Volume: 18

No: 2

Publication date: 10/95

The AFFIRMation On Line

A MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR FEDERAL INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

AFFIRM, the Association For Federal Information Resources Management, is a Washington, DC-based council of the Federation of Government Information Processing Councils. It is a nonprofit, volunteer organization whose goal is to improve the management of information within the Federal Government.

A MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR FEDERAL INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

The AFFIRMation


AFFIRM, the Association For Federal Information Resources Management, is a Washington, DC-based council of the Federation of Government Information Processing Councils. It is a nonprofit, volunteer organization whose goal is to improve the management of information within the Federal Government.



Protests - "Don't worry, be happy"
by Bob Dornan, Federal Sources, Inc.
Protest reform remains the single hottest topic in all of the procurement reform activity. While I agree that certain changes in the protest process would be beneficial, I firmly believe that the efforts being devoted to this issue are far beyond what the protest "problem" warrants. Clearly the threat of protests has a profound effect on the progress of any procurement. Procurement officers correctly use this factor to justify certain actions during a procurement that usually result in lengthening the procurement time. If, and when, a protest is actually filed this too can add significant delay. No one is disputing these two observations. What is in dispute is the relative importance that the threat of protests actually has, or should have, on the totality of information technology procurements throughout the government. What I am talking about here is whether or not there is a systemic problem that needs radical fixing.

As the title of this article (and the title of the song) implies, I think the protest problem has changed so much in the last few years as to make it almost nonexistent. Protest filings are down 40% from 2 years ago, so far fewer procurements are ever challenged. Of those filed, approximately 80% are resolved within 2-3 weeks with a little discussion. It is incorrectly assumed that every major procurement was automatically protested, but that was not so, and it is even less likely now. Most major awards, even with highly controversial selections, are no longer protested. Witness the recent Treasury award of the TCS contract to TRW which was critical to, and very expensive for, the three losers. The government awards 400 - 500 IT contracts valued at over $1 million each year and loses about 12 protests a year at the GSBCA. The results at the GAO for IT procurements are almost laughable. Of 27 decisions so far in 1995, the score is government 26 wins, the vendors one - and that one win was for wrongful termination of a contract, not for the violation of regulation. Another complaint about the protest process is the cost of paying attorney's fees for winning protesters, but the government reimbursed only about $2.5 million in 1994 - a minuscule figure compared to the $25 billion spent on IT that year.

The procurement community certainly deserves much credit for running better procurements resulting in far fewer protests. A number of things are happening to further significantly reduce the impact of protests. The new rules for debriefings should reduce protests, many of which are filed in desperation to get the agency to divulge enough information to allow the losers to understand why they lost. Vendors are being much more selective about which procurements they protest because of the costs, high probability of losing, and negative impact on business relationships with the agencies. The new FAR rules governing orders under multiple awards in Task/Delivery order contracts prohibits protests over the selection of who gets the order. Finally, greater usage of "alternate dispute resolution" procedures as directed by Executive Order 12979 of 10/15/95 will further reduce the systemic delays from protests.

Just as important, however, the protest forums (GSBCA and GAO) bend over backwards to find a way to support the agency unless they have really erred badly. Both the GSBCA and GAO have supported controversial selections based on "best value" and "past performance." Only in rare cases has the GSBCA reversed a selection and that was where inconsistent use of these factors resulted in unequal offeror treatment, where unstated evaluation factors were used, or where the selection decision lacked a rational basis.

In conclusion, while we should always conduct procurements in conformance with the regulations, the remote threat of a protest should not impact the procurement process or prevent obtaining the maximum benefit from the use of new selection techniques.


The President's Corner
Affirm is off to a great start this year, and I want to report some early accomplishments.

Our first two luncheon seminars this year were huge successes. In September, we hosted a panel discussion on telecommunications reform, and in October, a panel discussion on the new position of Chief Information Officer (CIO). The seminar speakers are among the leaders in these areas and faced capacity attendance at both seminars.

Next, we released AFFIRM's report on IRM performance measurement at our September seminar. The report, entitled "The Connection - Linking IRM and Mission Performance," was well received. We have received close to 200 Internet requests for the report the first month after its release. These requests from academic, public and private organizations have come from around the world. In partial response, we recently placed an electronic version of the report on the World Wide Web. AFFIRM also provided speakers at several professional conferences to discuss the report's findings and conclusions.

Another early success is in our efforts to join with industry. Private sector organizations are proving extremely receptive to our invitation to partner with AFFIRM. September's seminar was sponsored by the Morosco Newton Group, and the October seminar by General Sciences Corporation. In addition, several organizations are now sustaining partners with AFFIRM and, at our September seminar, we recognized both Lotus Development Corporation and Ogden Government Services as sustaining partners, and Software AG at October's. Industry sponsorships are extremely important to AFFIRM, and we are most appreciative of these organizations for their support.

I listed this year's AFFIRM Board in the October issue of the AFFIRMation. They are a tremendous group to work with, and it is their efforts that make it possible for me to report accomplishments such as those above. Please thank them for their dedicated work on AFFIRM's behalf.


