Page 1599 – Executive Gov

Published on January 8, 2020

The Advanced Technology Academic Research Center plans to launch a working group focused on promoting DevOps practices among industry and federal government entities on Jan. 23, Fedscoop reported Tuesday. The DevOps Federal Interagency Council, established by the Internal Revenue Service, will serve as a government sponsor for the nonprofit organization’s working group.

Government and private sector members of the group will meet to plan deliverables such as guidances or panel discussions that revolve around rapid software development and continuous technology deployment.

The group will also appoint leaders for a range of subcategories including Agile philosophy, emerging technology, DevSecOps, application development, containerization and human-centered design.

Annette Mitchell, initiative lead at the IRS DFIC; Nicolas Chaillan, a U.S. Air Force and Department of Defense software development leader; and Army Maj. Gen. Garrett Yee will head the ATARC working group.

Government Technology/News

GAO Releases Guidance for Tech Readiness Assessments

by Brenda Marie Rivers

Published on January 8, 2020

The Government Accountability Office has issued a guide for agencies seeking to evaluate the readiness of acquired technologies for deployment.

GAO said Tuesday the Technology Readiness Assessment Guide aims to provide details on TRA best practices and include information that program managers, governing bodies and technology developers may use in determining a capability’s readiness as well as the efficiency of currently implemented TRAs.

According to the watchdog, a TRA serves as a systematic and evidence-based process for evaluating the maturity of hardware, software and methodologies “critical to the performance of a larger system” or fulfillment of acquisition programs.

“TRAs, which evaluate the technical maturity of a technology at a specific point in time for inclusion into a larger system, do not eliminate technology risk,” the agency noted. “But when done well, they can illuminate concerns and serve as the basis for realistic discussions on how to address potential risks as programs move from the early research and technology development to system development and beyond.”

Government Technology/News

NASA Safety Panel Issues 2019 Report

by Nichols Martin

Published on January 8, 2020

NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel has released its report on the space agency's efforts to promote safety across 2019 activities.

The 2019 ASAP report focused on efforts to qualify systems for the agency's space exploration and Commercial Crew Program activities, NASA said Wednesday.

ASAP assessed a wide range of NASA activities such as those concerning the International Space Station, aeronautical operations, safety culture and the Artemis program that aims to revive manned space exploration.

“The panel noted considerable headway toward NASA’s human exploration objectives in 2019,” said Patricia Sanders, who chairs ASAP.

The report builds on assessments, quarterly meetings, visits, direct operational observations and input from NASA personnel.

“We are supportive of the significant amount of testing – both completed and underway – as well as the thoroughness of ongoing work to resolve technical issues," Sanders added.

Cybersecurity/Government Technology/News

Cyberspace Solarium Commission Seeks Industry Collaboration, Expanded Authorities for Cyber Agencies

by Brenda Marie Rivers

Published on January 8, 2020

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission is urging the government to expand the authorities of U.S. cyber agencies and establish the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency as the leading entity for defending critical infrastructure, FCW reported Tuesday.

The legislative commission is slated to submit a final report to Congress detailing its recommendations, including plans to restructure certain cybersecurity procedures across the federal government.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., told attendees at an industry event in Washington, D.C., that agencies need to work on improving coordination to better address cybersecurity matters. He added that the military “needs to be in the business of empowering the private sector” to establish better and more resilient deterrence strategy.

"Rather than sort of creating a bunch of new agencies and structures, we're trying to figure out how do we enhance and empower the agencies we have right now," he added.

The commission, formed last year, has so far made 75 recommendations, including the fortification of election systems, incentives for the private sector on government-related efforts and the provision of resources for CISA and the U.S. Cyber Command.

Government Technology/News

Mark Warner: ODNI, OPM Should Accelerate Implementation of Trusted Workforce 2.0

by Thea Loise Woodward

Published on January 8, 2020

Mark Warner

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has written a letter requesting that two government agencies increase activities towards the implementation of the Trusted Workforce 2.0 security clearance process, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

The letter was addressed to Joseph Maguire and Dale Cabaniss, acting director of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, respectively.

“The new approach should yield higher quality decisions far more quickly, surface problematic cases much sooner and significantly improve workforce mobility,” wrote Warner, a 2019 Wash100 winner.

Trusted Workforce 2.0 is intended to be a set of guidelines for how federal agencies issue security credentials to employees.

Executive Moves/News/Press Releases

Bechtel Appoints Jeff Sipes as Head of Corporate Strategy and Business Development; Brendan Bechtel Quoted

by William McCormick

Published on January 8, 2020

Bechtel Appoints Jeff Sipes as Head of Corporate Strategy and Business Development; Brendan Bechtel Quoted

Bechtel has named Jeff Sipes head of the new Corporate Strategy and Business Development, the company announced on Wednesday.

