PEO Pulse - March 6, 2020

►► PEO EIS FEBRUARY TOWN HALL RESOURCES

• SLIDES  AND VIDEO
• PHOTOS

 

►► PEO PULSE - March 6, 2020.  Take a look at this week's headlines:

• ARMY ROLLS OUT SIMPLER, LIGHTER SOFTWARE TO OPERATIONAL MEDICAL FORCES
• I3MP CONDUCTS QUARTERLY REVIEW AT SOTO CANO AIR BASE IN HONDURAS
• ARMY ANNOUNCES XTECHSEARCH5 COMPETITION
• PRESSURE WILL MOUNT ON ARMY FUTURES COMMEND TO PRODUCE RESULTS
• THE ARMY LOOKS TO RECRUIT MORE... SCIENTISTS
• ALIGNING ACQUISITION AND SUSTAINMENT FOR A NEW ERA
• PENTAGON TEEING UP NINE PROGRAMS TO TEST NEW 'COLOR OF MONEY' FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
• HOW GSA'S INNOVATION INITIATIVE IS HELPING THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
• GDIT PROTESTS NAVY'S $7.7 BILLION NGEN-R CONTRACT
• ARMY LAUNCHES ENLISTED ASSIGNMENT MARKET FOR SELECT CAREER FIELDS
• AFGE URGES TELEWORK EXPANSION AMID CORONAVIRUS SPREAD
• ESPER SOON TO DECIDE ON PLAN FOR PREVENTING, MITIGATING CORONAVIRUS AT PENTAGON
• SMALL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HOW CONTRACTORS, FEDS GET CLEARANCES
• PALANTIR SEALS ITS FIRST MAJOR U.S. NAVY DEAL AS RAYTHEON IS PASSED OVER
• INTELLIGENT WAVES RECEIVES ARMY NETWORK SWITCH MAINTENANCE TASK ORDER

►► AROUND EIS

UPCOMING EVENTS
• Mar. 24-26: Signal Conference, Springfield VA
• Mar. 26: Lunch & Learn

RECRUITMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS: Volunteers for the Expeditionary Civilian Workforce (Acquisition Specialist/NH-0343-03 & Deputy Director/NH-0343-03, Afghanistan). TARGET SERIES/GRADE:  NH-0343-03. OPEN: 1 February 2020 - 13 April 2020.  Open to all employees on a permanent career or career conditional appointment. Bagram, Afghanistan (Deployment may require relocation to different locations within CENTCOM AOR). All questions should be sent directly to the ASA (ALT) forward office at usarmy.pentagon.hqda-asa-alt.list.fwd-ops@mail.mil 

MARCH 2020 PEO PERSPECTIVE
This month and into April, PEO EIS meets with Authorizer and Appropriator professional staff members for the annual budget overview of our portfolio. The Army is committed to wisely using the resources entrusted to us by Congress and the American people to enhance readiness and build a more lethal force. Building relationships with Congress is critical to our being able to deliver agile, innovative and modernized solutions to Soldiers that help them to accomplish their missions.

►► AROUND EIS

UPCOMING EVENTS
• Mar. 24-26: Signal Conference, Springfield VA
• Mar. 26: Lunch & Learn

RECRUITMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS: Volunteers for the Expeditionary Civilian Workforce (Acquisition Specialist/NH-0343-03 & Deputy Director/NH-0343-03, Afghanistan). TARGET SERIES/GRADE:  NH-0343-03. OPEN: 1 February 2020 - 13 April 2020.  Open to all employees on a permanent career or career conditional appointment. Bagram, Afghanistan (Deployment may require relocation to different locations within CENTCOM AOR). All questions should be sent directly to the ASA (ALT) forward office at usarmy.pentagon.hqda-asa-alt.list.fwd-ops@mail.mil

►► EIS IN THE NEWS

ARMY ROLLS OUT SIMPLER, LIGHTER SOFTWARE TO OPERATIONAL MEDICAL FORCES
In November 2019, the Army deployed its Health Assessment Lite Operations (HALO) software to medical forces in Afghanistan. HALO is a digitized version of the Standard Form (SF) 600 used by DoD medical personnel to document patient treatment for wounded, injured or sick patients. It was developed by the Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care (MC4), the Army acquisition program with primary responsibility for providing Army operational health IT capabilities for deployed medical forces. The current version of HALO is designed primarily for documenting out-patient treatment at Role 1 battalion aid stations and at Role 2 military treatment facilities (MTFs). 

I3MP CONDUCTS QUARTERLY REVIEW AT SOTO CANO AIR BASE IN HONDURAS
Victor Hernandez, product manager for Installation Information Infrastructure Modernization Program (I3MP), recently traveled to Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras, to review current IT modernization efforts. The goal was to synchronize with the major stakeholders on the progress of the Soto Cano IT modernization effort. The project will establish a permanent transport communication architecture that will improve the outdated legacy and temporary ruggedized communication infrastructure.

►► ARMY

ARMY ANNOUNCES XTECHSEARCH5 COMPETITION
Bruce Jette, the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, has announced the start of the fifth Army Expeditionary Technology Search competition, also known as xTechSearch. The xTechSearch competition seeks novel, disruptive concepts and technologies to support the Army's top modernization priorities, medical technologies, military-engineering technologies and other critical technology focus areas that can provide technology advancement or enable cost savings throughout the Army systems' life cycle.

