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PSC’s Alan Chvotkin: Increased Micropurchase Threshold Streamlines Telework, Contracting Operations
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PSC’s Alan Chvotkin: Increased Micropurchase Threshold Streamlines Telework, Contracting Operations
Alan Chvotkin
Alan Chvotkin

Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel of the Professional Services Council and GovCon Expert, has said that the Trump administration’s decision to increase the micropurchase threshold is streamlining contracting procedures amid the coronavirus pandemic, FCW reported Wednesday.

Chvotkin told the publication that the increased threshold is “helping to expedite critical orders to support telework, increase capabilities and get software tools.”

However, he noted that agencies should not rely on the expanded threshold for bandwidth and network modernization work, which costs higher than the micropurchasing limit.

Chvotkin’s comments come after the Office of Management and Budget issued a memo on allowing agencies to leverage purchasing authorities and implement flexibilities for personnel and contractors in line with COVID-19 response efforts.

Agencies are allowed to use up to $20,000 for domestic micropurchases and up to $750,000 for simplified acquisition procedures within the U.S.

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UiPath, Mater Hospital Begin Automation Project to Expidite COVID-19 Testing; Mark O’Connor, Jincy Jerry Quoted
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UiPath, Mater Hospital Begin Automation Project to Expidite COVID-19 Testing; Mark O’Connor, Jincy Jerry Quoted
UiPath, Mater Hospital Begin Automation Project to Expidite COVID-19 Testing; Mark O’Connor, Jincy Jerry Quoted

UiPath has launched an automation project with the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital to see software robots assigned to the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Department at the Mater, the company announced on Thursday. 

“Robotic process automation minimizes, if not removes, the need for people to carry out repetitive, rules-based admin work, speeding up processes and ensuring they’re error-free. With a robot for every nurse approach, essential frontline staff will be freed to be nurses and not system administrators, being able to focus more on the quality of care,” Mark O’Connor, public sector director Ireland at UiPath. 

UiPath has automated data through software robots to process the information in a fraction of the current time, disseminating patient results in minutes. It will save the infection control department 3 hours per day, 18 hours per week and 936 hours a year which they can now spend managing the current COVID-19 pandemic.

“Not only will automation help with this, but it will also take the strain off the hospital as it continues to process huge amounts of more routine patient data in addition to COVID-19 specific information,” said Jincy Jerry, Assistant Director of Nursing, Infection Prevention and Control, MMUH. 

Mater has projected to receive hundreds of swabs and microbiology tests in the coming months which the software robots can assist in rapid processing, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The results will then be distributed to healthcare workers rapidly and essential infection prevention.

“As we’ve already seen, alongside the public playing their part in physical distancing, fast diagnosis and appropriate self-isolation are crucial to preventing the spread of COVID-19. We’re confident that the project we’re embarking on will help mitigate the huge strain this outbreak is putting on healthcare organizations – not just in MMUH, but across Ireland,” Jerry added. 

About UiPath

UiPath is leading the era of “Automation First” by betting on a robot for each person and allowing robots to learn new skills through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Through free and open training, UiPath brings digital era skills to millions of people around the world, improving business productivity and efficiency, employee engagement, and customer experience.

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NIST Develops Web-Based Community Resilience Planning App
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NIST Develops Web-Based Community Resilience Planning App

NIST Develops Web-Based Community Resilience Planning App

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released a web-based software application for community planners to evaluate and compare projects aimed at increasing resilience of buildings and infrastructure assets to natural disasters.

NIST said Wednesday its researchers used input from government officials at the state and local levels to create the Economic Decision Guide Software in an effort to help planners determine an economical disaster preparedness approach.

“We have tried to make EDGe$ as user-friendly and straightforward as possible for economists and non-economists alike,” said Jennifer Helgeson, a NIST research economist who led the tool’s development.

Her team used the agency Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems as basis for the EDGe$ project. She also worked with Delaware Department of Transportation engineers to test the software’s beta versions in a real-world setting and to improve user interface.

The online tool bases its results on disaster-related variables input by users. Such considerations also include multipurpose benefits and potential effects on nearby communities.

