Recently, there has been a shift in the traditional way government manages mobile devices. Many of today’s U.S. federal agencies are moving from RIM’s blackberry devices to Apple’s iPhone. One reason for this movement is that government employees are tired of being forced to use their out of date government issued Blackberry’s. They have been asking their IT management to allow them to use their personal Apple devices at work for some time now. Agencies are now seeing that Apple products are more technologically sound and they are starting to make the switch. A few weeks ago, the General Services Administration (GSA) decided to distribute iPhone’s (along with some android devices) to a portion of their employee base which clocks in at 17,000. In response, GSA Chief Information Officer, Casey Coleman, stated, “We actively seek to be progressive in our adoption of new technologies so that we can learn the lessons which will inform our client and customer agencies as they seek to go down a similar path". Many view this decision as creating a domino effect that is spreading to other federal agencies.

Each year, business leaders are challenged to develop and revise strategic plans for their organization and to think through the specific tactics to achieve goals. Often these plans for the future state of the organization include thinking about the skills needed. An organization can hire new skills, but often it is more effective (on the basis of cost and productivity) to invest in leadership training. Almost any leadership training can be enhanced and reinforced with an eMentor program which connects people based upon their current and future skills, their needs and job requirements and the personality and world view.

Mobile Device Management is a growing solution in both the public and private sector. The United States Chief Information Officer Steven Van Roekel launched an initiative in January to increase the adoption rate of Mobile Technologies and by the end of March a comprehensive federal mobile technologies strategy should be released. The January initiative allowed for an interactive internet-based “National Dialogue on the Federal Mobility Strategy.” This allowed for public and private sector personnel to submit comments on the future on mobile technology in the government. Some of the core objectives listed in the draft of the federal strategy were: • Build mobile technologies and services for reuse and share common services among agencies and public developers • Efficiently manage mobile and wireless acquisition, inventory, and expenses

Change is one of the most reliable components found within the task of managing an $80 billion dollar IT budget for the US. Vivek Kundra exemplifies this as the former Public Sector CIO accepts the new role of EVP/ emerging markets for none other then the private sector, cloud-friendly app Salesforce.com.

The Obama Administration has made a continued effort to in-source work performed for the Federal Government. The thought behind this is that government contractors are more expensive than federal employees. In an effort to increase efficiency, the Obama administration has suggested that agencies in the Federal Government in-source some of the work that has historically been done by contractors. With the start of in-sourcing, there grows a demand for greater workforce management. Agencies need to pay closer attention to the efficiencies within their workforce and make sure the job is done quickly and properly.

There are many requirements when submitting for a GSA Schedule. Of these requirements, one of the most important is the completion of the Past Performance Evaluation (PPE). The PPE is a report generated by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) c/o Open Ratings and is used by the GSA to assess a company’s history in successfully providing their products and services to customers. The report is valid for one year and is required for every GSA Schedule Solicitation. As the GSA will be evaluating how these references rank your past job performance, it is imperative that you select references that will give the highest scores possible. While you will be able to see overall scores, individual responses will be kept anonymous. It is recommended that you contact your references prior to submitting their contact information. You should inform them that you are pursuing a GSA Schedule, and you would appreciate it if they would be reference. The survey will be sent via email from Open Ratings, and will be available for them to complete for three weeks, after which Open Ratings will then call them to complete the survey over the phone. While it is recommended that you list as many references as possible, only four need to respond for a report to generate. The survey questions are: