Appearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs on September 13th was U.S. General Services Administration Acting Administrator, Dan Tangherlini. Tangherlini testified that changes GSA made within the past five months has projected to save more than $11 million by eliminating conferences and cutting travel. These cost savings measures are the byproduct of the Las Vegas scandal in which tax payers footed the bill for an $800,000 GSA employee conference.

Despite rumors of a looming fiscal cliff and a harsh reality for contractors, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the General Services Administration (GSA) are finalizing major IT acquisitions. These two technology contracts are expected to exceed $5 billion and $1.5 billion respectively. The VA is looking to award funding by September 30th and the GSA is releasing an RFI this week for continuous monitoring systems.

As our economy continues to struggle, there is now a direct pressure being placed on the Federal market place. What was once thought of as an unlimited market of selling opportunity is now scheduled to be forcibly reduced by 10% in FY 2013, thanks to the 'sequestration' measures mandating automatic cuts across the Federal government. During this time of Federal market constriction, it is even more critical to be smart about how an organization approaches Federal sales. The GSA reports that 1 out of every 3 new contract awardees does not earn any revenue in their first three years, and the number one reason for this failure to perform is a lack of strategic planning.

On July 6th, the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) published a new strategic IT plan that maps out a wide variety of their organizational goals, on-going project summaries, and accumulated statistics. It also includes new innovative technologies that they plan on taking better advantage of in upcoming years. DIR says their mission is to be limited, efficient, and completely accountable.

ADC Telecommunications Inc. will pay the United States $1 million to resolve allegations that the company submitted false claims to federal agencies when it sold telecommunications goods manufactured in countries prohibited by the Trade Agreements Act (TAA).

The General Services Administration (GSA) has recently developed a social media site, GSA Interact, with the goal of helping the GSA understand how to better provide acquisition products and services. While this interactive website offers vendors many new tools, from training opportunities to blogging questions, one of the more prominent features is the new Contractor Teaming Arrangements Tool (CTAT). CTAT provides GSA Schedule holders with a forum to facilitate teaming arrangements. This forum allows members to communicate their teaming needs to a broad audience of GSA Schedule holders, while allowing those viewing the opportunities to reach out and generate partnerships.