PRESSURE WILL MOUNT ON ARMY FUTURES COMMEND TO PRODUCE RESULTS
Army Futures Command still has the support of Congress, but the good will it is currently enjoying may evaporate if it doesn’t start completing some major programs in the next few years, panelists at an industry conference held near its headquarters said March 4. Blake Souter, military legislative assistant to Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., said enthusiasm for Futures Command was high among lawmakers when the Army first proposed setting up the new organization, and that is still the case. But “year two, three, four, they are going to want to see some tangible outcomes from this,” he said at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Tactical Wheeled Vehicles Conference. 

THE ARMY LOOKS TO RECRUIT MORE... SCIENTISTS         
The Army maintains a network of research laboratories exploring everything from medical materials to new drone technologies. It also works to encourage more young people to get into scientific fields. Matt Willis, director of laboratory management in the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more discussion.

►► FEDERAL

ALIGNING ACQUISITION AND SUSTAINMENT FOR A NEW ERA
Adapting to great power competition requires improved acquisition operations, and the U.S. Defense Department's acquisition headquarters has been busy revamping contracting practices. The efforts are succeeding in reducing contracting burdens, timelines and workforce hours, and is bringing in more innovation into the DOD, its top leader reports. Over the last year, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord has worked to make the military’s acquisition system one that “moves at the speed of relevance,” Lord reported during a keynote address via video link at AFCEA and the U.S. Naval Institute’s WEST 2020 conference on March 3 in San Diego.

PENTAGON TEEING UP NINE PROGRAMS TO TEST NEW 'COLOR OF MONEY' FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Of all the challenges the Defense Department faces in buying and building software, the rules that govern how it pays for it are widely-considered one of the biggest. And Defense officials think they have a plan to convince Congress to finally change them. The Pentagon is lining up a series of nine acquisition programs it wants to use as test cases to prove out the concept of using a new Congressional appropriations category that’s specific to software. They would let those programs break free from the “color of money” strictures that were originally designed for military hardware, but make little sense in the context of the agile software development model DoD aspires to embrace.

HOW GSA'S INNOVATION INITIATIVE IS HELPING THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
The GSA’s Centers of Excellence program’s partnership with the Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center has made strides in managing the agency’s data assets. In a news release March 5, GSA said CoE includes implementing a data governance structure specifically geared toward AI initiatives to speed up decision-making.

GDIT PROTESTS NAVY'S $7.7 BILLION NGEN-R CONTRACT
General Dynamics Information Technology has decided to lodge a legal challenge against the Navy’s latest Next Generation Enterprise Network contract, one of the largest IT awards in the federal government’s history. GDIT filed its bid protest with the Government Accountability Office on Wednesday, GAO records show. A company spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what aspects of the award the company is challenging.

►► WORKFORCE

ARMY LAUNCHES ENLISTED ASSIGNMENT MARKET FOR SELECT CAREER FIELDS
Armor, military intelligence and some quartermaster Soldiers will be the first to pilot a new assignment market system, as the Army looks into new ways to enhance the assignment process for enlisted personnel. The Assignment Satisfaction Key-Enlisted Marketplace pilot program will launch in June, providing Soldiers a full list of available positions for them to choose, said Sgt. Maj. Wardell Jefferson, the Army's G-1 sergeant major.

AFGE URGES TELEWORK EXPANSION AMID CORONAVIRUS SPREAD
The American Federation of Government Employees is asking the Office of Personnel Management to extend telework to any federal employee capable of working remotely, in light of the spread of coronavirus. Everett Kelley, who was sworn in as AFGE's national president earlier this week, asked OPM Director Dale Cabaniss to allow telework governmentwide, "regardless of any specific agency action that may have limited telework for other reasons."

ESPER SOON TO DECIDE ON PLAN FOR PREVENTING, MITIGATING CORONAVIRUS AT PENTAGON
The Defense Department expects to begin implementing measures as soon as next week to reduce the risk of a coronavirus outbreak at the Pentagon, potentially affecting the thousands of service members, civilians, contractors and visitors who walk through the turnstiles every day at the U.S. military's headquarters.

SMALL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HOW CONTRACTORS, FEDS GET CLEARANCES
When the government vets people for security clearance, some small differences show up in how it looks at federal employees and contractors. That’s the conclusion of a detailed study conducted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. Here with details, Michael Hudson, the senior director of government solutions at ClearForce, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

►► INDUSTRY

PALANTIR SEALS ITS FIRST MAJOR U.S. NAVY DEAL AS RAYTHEON IS PASSED OVER
Palantir Technologies has sealed its first major deal with the U.S. Navy, public contract documents show, a major step forward for a West Coast tech company that has long struggled to break into the Pentagon’s insular information technology industry. The sole-source contract, worth about $80 million, calls for a logistics management system for the service branch’s warships and aircraft scattered across the globe. The Navy will use Palantir’s software to fuse together existing data sets that are walled off from one another, forming a broader operating system the Pentagon is calling Naval Operational Business Logistics Enterprise, or NOBLE.

INTELLIGENT WAVES RECEIVES ARMY NETWORK SWITCH MAINTENANCE TASK ORDER
Intelligent Waves has received a one-year task order to maintain branded network switches that support the U.S. Army's enterprise resource planning functions. The company said Tuesday it will provide third-party maintenance support for Brocade switches and reseller services as part of an agreement supporting the service branch's financial, tactical logistics and human resources systems.

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