The company has established the Corporate Strategy and Business Development group to bring an enterprise-wide focus to the customer experience, grow business development talent and accelerate the pursuit of new market opportunities.

“This new corporate function will help represent the company with a single voice externally. This team will provide a lot of value where opportunities exist between or across the seams of our existing business lines. We have high confidence that this group will have a positive impact on the customer experience, the growth of high-quality EPC backlog, and overall company performance,” said company chairman and chief executive officer Brendan Bechtel.

Sipes, who has served in a variety of senior leadership roles with Bechtel since 2014, will be responsible for developing a global approach to customer engagement, marketing, growing new businesses, and training business development professionals.

He will also direct strategic planning and analysis of global markets, trends, and emerging opportunities, and lead a renewed effort to nurture long-term relationships with customers.

Prior to working with Bechtel, Sipes served as vice president and general manager of the system division with Chart Energy & Chemicals Inc. between Aug. 2010 and Oct. 2014. He was responsible for managing Chart’s engineering, procurement and fabrication of cryogenic gas processing solutions.

Sipes also served as vice president of business development with CB&I from July 1989 to Dec. 2010. In the role, he led the business development group in Latin America for the Steel Plate Structures Division. He began his career at CB&I in various sales and operational roles.

“At Bechtel, we value delivering on our commitments and we value our customers even more,” said Sipes. “I am thankful for the opportunity to work with Bechtel’s global business development team to expand our relationships with stakeholders and deepen our commitments to the communities we serve.”

About Bechtel

Bechtel is a trusted engineering, construction and project management partner to industry and government. Differentiated by the quality of our people and our relentless drive to deliver the most successful outcomes, we align our capabilities to our customers’ objectives to create a lasting positive impact. Since 1898, we have helped customers complete more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries, on every continent, that have created jobs, grown economies, improved the resiliency of the world’s infrastructure, increased access to energy, resources, and vital services, and made the world safer and cleaner.

News/Press Releases

Deloitte and Ballard Announce Joint White Paper on Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Solutions for Transportation; Chris Lin, Randy MacEwen Quoted

by William McCormick

Published on January 8, 2020

Ballard Power Systems and Deloitte China have announced a joint white paper, “Fueling the Future of Mobility: Hydrogen and fuel cell solutions for transportation,” outlining fuel cell solutions for transportation at the Consumer Technology Association’s CES 2020 trade show on Wednesday.

The white paper explores how hydrogen is set to power the future of mobility, outlining FCEV projected costs. The document states FCEVs will become much cheaper as manufacturing technology matures, economies of scale improve, hydrogen fuel costs decline and infrastructure develops.

Randy MacEwen, Ballard President and CEO said, “In less than 10 years, it will become cheaper to run a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) than it is to run a battery electric vehicle (BEV) or an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle for certain commercial applications.”

Both companies have provided a review of energy efficiency, hydrogen production, green gas and other environmental impacts related to fuel cell technology. The review concluded that FCEVs are more environmentally efficient than BEVs and ICE vehicles.

“China is now the largest producer of hydrogen as well as a world leader in the commercial development of FCEVs. In the past few years, China has devoted significant efforts to the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry, driving technology maturation and decreased hydrogen cost while also activating the application of hydrogen in various areas,” Chris Lin, Deloitte China financial advisory director stated.

The white paper estimates the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for commercial hydrogen vehicles will fall by more than 50 percent in the next 10 years.

About Deloitte

Deloitte is the brand under which tens of thousands of dedicated professionals in independent firms throughout the world collaborate to provide audit & assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax and related services to select clients. The company is a multinational professional services network. Deloitte is one of the “Big Four” accounting organizations and the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of professionals with headquarters in London, United Kingdom.

Executive Moves/News

Dovel Technologies Announces Hitesh Vashistha as Chief Growth Officer; Damon Griggs Quoted

by Sarah Sybert

Published on January 8, 2020

Dovel Technologies Announces Hitesh Vashistha as Chief Growth Officer; Damon Griggs Quoted

Dovel Technologies announced on Wednesday that Hitesh Vashistha will join the company as its chief growth officer (CGO).

"I look forward to working with the business development team as well as the subject matter experts and technologists to continue developing meaningful and productive solutions for our customers by utilizing emerging technologies within Dovel's entrepreneurial culture," commented Vashistha.

Vashistha will be responsible for all aspects of business development. He will focus on identification of long-term methods, development of relationships, markets, customers and business opportunities.

Vashistha will bring over 25 years of government industry experience and a strong background in leading strategic growth initiatives in the federal health market. He served as vice president of Growth and Strategy with Perspecta from April 2019 to Jan. 2020. In the role, he was responsible for strategy development and business growth.

