The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is on a multi-year IT modernization journey – harnessing the power of new and emerging technologies to achieve mission-driven innovations, enhanced security, and delivery of improved access and care for millions of beneficiaries. CMS has done extensive work to date in cloud enabling applications and creating user friendly tools and enhancing security. The agency is now embarking on its...

The Northern Virginia Chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA NOVA is pleased to invite you to join us on Thursday February 28, 2019, at our IC IT Day. This year’s theme is “Achieving Mission Through Technological Advantage” and our speakers and panelists will be addressing the key topics of AI, Cyber, Cloud, RPA, and Blockchain. The IT Day will be held at the Hyatt Fairlakes in Fairfax,...

Contrary to a current myth, a GSA Schedule contract is not required by law or regulation to obtain a government contract, but it is an excellent sales tool to obtain government business by means of task or delivery orders. A GSA Schedule is a simplified process of acquiring commonly used commercial supplies and services. But obtaining a schedule contract is neither simple nor easy, and subjects the commercial contractor to numerous laws and re...

Synopsis: Companies and agencies concerned with implementing new ideas/processes have to contend with the federal budget cycle. One of the great challenges of both the government desiring new, innovative technologies or great service provider companies that are entering the market is the need to obtain funding. The issue becomes: how do new technologies/services become integrated into the government budget cycle? This course will provide an ov...

Synopsis: The government is reluctant to share the data/information frequently kept in silos and often not shared among other entities due to its proprietary, non-portable format or the inability to import/export. The 21st century network models actively encourages the sharing of information across the boundaries. Today, the mission of government requires a whole-of-government approach to address its challenges, enable better decision making,...

Synopsis: Today’s organizations need to have people who can develop new kinds of solutions to meet pressing demands. Yet the words creativity and innovation often intimidate our people. Even if our organizations have creative people, our organizational cultures tend to suppress innovation. This “minds-on” course will provide the tools and techniques to reverse these trends. On Day 1, we will focus on helping employees enhance...

While ACT-IAC strives to forge strong government-industry partnerships, Harvard Business Review describes how customer service is at an all-time low in the United States. How can industry contractors provide better customer service to their government partners? How can government employees provide better service to their constituents and other federal customers? This course will describe the role of customer service; discuss customer turnoffs...

Synopsis: As an emerging business in the federal market how do you respond to the bid requests of the federal agencies? As a federal technology worker how do you write a proper statement of work? What are the various bids that need to have a response? When is too much information not applicable? This course will provide the basic tools in order for an individual to read a government requirement document, decide if the requirement is one for yo...

Understanding how the government evaluates contractors’ proposals is a key step in pricing a deal to win. In this unique course, we review how the government contracting officers analyze contractors’ costs and prices; how they acquire their data; what reviews are performed; how data is validated; and how strategies are changed depending on the type of contract. Armed with this information, contractors can avoid the pitfalls that ca...

Synopsis: If putting a 1500 page FAR under your pillow hoping for brain penetration through the night isn’t working and you need a basic understanding of the FAR, this course is for you. The course provides a quick overview of the FAR to help you understand how to find things and a review of the main topic areas and how they can impact your organization. Armed with this information, you’ll know when you need to refer to the FAR to...