Agencies will have free access to the General Services Administration’s 15 virtual meeting centers starting the end of the month. The five Washington-area centers were completed last month and others in Boston; New York City; Philadelphia; Atlanta; Chicago; Kansas City, Mo; Fort Worth, Texas; Denver; San Francisco and Seattle will soon be completed. An hourly fee to use the telepresence centers won’t kick in until Sept. 30, giving agencies a grace period to test the technology. That fee is not expected to exceed $500 an hour per room, or the cost of some public centers. The online scheduling portal used…
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The General Services Administration’s acquisition arm could learn a thing or two about customer service from Apple, Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Steve Kempf said Tuesday at a training conference in San Diego. Following a morning keynote by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak at the GSA Training Conference and Expo, Kempf noted the partnership between Wozniak and Steve Jobs that birthed the Apple revolution and a loyal customer base. “At FAS, we want to have a partnership with industry partners and customers that’s like Apple” and its customers, Kempf said. “Think about the way people look at Apple products.” Customers clamor for…
The General Services Administration kicked off its annual training conference this year with a speech from GSA Administrator Martha Johnson and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Johnson said the General Services Administration has been pushing hard to become more sustainable, efficient and offer more valuable services within the federal government. She said federal workers are doing grade A work. “We’re the A-team, we want to be on the A agenda doing the A work for this country,” Johnson said. She added that federal agencies will have to push even harder to be on the forefront of innovation and change. Wozniak recounted…
Employees at the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) may start noticing changes in their cafeteria menus. New nutrition guidelines at HHS will emphasize healthier foods and environmentally friendly procurement and disposal practices according to a blog post on LetsMove.gov written by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and GSA Administrator Martha Johnson March 24. The new guidelines are part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to encourage healthier eating and regular exercise and are part of an effort by GSA to extend sustainable food practices government wide. Some of the new dining guidelines include: Offering seasonal vegetables and fruits,…
If all this cloud talk has your head spinning, you’ll appreciate the General Services Administration’s boiled down explanation. Check out the two-minute video on GSA’s YouTube channel.
Consolidating data centers on the Department of Homeland Security’s St. Elizabeths campus won’t be a problem; there are none. There will, however, be a centralized location for servers in the campus’ information technology operations center, DHS official Mark Hamilton said during an industry day Thursday. Two off-campus data centers, DHS 1 and 2, will house the data. The General Services Administration hosted the event to field questions about the $2.63 billion contract to install, test and operate a secure network throughout the future DHS headquarters. Here are some other take-aways from the event: – Federal employees and contractors are really going to use HSPD12 identification cards to access…
Starting early next year, federal agencies will have access to telepresence centers at General Services Administration buildings across the country. The technology will initially span across 14 GSA buildings including 11 regional offices and central offices, GSA Administrator Martha Johnson told reporters today at the Executive Leadership Conference in Williamsburg, Va. “People appear much more life like” and “they engage in eye contact with each other,” said Johnson about the new technologies. “The sound really works, and you feel as if you’re sitting at the same table even though you’re sitting virtually.” The systems will be set up in rooms throughout…
A little fuzzy on the distinctions between various types of federal contracts? Don’t feel bad, because some federal contracting officers are, too, according to a Federal Register notice published today. In a jointly filed proposed rule, the Defense Department, NASA and the General Services Administration indicate that they are trying to correct the mistaken impression among contracting officers “governmentwide” that the fixed labor rates in time-and-materials/labor-hour contracts make them “fixed-price type contracts.” In fact, as the Government Accountability Office reported last year, time and materials contracts are considered high-risk because the contractor’s profit hinges on the number of hours worked.
Do you dislike where you work? Do you think you can do better? If you are a professional or amateur within the field of green and sustainable design, you are in luck. The General Services Administration is once again soliciting ideas for its Design and Construction Awards Program. In a letter to possible participants, Martha Johnson, GSA administrator, said that “In their design and construction, the products of GSA’s Design Excellence Program have represented our nation’s core values of transparency, democracy, and individualism, and they have realized those principles functionally and efficiently.” The contest is open to: Contract design professionals,…
Call it perfect timing. Within days of my story about Challenge.gov running in the paper, the Obama administration announced the site’s launch today. I’ve browsed challenge.gov, and it really is user-friendly. Using the browse government challenge link, you can see the featured challenges, submission deadlines and the number of supporters. Already, there are 36 challenges up for the public to view, and results are searchable by category or organization. You can even follow the website on Twitter. Here’s a look at some of the newest challenges: Game Day Challenge- Reduce waste at your college’s football games. Reciepes for Healthy Kids: $12,000 in prizes to…