Social media has so rapidly become a ubiquitous part of our day to day lives. In 2008, only 29% of adult internet users said they used a social networking site, and now according to Pew Research that number has risen above 65%. Now more and more organizations are realizing the significance of social media. If this resource is not utilized not only will your organization miss out on the myriad of benefits that emerge from it, but your organization will also fall behind the rest. Customer Service optimization is one of the attributes of social media that can be extremely useful, and still many organizations utilizing social media don’t take advantage.

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.

Efficacious mobile device management is important in most fields, but when you are out on the enemy lines and need to communicate with your fellow law enforcement officer for back-up or need to shield top-secret information from falling into the hands of the enemy it is absolutely vital. This is why the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Invicea, a cyber-security firm, with a multi-year $21.4 million contract to heighten the security apparatuses on Google’s Android operating system, announced on June 25th. This contract is an extension of the “Mobile Armour” project, which is striving to attain topnotch security structures on all smartphones used by the army. Invicea is currently experimenting with over 3,000 Android phones and tablets in Afghanistan. The exact modifications that are going to be made are not clear yet, but Anup Ghosh, the founder and CEO of Invicea and former DARPA program manager, told SecurityWeek that they will team up with other firms and universities to put encryption, application control and similar enhancements into Mobile Armour. They stated that their goals are to isolate hazardous apps and to develop a system that can detect and diminish cyber-attacks from these apps.