From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Tue Mar 1 23:03:06 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 18:03:06 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Kalido's Rapid Global Growth Precipitates the Addition of Three New Members to Its Systems Integrator Program Message-ID: <20050301180245.X400-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> February 28, 2005 07:16 AM US Eastern Timezone Kalido's Rapid Global Growth Precipitates the Addition of Three New Members to Its Systems Integrator Program http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050228005496&newsLang=en --- BURLINGTON, Mass. & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 28, 2005-- Top Systems Integrators Formalize Relationships with Kalido to Continue Delivering Strategic Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing Solutions Kalido, the leading adaptive enterprise data warehousing software provider, today announced the continued expansion of its systems integrator (SI) program with the additions of Axis Group, MindTree Consulting and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). Building upon their work with Kalido with existing customers, these three organizations have formalized their relationships with Kalido to provide large-scale business intelligence initiatives based on the KALIDO(R) application suite (KALIDO). Each of these organizations has already worked with Kalido to bring millions of dollars in additional revenue and cost savings to Global 2000 organizations worldwide. Through their previous work, each systems integrator understands not only the unique strengths of the KALIDO software but also the impact on the data warehousing project scope and timescale, ensuring that business intelligence initiatives provide the most immediate and tangible value possible. The agreement with SAIC U.S. builds upon the relationship with SAIC Limited in the UK announced in July 2004, and will initially target the energy market. Separately, Axis Group, which has been a reseller partner since 2002, has formally upgraded its relationship with Kalido based on its experience with multiple Kalido customers in the pharmaceutical, telecommunications and financial services sectors. Finally, MindTree Consulting is establishing a Kalido Practice around the number of consultants who are trained and have worked on KALIDO projects in the UK and Asia Pacific. Kalido's adaptive data warehousing software enables each of these systems integrators to quickly deliver actionable and quantifiable benefits from their business intelligence systems due to its unprecedented flexibility, speed and agility throughout business change. Launched in July 2004, Kalido designed its global systems integrator program to ensure that current and future customers can receive technical expertise from qualified professional services consultants worldwide. As part of the program, systems integrator members train and certify a team of their consultants in the KALIDO software and develop a Kalido capability within their organization to lead project implementations. In addition to the companies mentioned, the program includes Acuma Solutions, Atos Origin, Satyam Computer Systems Ltd., and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). "In the past year, particularly since the formal opening of our US headquarters, Kalido has experienced impressive growth and demand for the KALIDO application suite," said Chris Worsley, vice president, business development, Kalido. "Kalido's continuous and rapid expansion necessitates that we work with companies who not only provide skilled consulting and implementation services to our customer base, but who also see the market potential for KALIDO. As we grow, we want the Kalido business in these systems integrators to also grow. We've chosen these systems integrators because of their proven experience and great reputation of providing both technical and strategic value to their customers." About the new Systems Integrators Axis Group Axis Group, founded in 1996, is a strategic IT business consulting company that specializes in all aspects of Business Intelligence. Axis uses a proven, risk-free process to deliver hundreds of information management and delivery solutions, satisfying Global 2000 clients of even the largest multinational organizations. Axis has strategic alliances with key technology leaders such as Kalido. By leveraging best-of-breed tools, Axis delivers optimal solutions with the lowest cost of ownership. For more information, please contact Mitch Lapidus at (973) 314-3065 x 255, mlapidus at axisgroup.com, or visit www.axisgroup.com. MindTree Consulting MindTree Consulting is an international IT company that delivers affordable business and technology solutions through global software development. Co-headquartered in Somerset, NJ and Bangalore, India, the company approaches technology initiatives in a business context, with the industry knowledge of a seasoned management team and employees exceptionally skilled in technology, business analysis and project management. MindTree Consulting develops applications to help companies enhance their enterprise operations. The company also delivers R&D services and designs re-usable building blocks for hi-tech companies. MindTree is the world's youngest company to be assessed at Level 5 in both CMMi and P-CMM. MindTree has been ranked fifth in the Great Places to Work Study 2004 conducted by Grow Talent Company and Businessworld. MindTree was ranked among the top 3 in the IT industry in the Best Employers in India 2003 Survey conducted by Hewitt Associates. Please visit www.mindtree.com for more information. SAIC SAIC is the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the United States, providing information technology, systems integration and eSolutions to commercial and government customers. SAIC engineers and scientists work to solve complex technical problems in national and homeland security, energy, the environment, space, telecommunications, health