skilled employees is strategically sound and financially smart. This extension will help companies preserve key talent that has taken many years to recruit, train, and clear.”

PSC recently requested that Congress extend Section 3610, noting its success during the COVID-19 pandemic. The section was set to expire on Sept. 30, 2020. If Congress enacts H.R. 8319, Section 3610 will remain available through Dec. 11th, 2020. 

“This extension requires no additional funding and is applicable government-wide, not just for national security. It is critical to have it if we need it to maintain essential contractor support while work plans continue to change in response to COVID-19,” added Berteau. "We look forward to the passage of the Continuing Resolution followed quickly by the president's signature to enact it into law."

About PSC

PSC is the voice of the government technology and professional services industry. PSC’s more than 400 member companies represent small, medium and large businesses that provide federal agencies with services of all kinds, including information technology, engineering, logistics, facilities management, operations and maintenance, consulting, international development, scientific, social, environmental services, and more. Together, the trade association’s members employ hundreds of thousands of Americans in all 50 states.

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SAIC Names Sarjoo Shah as Program Management Director; Vishal Tulsian Quoted
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SAIC Names Sarjoo Shah as Program Management Director; Vishal Tulsian Quoted

Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) has appointed Sarjoo Shah as program management director for the state and local health IT market, the company reported on Tuesday.

“Sarjoo has a tremendous understanding of the unique challenges facing state and local health agencies,” said Vishal Tulsian, vice president of operations. “As the demands on health agencies continue to grow, it will be more important than ever to ensure they have access to outstanding IT systems and practices.”

Shah brings more than 25 years of experience in government healthcare. He most recently served as chief information officer (CIO) for the Oklahoma Department of Health and Human Services., and previously served as the chief information security officer (CISO).

With the state, Shah provided leadership for IT pertaining to human services agencies within the executive branch of Oklahoma Government. He was responsible for the IT Budget, totaling $144 million, as well as supervising the development of the first ever 5-year IT Strategic Plan.

“Adding Sarjoo’s expertise to our team will ensure that we deliver what they need to achieve their critical missions,” added Tulsian.

Prior to his work with the State of Oklahoma, Shah worked in the private sector for NTT Data as a senior director for State and Local Government and as a senior consultant for Deloitte Consulting.

“I’m very excited to join SAIC’s rapidly growing state and local team,” said Shah. “I look forward to helping bring the breadth of SAIC’s solutions to support state and local government health missions across the country.”

About SAIC

SAIC is a premier Fortune 500® technology integrator driving our nation’s digital transformation. Our robust portfolio of offerings across the defense, space, civilian, and intelligence markets includes secure high-end solutions in engineering, IT modernization, and mission solutions.

Using our expertise and understanding of existing and emerging technologies, we integrate the best components from our own portfolio and our partner ecosystem to deliver innovative, effective, and efficient solutions that are critical to achieving our customers’ missions.

We are 25,500 strong; driven by mission, united by purpose, and inspired by opportunities. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, SAIC has pro forma annual revenues of approximately $7.1 billion.

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Leanne Caret, President & CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, Receives Fourth Consecutive Wash100 Award
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Leanne Caret, President & CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, Receives Fourth Consecutive Wash100 Award

Leanne Caret, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS), accepted her fourth consecutive Wash100 Award from Jim Garrettson, founder and CEO of Executive Mosaic on Monday. 

Caret received her fourth Wash100 Award for her continued leadership in the development of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, winning major defense contracts for the company and accelerating influential aerospace technology. 

Most recently, Caret discussed the company’s investment in advanced manufacturing and digital engineering technologies to support its work on the Navy MQ-25 unmanned tanker and the Air Force T-7 trainer. Caret expressed her confidence in those investments 

“I actually remain very confident in the investments we made on both the MQ-25 and the T-7. … We had already redesigned, reimagined, how are we going to use advanced modeling and simulation and digital twins,” Caret said. 

Leanne Caret, President & CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, Receives Fourth Consecutive Wash100 AwardLeanne Caret accepts her Wash100 Award

In addition, Caret’s efforts have continued to advance the company’s presence in the defense sector in 2019, and she has added space exploration as a central initiative. 

Most notably, Caret supervised Boeing’s first spacecraft launch: the CST-100 Starliner. Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule landed at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on Dec. 22, 2019. 

“It was an absolute bullseye, better than I think anybody anticipated,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and fellow 2019 Wash100 Award recipient said of the landing. “That’s good for the agency, it’s good for Boeing; that’s good for the United States of America.”

In addition to Boeing’s space development, Caret has also made advancements in the company’s aerospace defense. Caret supervised and secured Boeing a potential 10-year, $14.3 billion contract to modernize weapons systems used on the U.S. Air Force’s B-1 Lancer and B-52 Stratofortress bomber platforms in April 2019.

Executive Mosaic congratulates Boeing and Leanne Caret for her 2020 Wash100 Award selection. Caret’s dedication to space innovation and the progression of aerospace technology is a clear indication of her eye for innovation and a vision for the future.