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Sen. Mark Warner: Vendors Should Ensure Networking Hardware Security
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Sen. Mark Warner: Vendors Should Ensure Networking Hardware Security
Mark Warner
Mark Warner

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. and a three-time Wash100 Award winner, has called on Asus, Belkin, Commscope, Eero, Google and Netgear to secure internet connectivity products as consumers increase device usage for multiple purposes while practicing social distancing.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, Americans will depend on connectivity products to receive telehealth; remain connected with family, colleagues, employers, and friends; and to receive news reports, and guidance from government and public health officials,” he said in a statement released Wednesday.

“Both new and older devices in use deserve protection from cybersecurity threats, including timely updates to mitigate vulnerabilities and exposures.” added Warner, a three-time Wash100 awardee.

He told the six networking hardware vendors in a letter to inform users that may no longer receive security updates in their devices.

Warner also mentioned in his missive the Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act, a bill that would require information technology providers to implement a coordinated vulnerability disclosure process.

About The Wash100

This year represents our sixth annual Wash100 Award selection. The Wash100 is the premier group of private and public sector leaders selected by Executive Mosaic’s organizational and editorial leadership as the most influential leaders in the GovCon sector. These leaders demonstrate skills in leadership, innovation, 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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Spok Holdings Board of Directors Rejects B. Riley Acquisition Proposal; Royce Yudkoff Quoted
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Spok Holdings Board of Directors Rejects B. Riley Acquisition Proposal; Royce Yudkoff Quoted
Spok Holdings Board of Directors Rejects B. Riley Acquisition Proposal; Royce Yudkoff Quoted

Spok Holdings has announced that its Board of Directors unanimously determined that the unsolicited and non-binding proposal from B. Riley Financial to acquire Spok for $12 per share in cash undervalues Spok and pursuing this transaction at this time was not in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders, the company reported on Wednesday. 

“The Board of Directors is confident in Spok’s strategic direction and executive leadership, even as the capital markets and our healthcare customers are experiencing historic dislocations due to the COVID-19 national emergency,” said Royce G. Yudkoff, Chairman of the Spok Board. “We have determined that this unsolicited, conditional and incomplete proposal from B. Riley grossly undervalues Spok.”

The Spok Board noted that a strategic transaction with B. Riley would not be warranted due to the novel coronavirus pandemic in addition to the disruptions to the debt and equity markets, restrictions on travel and the inability to conduct due diligence on any proposed transaction. 

In addition, the company recently launched Spok Go. The board commented that the new solution, and its broad market potential for critical in-hospital communications, has the potential to aid the nation’s health care system that is under extraordinary stress.

The Spok Board of Directors will carefully evaluate any good faith proposals from financially capable parties that fairly values Spok and the potential for stockholder value represented by the Company’s long-term investment in its enterprise, cloud-based Spok Go platform.

In addition to the Board’s decision, Spok also recently appointed Christine Cournoyer to its Board of Directors, former chairperson and CEO of N-of-One, in March 2020. Cournoyer has led the transformation of N-of-One from a patient concierge business to a leading molecular decision-support company. She helped develop a HIPAA compliant platform running in the cloud that scaled to interpret hundreds of thousands of molecular diagnostics tests.

Cournoyer led a strategic process for N-of-One, resulting in a successful sale to QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands-based leading provider of Sample to Insight solutions, in 2019. Cournoyer is presently a strategic advisor to digital health companies and is on the Board of Directors of CareDx, Inc., a leading precision medicine company providing solutions for transplant patients.

The appointment of Cournoyer to the Spok Board of Directors is part of a focused national search instituted by the Board to find the best-qualified candidates in healthcare information technology as the company will continue to introduce its new cloud-based Spok Go platform for critical in-hospital communications. 

About Spok 

Spok, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPOK), headquartered in Springfield, Virginia, is proud to be a global leader in healthcare communications. We deliver clinical information to care teams when and where it matters most to improve patient outcomes. Top hospitals rely on the Spok Care Connect® and Spok Go® platforms to enhance workflows for clinicians, support administrative compliance, and provide a better experience for patients. Our customers send over 100 million messages each month through their Spok® solutions. Spok is making care collaboration easier.