care, and logistics. With annual revenues of nearly $7 billion, SAIC has more than 45,000 employees at offices in more than 150 cities worldwide. More information about SAIC can be found at www.saic.com. About Kalido Kalido provides adaptive enterprise data warehousing software to Global 2000 companies. The KALIDO(R) application suite (KALIDO) delivers consolidated views of enterprise performance and can rapidly adapt them to major changes in the business such as mergers and acquisitions, market consolidation, or new regulatory requirements. This improves the speed and accuracy of management and financial reporting without the cost and delay of operational system standardization. Kalido customers who have measured the business benefits of their projects have typically found they have derived annual savings of millions, and in some cases tens of millions, of dollars through improved management of their company performance and reduction of IT costs. With KALIDO, companies can rapidly create and manage adaptive data warehouses and associated master data throughout their lifecycle, benefiting from the software's strategic flexibility, low cost and speed of deployment. An independently audited study shows that KALIDO saves at least 55 percent in ownership costs compared to custom-built approaches, a figure surpassed by real-life customer experiences. The average KALIDO data warehouse implementation takes less than 6 months, as opposed to 16 months for conventional approaches. Kalido customers include some of the largest companies in the world, such as BP, Cadbury Schweppes, HBOS plc, Intelsat, Labatt Breweries of Canada, Merial, Owens Corning, Philips, Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies (Shell) and Unilever. These companies and many others use Kalido's award-winning software in over 100 countries for their enterprise-wide data warehousing and master data management projects. A privately-held company, Kalido is headquartered in Burlington, Mass. and London, UK. More information about Kalido can be found at: http://www.kalido.com. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Mar 3 13:37:00 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2005 08:37:00 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC Demonstrates Live-Fire From Vigilante(R) VTOL UAV Message-ID: <20050303083608.B400-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> Wednesday March 2, 1:49 pm ET SAIC Demonstrates Live-Fire From Vigilante(R) VTOL UAV http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050302/dcw036_1.html --- - Air-to-Air Control Live-Firing is First for a VTOL UAV MCLEAN, Va., March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) today announced the successful live-fire of four 2.75" unguided rockets from its Vigilante VTOL UAV (Vertical Takeoff and Landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) system during flight testing conducted at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground. Conducted on December 13 and 14, 2004, the rocket firing demonstration represents an aviation first as they were executed while the Vigilante system and its payload was under air-to-air control from a control console installed aboard a UH-1N Huey helicopter flying a loose formation on the Vigilante system. Teaming with prime contractor and Vigilante system co-developer Advanced Technologies Incorporated (ATI), SAIC conducted the live-fire rocket tests under the Armed VTOL UAV Testbed Integrator contract for the U.S. Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD), in Fort Eustis, Va. AATD's objectives for this program were to use their Vigilante system platform, developed with AATD as a vehicle for demonstrating UAV technologies, to investigate the platform and manned-unmanned teaming issues associated with weapons engagements from Class III UAVs. The flight test team, including personnel from the Army's AATD, Yuma Proving Ground, ATI and SAIC, executed the test sequence as planned during the two-week deployment. The first three shots were performed at 30, 35, and 40 knots at a 400-foot altitude while the last firing was at 40 knots at a 250- foot altitude. Based on results from the launch, reaction forces were less than those anticipated based on simulation models. The relatively low cost of the program also demonstrates the ability of the Vigilante system to serve as a cost-effective and flexible test platform. This demonstration also enables the team to further explore the collaboration of manned and unmanned systems. For more information about SAIC's Vigilante system please visit http://www.saic.com/products/aviation/vigilante/vig.html. The Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD), a tenant activity located at Ft. Eustis, Va., is a Directorate of the Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC), a part of the Research, Development & Engineering Command (RDECOM). AATD's mission is to transition critical technologies that enhance and sustain Army Aviation as the premier land force aviation component in the world through the development, demonstration, and application of critical technologies. AATD provides quality and timely engineering services and rapid prototyping support for customers as well as support for worldwide contingency operations through the expedited fabrication, application, and support of innovative materiel solutions. Advanced Technologies Incorporated is a leading supplier of research and development products for the aerospace industry. ATI provides engineering and fabrication services and produces a wide variety of wind tunnel models, test equipment, composite fan blades, prototype hardware, full-scale mock-ups and models, training devices, and has specialized expertise developing composite rotor blades, rotor test stands, experimental helicopters, and unmanned CTOL and VTOL UAVs. More information about ATI can be found at http://www.advancedtechnologiesinc.com. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Mar 3 13:37:55 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2005 08:37:55 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] NASA Announces Evaluation & Support Contract Message-ID: <20050303083701.P400-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> Wednesday March 2, 4:15 pm ET NASA Announces Evaluation & Support Contract http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050302/dcw050_1.html --- WASHINGTON, March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA has selected Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Technology Services Company to provide evaluations, assessments, studies and support services. The services are for the NASA Langley Research Center Science Support Office, Hampton, Va., and the Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington. SAIC, located in San Diego, Calif., with a local office in Hampton, will provide technical, management and cost assessments for current and potential NASA programs. The scope of the contract includes management, scientific and technical studies, quick studies and assessments. SAIC will provide information management services, including Web-based systems, databases, reference documents and Web site development. Supporting SAIC as subcontractors: Analytical Mechanics Associates, Inc., and Genex Systems, both in Hampton; Futron Corporation, Bethesda, Md.; Global Science and Technology, Inc., Greenbelt, Md.; and AZ Technology in Huntsville, Ala. The principal work will be performed at Langley for five years. The maximum value for this indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract is $110 million with a guaranteed minimum of $1 million. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Mon Mar 7 13:36:57 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 08:36:57 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] STP to outsource supply functions Message-ID: <20050307083203.D400-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> March 06, 2005 STP to outsource supply functions http://www.baycitytribune.com/story.lasso?wcd=4605 --- STP announced that it will enter into contract negotiations with SAIC . a global leader in supply chain and information technology support services . to outsource some of its functions Thursday. It.s unknown how STP.s present employees will be affected by the move. Talks have begun with SAIC, and a contract should be ready in mid-spring, said Offsite Program Manager Lurinda Barton. Supply chain personnel and functions should be fully transferred to SAIC by mid-summer. If the contract is signed, the majority of the existing supply chain staff will remain onsite in their current or similar roles, said STP officials. At this time STP is unsure how many employees, if any, might lose their jobs or what specific supply chain functions will be taken over by SAIC, said Barton. "It is certainly not something we take lightly," Barton added. "We know this is very stressful for the people affected and their families, and we will do everything possible to ease its impact on them," said STP President and CEO Joe Sheppard. SAIC plans to work with affected STP employees to help them get jobs in other SAIC divisions. STP's supply chain coordinates the purchasing and leasing contracts for the company. It is responsible for bringing in contractors during planned outages, leasing equipment for the company and buying parts for the plant. STP began looking for ways to outsource 10 company functions last September. Companies were invited to evaluate the plant.s functions and propose how they would provide them at the same or better performance, at a reduced cost. Proposals were evaluated and screened by STP and Scott, Madden & Associates - a general management consulting firm specializing in the energy industry. In December, STP and SAIC began negotiating on the outsourcing of two functions - supply chain staff and services and information technology. STP evaluated SAIC.s proposal to provide these functions by confirming price and savings estimates and validating the company.s capabilities and credentials. Although outsourcing STP.s information technology was considered, it will not be outsourced at this time. It will not be pursued, because that manager came up with an aggressive plan to match what SAIC could do, said Barton. SAIC is the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the United States. It employs more than 45,000 people worldwide. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Tue Mar 8 03:47:59 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 22:47:59 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Cold case Message-ID: <20050307224744.F400-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 03/07/05; Vol. 24 No. 5 Cold case http://www.gcn.com/24_5/news/35216-1.html --- By Wilson P Dizard III GCN Staff With its Virtual Case File possibly DOA, the FBI must figure out how to modernize case management without repeating its earlier mistakes The collapse of the FBI's Virtual Case File project leaves the bureau facing complex choices about how to modernize case management for its workers and how to quell skeptics who question whether the bureau can avoid making the same management missteps. Over the last five years, the FBI appears to have wasted $104 million on a system that it may never use--a loss that FBI director Robert S. Mueller III acquiesced to last month during a grilling on Capitol Hill. The botched project has provoked lawmakers to question whether poor IT management is a problem stretching beyond the Hoover building. "This could be a systemic issue across agencies," Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said. It was at a hearing of Gregg's Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary that Mueller and others testified about how the VCF project careened off course [www.gcn.com, Quickfind 380]. "Maybe we should have an independent executive team with expertise [to oversee systems projects] that is consistent and technologically current," Gregg suggested, saying he intended to broach the idea with his fellow lawmakers. The cause for the VCF project's failure, as determined by the Justice Department inspector general and independent auditors: inadequate project oversight, poor investment planning and scope creep. Endless changes made by the FBI, however, are what ultimately hamstrung the program. The project's contractor, Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego, documented the requirements requests from the bureau. In one 18-month period, the FBI requested 399 requirement changes. Plus, there has been continuous turnover in senior IT management during the course of the project. There have been five CIOs since the FBI began work on VCF. So what are the bureau's options? It could continue its development of the problem-plagued VCF, which senior FBI officials have characterized as outmoded but SAIC contends can be ready for use by year's end. Alternatively, the FBI could field an online version of its decades-old Automated Case Support (ACS) system, the application it had pegged VCF to replace. Or it could wait to join in the fledgling Federal Investigative Case Management System program. This joint law enforcement endeavor calls for the creation of a governmentwide system built on commercial case management tools. As they spend the next few months deciding how to proceed, FBI officials said they would figure out how to incorporate what they have learned from their missteps on VCF into future case management efforts. >From a technical perspective, they said, the project requires an enterprise architecture, stable project requirements and stringent security measures. As to project management, the bureau plans to centralize oversight, abandon uncontrollable cost-plus-award-fee contracting methods, set earned-value metrics and use schedule management tools. Mueller and CIO Zalmai Azmi plan to evaluate the results of a VCF pilot. About 500 users in New Orleans and Washington are running an initial version of the VCF applications. Mueller promised to report back to Congress this spring on the pilot, which the FBI characterized as testing a VCF version comprising one-tenth of the capabilities the bureau expected from SAIC. Lawmakers asked the FBI director to be prepared to tell them, based on the pilot's results, whether the bureau should expand VCF use, make additional changes or abandon the project as the Justice IG recommended [www.gcn.com, Quickfind 381]. SAIC executives said the pilot will prove that VCF is viable and that the FBI should approve an expanded version for testing before rolling out a full-scale case management system by January [www.gcn.com, Quickfind 382]. Right now, the system provides only workflow management for users. Several other functions--including document, evidence and lead management, and a tickler file--can be ready for testing shortly, said Mark Hughes, president of SAIC's system and network solutions group. But Mueller rejected the SAIC proposal during his testimony to Gregg, saying the flaws in the VCF pilot version will force bureau officials to seek out more modern alternatives. FBI officials also said SAIC has not completed plans for converting flat files in the bureau's ACS system to VCF's Oracle Corp. database. Now, the pilot provides a middleware link between the two systems. As the FBI sees it, the bureau would have to maintain ACS because the security algorithms for the links are built into the Adabase database management system underlying the ACS mainframe applications. Rather than proceed with VCF, the FBI could opt to replace ACS with commercial case management software. The packages on the market have outpaced VCF, FBI officials said, and the bureau now is evaluating some of these newer plug-and-play technologies. The FBI also could live with its older system by expanding use of a fairly new, browser-friendly front end to ACS, the Web-Enabled Automated Case File System. WACS has been available for about two years, and hundreds of FBI employees have access to it. Although WACS lacks the automated workflow function that the VCF pilot provides, it is an improvement on ACS' green-screen user interface. The final alternative is to wait on development of the inter-agency project, the Federal Investigative Case Management System. But FICMS' launch is not expected for at least three years. To make the right choice requires that the FBI retrace its steps, learn from its mistakes and not repeat them. One sure lesson it has learned is that it must not keep changing requirements. Mueller in his Senate testimony described how the bureau and SAIC were negotiating contract changes as late as last summer. SAIC's executive vice president Robert Punaro told the subcommittee: "The agents would look at the development product and reject it. They would then demand more changes to the design in a trial-and-error, we'll-know-it-when-we-see-it approach to development." Steve Kelman, a former administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said the FBI's modifications of the requirements doomed the project. "If you can't establish a baseline, you will never finish the project," said Kelman, the Weatherhead Professor of Public Management at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. "This is something that [FBI managers] should have known," he added. "This had been a widely discussed lesson learned from previous major project failures like the Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic control modernization. They never stabilized their requirements." Randolph C. Hite, director of IT architecture and systems issues for the Government Accountability Office, said GAO's auditors had noted the bureau's need to set firm specifications. "It all starts with requirements, with understanding what you need and what performance you need," Hite said. "If you are telling a builder to build a house and don't know your requirements, you shouldn't be surprised if you don't get the house you are looking for." Perhaps a larger lesson for federal leaders, however, is