About Wash100 

The Wash100 award, now in its seventh year, recognizes the most influential executives in the GovCon industry as selected by the Executive Mosaic team in tandem with online nominations from the GovCon community. Representing the best of the private and public sector, the winners demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement and vision.

Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2020 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2020.

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1901 Group Completes EITOC to Advance IT Services; Sonu Singh, James Christopher Quoted
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1901 Group Completes EITOC to Advance IT Services; Sonu Singh, James Christopher Quoted

1901 Group has completed its Enterprise Information Technology Operations Center (EITOC) expansion in Blacksburg, VA, which will provide managed services for cloud migration and operations such as IT service management, IT operations management, cybersecurity, data intelligence and automation services, the company reported on Tuesday.

“Our service delivery model is based upon our In3Sight Platform, which includes an integrated suite of tools and technologies within a FedRAMP authorized security boundary that allows us to provide secure remote support to our customers, regardless of customer location or the location of our employees, to include teleworking from home,” said James Christopher, EVP Operations and Engineering of 1901 Group.

1901 Group has collaborated with the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center (VTCRC) to build the EITOC. The center has featured customer-facing development, security and operations teams providing IT “as a service” models that leverage cloud technology and process automation to deliver outcome-based IT services.

The EITOC also includes the 1901 Group’s Cloud Factory and Innovation Engineering Labs focused on the use of automation to accelerate digital transformation.

1901 Group’s FedRAMP authorized Enterprise Managed Services has been integrated into the EITOC. The services will monitor, manage and optimize applications across on premise, private and multi-cloud environments, which will help federal agencies leverage cloud and modern technologies to improve performance and security.

“Automation coupled with the re-skilling of the workforce will provide unprecedented productivity gains and performance improvement across public and private sector organizations,” said Sonu Singh, CEO of 1901 Group. “This impending productivity jump will build true operational resilience into the workforce changing where we work, how we work, and who does the work. Very exciting times!”

About 1901 Group, LLC

1901 Group develops innovative IT services and solutions for the public and private sector. We improve service delivery with our recently expanded FedRAMP authorized Enterprise IT Operations Center (EITOC) for 24×7 user, complex IT infrastructure, and mission-critical systems support.

Our capabilities include cloud, cybersecurity, and enterprise-scale managed services to transition customers from traditional on-premise IT infrastructure models to hybrid cloud solutions that improve performance and reduce costs. We proudly serve customers in federal, state, and local governments, including law enforcement agencies and commercial markets. Customers benefit from our 24×7 Cloud Factory with FedRAMP authorization, ISO 9001 certification, and CMMI Maturity Level 3 appraisals.

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Accenture Acquires N3 to Expand AI/ML Capabilities; Manish Sharma, Jeff Laue Quoted
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Accenture Acquires N3 to Expand AI/ML Capabilities; Manish Sharma, Jeff Laue Quoted

Accenture has entered an agreement to acquire N3, a tech-driven sales and demand-generation firm, which will add approximately 2,200 employees to Accenture globally, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities, Accenture reported on Tuesday. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“N3 provides the perfect combination of skilled talent and technology to remove barriers and better influence purchasing decisions at critical stages, ”said Manish Sharma, group chief executive of Accenture Operations.

With the purchase of N3, Accenture will acquire the company’s model of specialized sales talent across complex areas such as cloud, software platforms and 5G networks. N3’s platform is supported by cloud-based, AI/ML technology that has provided smarter, more efficient customer interactions and sales conversions. 

Accenture has planned to integrate N3’s model with its SynOps platform to aggregate millions of interaction points into actionable insights that drive sales growth. N3 serves leading brands, including Microsoft, Cisco and SAP. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, GA with locations in Brazil, Costa Rica, Ireland, Germany, Japan, Singapore and the U.K.

“We were drawn to Accenture, in large part, due to the growth opportunity– as far as developing talent, advancing capabilities and joining a company with strengths and values that complement our own,” said Jeff Laue, founder and chief executive officer of N3. “Together, our capabilities provide a differentiated, data-driven approach that companies can use to sharpen their sales focus and deliver on the ambition of sustainable growth.”

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services in strategy and consulting, interactive, technology and operations, with digital capabilities across all of these services. 

We combine unmatched experience and specialized capabilities across more than 40 industries — powered by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. With 513,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture brings continuous innovation to help clients improve their performance and create lasting value across their enterprises.

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House Panel Proposes Stopgap Bill to Fund Government Through Dec. 11th; Nita Lowey Quoted
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House Panel Proposes Stopgap Bill to Fund Government Through Dec. 11th; Nita Lowey Quoted

The House Appropriations Committee has proposed a continuing resolution that would fund government operations through Dec. 11th in order to prevent a government shutdown once the new fiscal year begins in October. 

“This clean continuing resolution keeps government open while giving Congress additional time to negotiate annual appropriations bills that will invest for the people,” House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., said in a statement published Monday.

The bill would appropriate funds for the Columbia-class submarine program and allow the U.S. Navy to award a contract to facilitate the procurement of two Columbia-class submarines, according to the bill’s summary.