Additionally, he worked for ICF in a variety of senior leadership roles, including vice president, senior vice president of Health Informatics and Technology Solutions and senior vice president of Corporate Business Development between June 2010 and March 2019.

Prior to ICF, Vashistha served as strategic capture manager at Northrop Grumman Information Systems. He managed pursuit activities for strategic business targets within federal health markets, focusing on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Before joining Northrop Grumman, he worked for CIBER, Inc. as director of delivery. He supervised services delivery for state and local government clients within the midwest region from June 1998 to March 2007. Vashistha began his career as a consultant for Tata Consultancy Services in 1994.

"Organic growth is a key strategic focus for the company and Tesh's experience, particularly in the federal health space, will help us to further develop and mature our BD competencies," said Damon Griggs, Dovel's CEO. "We are thrilled to have Tesh join the team as we expand our capabilities in support of our current and prospective customers."

About Dovel Technologies

Dovel advances the missions of its customers in health IT, life sciences, public safety and grants management through the integration of deep domain expertise and advanced technologies and delivers complex systems integration and information management solutions in data-driven environments for federal agencies to improve lives. Dovel is privately held by Macquarie Capital.

Contract Awards/News/Press Releases

L3Harris Technologies Wins $100M USSOCOM Contract to Improve VSAT’s; Chris Aebli, Chuck Schumer Quoted

by William McCormick

Published on January 8, 2020

The U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has awarded a potential five-year, $100 million contract to L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) to enhance and extend the service life of its existing fleet of 550 L3Harris Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSAT), the company announced on Monday.

A VSAT is any two-way satellite ground mounted or a stabilized maritime VSAT antenna with an antenna (dish) that is smaller than 3 meters, and generally refers to any two-way satellite Internet terminal that is not a ground station.

The Hawkeye III Lite auto-acquire VSAT, the model being upgraded, is a 1.2 meter aperture terminal. It provides vital information reach back capability to Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and other government entities.

L3 Harris will be providing software, hardware and warranty upgrades that will extend the life of existing Hawkeye III Lite VSAT terminals and deliver significant cost saving.

“This agreement extends the service life of our customer’s existing terminals and highlights the priority USSOCOM places on ensuring their deployed users are equipped with the latest in VSAT technology,” said Chris Aebli president of Global Communication Systems of L3Harris.

Other USSOCOM contracts L3Harris has received include an $86 million full-rate production order for handheld tactical radios. The company also contracts with the U.S. Air Force within the Department of Defense.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles “Chuck” Schumer said, “L3Harris Technologies has the best workforce, and the U.S. Special Operations Command's $100 million five-year contract will only boost it even further.”

About L3Harris Technologies

L3Harris Technologies is an agile global aerospace and defense technology innovator, delivering end-to-end solutions that meet customers’ mission-critical needs. The company provides advanced defense and commercial technologies across air, land, sea, space and cyber domains. L3Harris has approximately $17 billion in annual revenue and 50,000 employees, with customers in 130 countries. L3Harris.com.

Contract Awards/News/Press Releases

Unisys Receives $30.5M IDIQ Tech Support Contract for HHS-OIG; Melissa Carson Quoted

by William McCormick

Published on January 8, 2020

Unisys Receives $30.5M IDIQ Tech Support Contract for HHS-OIG; Melissa Carson Quoted

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded a potential four-and-a-half, $30.5 million indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to Unisys for providing a secure service desk, end user support and infrastructure operations and engineering services to the OIG, the company announced on Wednesday.

With Unisys support services, OIG employers will have direct, seamless and secure access to tools and information they need to combat fraud, waste, abuse and other inefficiencies. Unisys will also provide security services including endpoint protection, network access control, continuous diagnostics and mitigation and identity management.

"This new task order with HHS will allow the Office of the Inspector General to leverage Unisys' proven solutions to support its base of end users. The capabilities of Unisys' new, best-in-class service offerings such as InteliServe will allow the agency to accelerate its digital transformation securely and efficiently," said Melissa Carson, group vice president for Civilian Agencies for Unisys Federal.

The contract was awarded under the National Institutes of Health's Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 3 (CIO-SP3) IDIQ, government-wide acquisition contract, with an initial six-month base period and four potential one-year extension options.

About Unisys

Unisys is a global information technology company that builds high-performance, security-centric solutions for the most demanding businesses and governments. Unisys offerings include security software and services; digital transformation and workplace services; industry applications and services; and innovative software operating environments for high-intensity enterprise computing.

For more information on how Unisys builds better outcomes securely for its clients across the Government, Financial Services and Commercial markets, visit www.unisys.com.

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