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Quantum Releases New Video Surveillance to Enhance Physical Security Portfolio; Jamie Lerner Quoted
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Quantum Releases New Video Surveillance to Enhance Physical Security Portfolio; Jamie Lerner Quoted

Quantum Releases New Video Surveillance to Enhance Physical Security Portfolio; Jamie Lerner Quoted

Quantum has released new product lines and capabilities to expand its video surveillance and physical security product portfolio, including a new line of network video recording servers,  servers for building management systems and GPU-based video analytics and new capabilities for the VS-HCI Series, the company announced on Thursday.

“Our next priority is to ensure business continuity and site security,” said Jamie Lerner, president and CEO, Quantum. “Video surveillance plays a vital role in securing infrastructure and critical assets, and in protecting citizens. We’ve applied our years of expertise to build a comprehensive portfolio for surveillance, and we are responding quickly to the needs of our customers.”

Quantum has added new offerings to its existing solutions for shared archive storage for surveillance, based on its StorNext file system and the recently announced acquisition of the ActiveScale object storage solutions, including Network Video Recording (NVR) servers transforming the company’s VS-HCI Series.

NVR will supply customers with a range of affordable, reliable and high-performance options for surveillance recording and video management. Quantum’s VST mini-tower NVRs are designed to support the surveillance of retail stores, gas stations and small buildings and campuses.

Quantum has also introduced the VS2108-A analytics server to support the extreme graphics processing and parallel workload demands of video analytics. The VS2108-A will be configured with up to six GPUs in a compact 2U chassis and will accelerate results with leading video analytics software platforms.

The company’s new VS1110-A Enterprise application server utilizes the same virtual machine (VM) failover capability found in Quantum’s VS-HCI series. The VS1110-A server can be monitored remotely via a secure web-based portal, enabling facilities managers, integrators and Quantum support to proactively monitor this system anytime, anywhere.

In addition, Quantum has enhanced the capabilities of the VS-HCI series with secure, remote monitoring via a web-based portal. The VS-HCI series will provide hyper-converged infrastructure for surveillance recording, video management and building operations. The highly available architecture scales out as video camera counts increase and makes it easy to manage operations by running multiple physical security workloads on a single platform.

To support the company’s new offerings, Quantum announced that it had completed the acquisition of the ActiveScale object storage business from Western Digital in March 2020. With the purchase, object storage can be used as a tier for multi-petabyte surveillance infrastructure.

“Customers who adopt intelligent, scalable storage as the foundation of their new surveillance and security system leave more budget for cameras, analytics, and other tools dedicated to protecting people and property,” said Gavin Bortles, president, Kepler Networks.

About Quantum 

Quantum technology and services help customers capture, create and share digital content – and preserve and protect it for decades.  With solutions built for every stage of the data lifecycle, Quantum’s platforms provide the fastest performance for high-resolution video, images, and industrial IoT.  That’s why the world’s leading entertainment companies, sports franchises, researchers, government agencies, enterprises, and cloud providers are making the world happier, safer, and smarter on Quantum.

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AAR Releases Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2020 Results; John Holmes Quoted
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AAR Releases Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2020 Results; John Holmes Quoted
AAR Releases Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2020 Results; John Holmes Quoted

AAR has reported third-quarter Fiscal Year 2020 consolidated sales of $553.1 million and income from continuing operations of $2.6 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, the company announced on Wednesday.  

"While we saw record results during our third quarter, our attention is focused on the unprecedented impact to our airline customers from COVID-19.  Our strategy to maintain a balanced portfolio across the government, commercial and cargo markets, along with our strong balance sheet…sets us up well to navigate the COVID-19 impact," said John Holmes, president and CEO of AAR.

AAR’s third-quarter results included a predominantly non-cash pretax charge of $24.7 million primarily resulting from restructuring and exiting underperforming contracts in commercial programs.  For the third quarter of the prior year, the Company reported sales of $529.5 million and income from continuing operations of $27.4 million.

The company’s consolidated sales increased 4 percent over the prior-year period due to continued growth across our Aviation Services segment, which experienced sales growth of 7 percent.  Aviation Services sales grew 9 percent during the quarter primarily from execution on AAR’s government contracts.  

