Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Introducing the Insider
The Industry Defined
HUBZones: Anyone Can Play
Beyond Reproach: The Incumbent's Bind
Breaking Wave: Human Resources BPO
Cooperative Personnel Services: Differentiating Not a Problem
Adventures in Marketing
Policy & Regs: Can We Satisfy the Appetite for Cleared Personnel?
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Quick now: name a federal financial management systems implementation that has been performed on time, on budget, and per the original spec. Tough, eh? However, HHS is completing its ambitious Unified Financial Management System with no major perturbations. Of particular note is that BearingPoint, which has had three such projects turn south in the last couple of years, has been the integrator—with an obviously satisfied client. We give you some insight into how this was achieved.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies usually demystifies and pushes policies in the national security and global policy orbs. However, it recently directed some of its considerable brainpower to taking a factual snapshot of the government services industry. This is a major service for us all, and the results will spawn considerable debate on the meaning of the now exposed industry structure. Note: the August issue of the Insider will contain our analysis of the implications for the industry, and findings of particular use to firms' positioning or repositioning in the marketplace.
As budgets tighten, some agencies, particularly in DoD are resorting to incremental funding to make the dollars stretch, at least temporarily. In some cases, they are adding funding by the week or month, adding some risk and administrative burdens on contractors. Alan Chvotkin suggests how you can prepare and cope with the incremental funding trend.
Congressman Henry Waxman is, in our view, one of the savviest critic of (any) administration, and he's very expert in the field of government operations. But he's defaulted to regurgitation mode in his staff's publication of "Dollars, Not Sense," a compilation of government contracting controversies. There's little new in the way of cases, and his bashes land far more frequently on department and agency mismanagers than on contractors.
We take a quick look at funding and which firms are well positioned in one of the next big opportunities.
We explain our concern that some unlucky or careless government services firm is going to mishandle private data like federal agencies such as the IRS do. In addition, we look at how a foreign extortionist may help keep the door shut on offshoring of some government services work. Finally, there's research on academia regarding how management fads rise and fall due to the activities of consultants.