The measure would increase funding for the Veterans Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHR) program to facilitate the deployment of the EHR system at planned sites during the first quarter of fiscal year 2021.

The House is expected to vote on the stopgap measure this week. 

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GSA Eyes NewPay Capabilities Deployment by Fall; Amy Haseltine Quoted
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GSA Eyes NewPay Capabilities Deployment by Fall; Amy Haseltine Quoted

The General Services Administration (GSA) plans to release by fall the NewPay program’s first set of capabilities, Federal News Network reported Monday.

Amy Haseltine, director of the quality service management office (QSMO) for civilian human resource transaction service and director of the NewPay management office at GSA, said the QSMO is in the process of completing a minimally viable product for NewPay.

“The MVP will help us actually calculate payroll in a consistent, complete and holistic manner. This calculation and this tool that we are designing covers 65 major pay plans across the federal space, which will actually help pay approximately 89% of our workforce,” Haseltine said during the Shared Services Summit. 

“We’ve actually used testing data to test 12 of the 65 pay plans. Of the 65 pay plans, we will be incorporating the Title V or general schedule population, so we are very excited about that.”

She said her office expects the data standards for payroll time and attendance to be available by the end of this month.

“Our next area of emphasis is on time and attendance. The NewPay team actually collaborated with one particular component within GSA as well as conducted our own customer survey asking what is most important to you?” Haseltine said.

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Ellen Lord on Defense Industrial Base’s Health, Need for Appropriations
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Ellen Lord on Defense Industrial Base’s Health, Need for Appropriations

Hon. Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for Acquisition and Sustainment and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, discussed in an interview posted Monday on Defense News about the Department of Defense’s (DoD) efforts to track the status of the defense industrial base during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lord said the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) help track approximately 20,000 contractors that are working with the Pentagon.

“And going back over the last six months, we did have hundreds of companies shut down, but now we’re down to only about 30. So that’s very, very good news,” she said during an interview at the Defense News Conference. 

“We monitor them on a daily basis; we look at on-time deliveries, deliveries missed and, most importantly, we listen to what the issues are, really leveraging the industry associations to do a lot of listening,” Lord added. 

She talked about DoD’s use of “data-driven” approach in monitoring development programs, the need for appropriations to maintain warfighter readiness and advance modernization and the department’s ongoing talks with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to extend a waiver that would provide contractors more time to comply with a new rule that seeks to remove certain Chinese telecommunications equipment from the supply chain.

Lord also commented on mergers and acquisitions in the defense sector and her team’s efforts to keep small businesses going during the pandemic.

Ellen Lord on Defense Industrial Base's Health, Need for Appropriations

Join Potomac Officers Club for its 5G Summit on Oct. 27, 2020 to learn about the impact that innovative technologies and 5G integration have on the private and public sectors, the steps the federal agencies have taken to remain up to speed with the rapid advancement of technology, and the future programs, plans and priorities as the nation aligns with emerging technology.

Lord will be featured as the keynote speaker. Don’t miss out on this must see event! Register here for the 5G Summit on October 27th.

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Army Pulls Out From New Land Vehicle Solicitation; Turns to Industry
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Army Pulls Out From New Land Vehicle Solicitation; Turns to Industry

The U.S. Army has canceled its own proposal to a competitive solicitation for an effort to replace the M2 Bradley vehicle, after discussions between military leaders with consideration to industry feedback, Defense News reported Thursday.

The decision builds on remarks from industry regarding a previous, unsuccessful competition that presented requirements companies found impossible to meet.

The Army now completely turns to industry for the revised Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle solicitation. The service branch will finance the program via $4.6B in fiscal 2022 through 2026 funds.

Ashley John, a spokesperson with the Army, said the service branch assessed more than 500 responses from the defense industry and will address established concerns over the next weeks.

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DARPA Provides Two Support Tools for Advanced Battle Mgmt System Demo
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DARPA Provides Two Support Tools for Advanced Battle Mgmt System Demo

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contributed two technologies to a demonstration of the U.S. Air Force's new integrated situational awareness system.

DARPA said Friday it provided a decision-making support tool and a software integration toolchain to support testing of the Advanced Battle Management System. The demonstration ran from Aug. 31 to Sept. 4.

The Adapting Cross-domain Kill-webs or ACK serves as an aid for decision making as commanders work to manage tasks. The System-of-systems Technology Integration Tool Chain for Heterogeneous Electronic Systems or STITCHES works to facilitate integration between different kinds of systems across multiple domains.

“The ACK decision aid software analyzed thousands of options to form cross-domain kill-webs and recommended the assets for the kill chain and the best command-and-control ‘play’ to the mission commander,” said Air Force Col. Dan Javorsek, program manager for ACK.

"STITCHES brings force composability directly to the warfighter by allowing data to be shared without system upgrades," said Lt. Col. Jimmy Jones, manager of the System of Systems Integration Technology and Experimentation program.

DARPA personnel were able to accredit ACK and STITCHES, among other ABMS technologies, on a network in less than a week.

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