Paul Wohlleben



Member Survey
Last month we mentioned a plan to survey the membership to better understand what you wanted from your association with AFFIRM. As a first step, we FAXed you a survey with questions about communication preferences. Only 58 of 228 people replied to the survey.
Respondents provided valuable information allowing our Communications Committee to update its address list and identify some of your communication preferences. A majority of the 58 respondents indicated a preference for FAXed program flyers, Internet use for short messages, and the U.S. Mail for receipt of our newsletter.

Another member survey form is enclosed with this issue to help further update our lists and expand our knowledge about your communication preferences. As you know, one goal this year is to increase electronic membership contact. Survey section 1 provides for updated member information, including FAX number and Internet address. Think futuristically, act boldly, and join our electronic experiment!

Survey Section 2 gathers newsletter preferences and your ideas on where AFFIRM should place its emphasis. The choices were not scientifically selected so they may not represent your interests. Please use the COMMENT section to write in additional interests and thoughts for your Board's consideration. Return completed survey forms either via mail or FAX (202-260-5419) and, once we have updated our database, we will make membership lists available to all active members.



Editor's Notes
Due to the helpful feedback we have received on the first edition of the AFFIRMation, several format changes were made. First, a page was added to accommodate the promotion for the upcoming seminar; second, we are adding the logos of our Sustaining Partners; and third, back by popular demand, are the telephone numbers for AFFIRM's Board. Also, we will add a column on "Members in the News" as information is received. Contact Ava Arnone or Joe Lentini with news items or ideas for improving your AFFIRMation.


Seminar Series


Sustaining Partners

At Ogden Professional Services Corp. we are committed to assisting our customers in finding better ways to accomplish their objectives. We work with our customers to effectively manage information flow, reengineer their way of doing business, improve program management based on sound analysis, and improve systems to function as intended in their operational environments. Ogden is recognized for excellence; two recent awards include "Best of Open Systems Solutions" and the "Federal Applications Medal of Excellence." We support 60 Federal government organizations from our 30 office facilities and numerous site locations.

Lotus Development Corporation

MCI Government Markets

Systems Integration Group

Software AG



Month's Seminar Recap
Three "Chief Information Officers" (CIOs) spoke at AFFIRM's October 19 luncheon. They shared their insight into roles still not completely defined within their own organizations and nonexistent in many others. The Commerce Department's CIO Alan Balutis and Sarah Jane League the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) CIO represented the public sector. The private sector's CIO viewpoint was represented by Edward Vaccaro from Booz-Allen & Hamilton. The panel moderator was Edith Holmes, President and Publisher, FCW Group, Inc., Federal Computer Week.

Alan Balutis discussed Information Technology's (IT) impact on different aspects of organizational strategy. Mr. Balutis said today's CIO must know of, and participate in, the organizational strategic decision-making process. He believes that making the strategy-technology nexus understood throughout an organization as a critical CIO function.

Sarah Jane League added that the business side of an organization provides good CIO training. She feels that there is no model for a CIO, that we are still defining what a CIO is, and that technological expertise is not necessarily the only CIO job requisite. Ms. League also identified two urgent tasks for DISA's CIO - consolidating and standardizing. Efforts related to the consolidation task resulted in reducing 59 data centers by 40 centers with expectations for further reductions. She told us that the standardization task involves ongoing efforts to establish common data standards across all military services.

Edward Vaccaro agreed that IT expertise alone does not prepare a CIO for that position. He said that, recognizing this reality several years ago, Booz-Allen management redefined the CIO position. The old CIO position was an overhead function. The redefined CIO position is now a position requiring business and IT experience. The redefinition process included the creation of a "Chief Knowledge Officer" (CKO) position paralleling that of the CIO. The CIO looks after systems, while the CKO is responsible for system content. This recognition of a need for, and then filling, the CKO position may represent the first and only such action at the present time.


Communications Committee News
The Communications Committee's function is to inform AFFIRM members and the public of upcoming AFFIRM events. They place the AFFIRM announcements and articles you see in Federal and local newspapers. They even had our first meeting mentioned in the Washington Post! Look for more positive exposure from these folks!



Re-engineering
Affirm's reengineering focus is on improving our method of doing business and on communications with our membership. Last month's newsletter reported five objectives for this year.

The newsletter is an example of our reengineering efforts. Another is the Membership's efforts to streamline their process and to add new members from the public and private sectors. Efforts include developing a membership database, creating a member address book, and issuing a modified member address book for use outside AFFIRM.

These are just some initial reengineering activities. Keep watching this space. There's more to come!



Financial Issues
This year your Treasurer team is working to formalize AFFIRM's financial processes. This includes development of a budget and issuance of a monthly financial status report. Our Treasurers, Chris Folger and Terry Forrest, have split up their functions to ensure an appropriate amount of control. Terry pays the bills and makes all deposits. Chris publishes the monthly reports, reconciles the monthly bank account statements, and prepares and monitors our adherence to the budget. This approach is an accepted good management practice and allows the board to properly oversee the organization's money and to make prudent expenditure decisions consistent with furthering AFFIRM's mission.