University of Baltimore’s Charles Tiefer has proposed multiple solutions to help agencies save money in the face of sequestration. Tiefer believes that there are things each agency can do now to save money lost in unnecessary contracts, in order to avoid furloughing government employees.

Understanding that the easiest way to reach the public these days is through their mobile devices, police departments have begun publishing mobile apps for citizens to report petty crimes and thefts. According to a multitude of departments, the old system of calling in each crime would lead to a backlog of paperwork and nearly a month turnaround to obtain a police report. Additionally, a lot much crime data was lost as it would be difficult for the department to follow up. Appalling numbers such as for every 2000 phone calls for reported crimes, only 500 police reports would result, showed the need for a change. Now with the mobile app, citizens fill out the crime information through the app and upon approval, a PDF copy is sent directly to them. This new system leads to not only less time spent and paperwork, but greater record keeping accuracy and creating more crime data for certain areas.

CGI has gained approval from the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program’s (FedRAMP) Joint Authorization Board to become a secure cloud service provider (CSP). CGI joinsAutonomic Resources as one of only two firms approved by FedRAMP.

Recent investments in cloud technologies are showing marked improvement in sales and revenue. This points to an overarching demand for cloud-based services and technologies and increased interest in the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP).

Hurricane Sandy will be remembered not only as one of the worst hurricanes to hit the eastern seaboard, but also as the first natural disaster where social media platforms played a significant role. Twitter and Facebook dominated the social media world and were fully utilized by citizens on the ground and in other locations. Local officials were the most active on these platforms providing citizens with real-time updates on closures, emergency response, and weather updates. Virginia’s Fairfax county published a metrics report tracking their social media outreach and discovered over nearly 400,000 views, 10,175 likes, comments, and shares on Facebook, and about 1,500 retweets on Twitter. In addition, New York City’s Bloomberg Office reached over one million individuals using social media over the course of the storm, and even used the photo sharing application, Instagram, to share evacuation route maps. Going forward, this will be the new standard for crisis situations. It is crucial Federal, state, and local offices are prepared with citizen engagement software and platforms to track, respond, and provide information for citizens- before the next Sandy.

As many of you know, agencies have found it difficult over time to meet their Small- business contracting goals. For example, $6.4 billion fewer contracting dollars were awarded to small businesses in fiscal 2011 versus what had been awarded in 2010. The decrease meant that 21.65 percent of Federal contracting dollars went to small businesses, while in 2010 the percentage was 22.7 percent - just under the Federal contracting goal of 23 percent overall. The concerns have been great, especially during these increasingly budget conscious times. Fortunately, it appears the Woman Owned Small Business (WOSBs) will gain greater access to Federal contracts due to the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The act removes caps limiting the size of a contract award that can be made to small businesses owned by woman. Previously, WOSBs could not bid on contracts whose value was in excess of “$6.5 million for manufacturing contracts and $4 million for all other contracts.” WOSBs make up 30 percent of all small businesses today. Moreover, during fiscal 2011 agencies awarded $16.8 billion to WOSBs, or 3.98 percent – well under their 5 percent goal. Now WOSBs will be able to compete more freely for Federal work. Coupled with the Small Business Administration’s Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program, agencies are hoping their small-business contracting goals will be more attainable.