Sales to government and defense customers represented 35% of our consolidated sales in the current quarter compared to 33% in the prior-year quarter reflecting growth from new government programs.  

The company also announced multiple new contract wins, including the multiyear distribution agreement with AeroControlex, a large manufacturer of critical components to the aviation industry. AAR also expanded its airframe maintenance services with Air Canada including plans to add A330 maintenance capability to our operations in Quebec and won the Sole-source Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract award with an estimated value of $90 million from the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support.

Holmes concluded, "We have worked very hard to build an exceptional team at AAR and I am very proud of our accomplishments.  As we enter this uncertain time, we are making very difficult decisions that involve sacrifices by our employees and I want to thank our people for their commitment and flexibility.  I also have been in dialogue with members of the House, Senate and the Administration regarding potential aid to the broader aviation industry and we are particularly supportive of any measures aimed at preserving jobs."

About AAR

AAR is a global aerospace and defense aftermarket solutions company that employs more than 6,000 people in over 20 countries. Headquartered in the Chicago area, AAR supports commercial and government customers through two operating segments: Aviation Services and Expeditionary Services. AAR's Aviation Services include parts supply; OEM solutions; integrated solutions; maintenance, repair, overhaul; and engineering. AAR's Expeditionary Services include mobility systems and composite manufacturing operations.

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Michael Rigas Named OMB Acting Deputy Director for Management
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Michael Rigas Named OMB Acting Deputy Director for Management
Michael Rigas
Michael Rigas

Michael Rigas, the newly named acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, will assume additional responsibilities as interim deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

He will succeed Margaret Weichert, who is set to join Accenture’s commercial practice.

"Over the last two years Mike has been one of the key drivers of the President’s Management Agenda, so he is the ideal person to carry the management agenda forward," Weichert said in a statement. “I know he’s going to do great work at OMB working to improve the federal government’s service and stewardship for the American public.”

Rigas took over as interim OPM director after Dale Cabaniss resigned from her post on March 17.

He previously served as deputy director at OPM and as a senior adviser at the General Services Administration. His private sector experience included time at Mellon Financial and Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

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Ellen Lord Warns of Adversarial Capital Facing Defense Industrial Base
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Ellen Lord Warns of Adversarial Capital Facing Defense Industrial Base

Ellen Lord Warns of Adversarial Capital Facing Defense Industrial Base

Ellen Lord, defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said foreign adversaries may take advantage of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic to acquire U.S.-developed technologies, Defense News reported Wednesday.

She said Wednesday at a news conference that it “is critically important that we understand that during this crisis, the [defense-industrial base] is vulnerable to adversarial capital, so we need to ensure that companies can stay in business without losing their technology.”

Lord stated that the COVID-19 pandemic “presents a greater attack surface” because of the uncertainty it poses to small businesses and their contracts. “To basically mitigate that uncertainty, that’s why we’re being forward-leaning and over-communicating, probably, to say: ‘We are open,’” she added.

DoD is trying to fight the economic influence of foreign countries like China through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and the Trusted Capital Marketplace program.

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Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan: DoD’s JAIC In Talks With Northcom, National Guard Bureau Over AI
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Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan: DoD’s JAIC In Talks With Northcom, National Guard Bureau Over AI
Jack Shanahan
Jack Shanahan

Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, director of the Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said JAIC is in discussions with the National Guard Bureau and U.S. Northern Command about how to facilitate response to the coronavirus pandemic using AI, Bloomberg Government reported Wednesday.

“It’s very similar to the things we have been talking about our humanitarian assistance and disaster relief effort but just for the very real, very exigent circumstance of coronavirus,” Shanahan said.

He said he believes JAIC will play a role to help the government respond to COVID-19.

“We have been leaning pretty far forward to look at some opportunities to bring in data and do some data aggregation and analytics based on a little bit of machine learning, a little bit of natural language processing and then providing this into a common operating picture,” said Shanahan.

About The Wash100

This year represents our sixth annual Wash100 Award selection. The Wash100 is the premier group of private and public sector leaders selected by Executive Mosaic’s organizational and editorial leadership as the most influential leaders in the GovCon sector. These leaders demonstrate skills in leadership, innovation, 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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