the need to pay attention when the builders keep changing as well. In reports over the past few years, GAO cited concerns about the rapid turnover in CIOs during the period when the bureau developed VCF. Repeated changes in the command clearly compounded the problem and escalation of additional systems requirements. In the mid-1990s, the bureau's deputy director also served as its CIO, overseeing the bureau's IRM Office. When the project began, IRM director Mark Tanner played a key role in getting it off the ground. In 2000, bureau officials recruited retired IBM Corp. executive Robert Dies as CIO. But Dies retired in 2002. Tanner then served as acting CIO until July 2002, when Darwin John joined the bureau as CIO. But John retired in May 2003. At that time, officials said the FBI's executive assistant director for administration, Wilson Lowery, sought a more aggressive approach to upgrading the bureau's systems. Lowery became acting CIO when John left and held the job until January 2004, when the FBI made Azmi acting CIO. Azmi took over officially five months later. Now, Mueller and Azmi have shaken up the bureau's IT infrastructure again in a bid to stabilize development. The most recent changes include centralizing project control within the CIO's office, mandating IT investment reviews and seeking to bring industry leaders on staff. They cautioned that the reforms will take time to kick in. Despite his contention to lawmakers that the absence of a modernized case management system has not prevented the FBI from fulfilling its counterterrorism, intelligence and law enforcement missions, the collapse of the project clearly irritates the nation's top cop. "What the agent on the street does not have is a user-friendly format for inputting investigative and intelligence information into his or her computer," Mueller said at last month's Senate hearing. "Instead, the agent faces a cumbersome, time-consuming process of preparing a paper record of that information, seeking the necessary ap-provals, then uploading the document into an existing database. "If agents had the VCF capabilities we envisioned, they could directly input information into their computers, receive electronic approvals, and, with the push of a button, upload information into the database, where it would be immediately available to others who need access to it--agents, analysts, other federal employees, state and local officials." From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Mar 10 03:35:59 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 22:35:59 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] It's official: FBI scraps $170M Virtual Case File project Message-ID: <20050309223405.P5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> MARCH 09, 2005 It's official: FBI scraps $170M Virtual Case File project http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/story/0,10801,100286,00.html --- It will take more than three years to develop a new system News Story by Linda Rosencrance MARCH 09, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - The FBI has officially scrapped a troubled $170 million computer initiative designed to help its agents investigate terrorism. Although the fate of the Virtual Case File project had been in doubt for some time, FBI Director Robert Mueller made the announcement yesterday in testimony before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee. "I am disappointed that we did not come through with Virtual Case File," he told the committee. But Mueller said he sees the decision as an opportunity to develop a more up-to-date system, using mostly off-the-shelf products, that will allow agents to share information more easily. "Right now, we're in the process of evaluating commercial off-the-shelf products to fulfill the needs that we have for our information technology systems," said an FBI official who asked that he not be identified. "We should be done with the evaluation process and have a more firm direction ... toward the end of this month." The Appropriations Committee said it's opening a formal investigation into why the Virtual Case File project failed. Last month, a U.S. Department of Justice audit criticized the FBI's efforts to develop an investigative case management system to replace the antiquated system that was in place before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and that's still in use (see story). The new software was commissioned from San Diego-based Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) in 2001, but was delayed and not delivered until December 2004. In January, the FBI acknowledged that it might not be able to salvage the Virtual Case File program (see story). "The project that was presented to us from the contractor, SAIC, wasn't meeting the needs that we had set forth, so we needed to evaluate what they had given us, as far as user capability and usability," the official said. "We're doing a prototype test of the most recent [software] delivery ... right now in our New Orleans division and at headquarters. ... At the same time, we're evaluating off-the-shelf products to meet our standards and our requirements." SAIC spokesman Jared Adams argued that the FBI hasn't decided to kill off the Virtual Case File project and pointed to the ongoing tests as proof that a final decision hasn't yet been made. "When the tests are done in about three months, I think then a decision will be made," he said. But the FBI official said the agency is incorporating lessons learned from the failed project and moving forward. "For instance, we've created an enterprise architecture system, so anytime we create a new program, or anytime we apply a commercial off-the-shelf program to our systems, it will ... meet all the standards for the overarching enterprise architecture," the official said. Mueller said the FBI will develop another plan for the software overhaul. He said the new project, which won't be called Virtual Case File, will be done in four phases and take approximately 39 months. He declined to estimate how much a new system would cost. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Mar 10 13:00:29 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 08:00:29 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] FBI's SAIC IT KO'ed Message-ID: <20050310075929.V5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 10.03.2005 FBI's SAIC IT KO'ed http://www.sapinfo.net/public/en/news.php4/Category-28813c6138d029be8/page/0/article/Article-26676422ff6fea8dca/en --- The FBI has officially scrapped a troubled $170 million computer initiative designed to help its agents investigate terrorism. Although the fate of the Virtual Case File project had been in doubt for some time, FBI Director Robert Mueller made the announcement in testimony before a subcommittee of the US House Appropriations Committee. Computerworld reported Mueller said he sees the decision as an opportunity to develop a more up-to-date system, using mostly off-the-shelf products, that will allow agents to share information more easily. The Appropriations Committee said it's opening a formal investigation into why the Virtual Case File project failed. Last month, a US Department of Justice audit criticized the FBI's efforts to develop an investigative case management system to replace the antiquated system that was in place before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and that's still in use. The new software was commissioned from San Diego-based Science Applications International (SAIC) in 2001, but was delayed and not delivered until December 2004. In January, the FBI acknowledged that it might not be able to salvage the Virtual Case File program. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Fri Mar 11 14:50:58 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 09:50:58 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC Wins DARPA Contract to Provide Advanced Flashlights to U.S. Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq Message-ID: <20050311095009.I5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> Thursday March 10, 11:22 am ET SAIC Wins DARPA Contract to Provide Advanced Flashlights to U.S. Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050310/dcth030_2.html --- SAN DIEGO and MCLEAN, Va., March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) announced today that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded SAIC a contract to deliver 800 high-performance solid state flashlight prototypes. The flashlights will be supplied to U.S. forces deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq for in-the-field experimental evaluation and feedback. SAIC and SureFire, LLC, a leading manufacturer of tactical flashlights have been collaborating for several years to develop new technologies that enhance flashlight performance. This DARPA project will experimentally evaluate the effectiveness of inserting a range of state-of-the-art optical technologies into these flashlights, while maintaining the same form factor that troops in the field are already using. The prototypes will integrate SAIC's nonimaging optics, SureFire's flashlight manufacturing technology and Lumileds Lighting's high-brightness light-emitting diode (LED) light sources. "The project's purpose is to rapidly bring to the field cutting-edge optical technology at the prototype level for experimental evaluation by the warfighter," said Doug Kirkpatrick, DARPA program manager. The DARPA flashlights will provide exceptional high-intensity illumination and dimmable light output in a compact and ergonomic design. The flashlights will feature high-powered LEDs and hard-anodized, precision-machined aluminum construction with O-ring seals to provide resistance to moisture and dust. The lenses are molded out of a tough, heat-resistant polymer, which can survive severe mechanical shock and large temperature variations. In addition to the main white-light dimmable output, the flashlights also will be capable of emitting red, green, blue and infrared light. "We are very pleased to be able to apply our leading-edge technology to provide the warfighter with superior mission tool products," said Don Foley, SAIC chief engineering and technology officer. SAIC is a pioneer in nonimaging optics, and develops optical solutions for the collection, concentration and projection of light. SAIC's designs are optimized using the nonimaging concentrator synthesis software with the dynamic-synthesis global optimization method. These designs achieve extremely high light output, concentration and desired beam quality up to the thermodynamic limit. SAIC's principal investigator on the project is Neri Shatz. In this project, SAIC's collaboration with SureFire is rapidly bringing the technology capability of SAIC's design expertise to prototype product development. SAIC is the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the United States, providing information technology, systems integration and eSolutions to commercial and government customers. SAIC engineers and scientists work to solve complex technical problems in national and homeland security, energy, the environment, space, telecommunications, health care, and logistics. With annual revenues of nearly $7 billion, SAIC and its subsidiaries, including Telcordia Technologies, have more than 45,000 employees at offices in more than 150 cities worldwide. More information about SAIC can be found at http://www.saic.com. Statements in this announcement other than historical data and information constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements or industry results to be very different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended January 31, 2004, and such other filings that the Company makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Fri Mar 11 14:53:06 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 09:53:06 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Donations to American Red Cross to be Distributed Through Major Regional Offices Message-ID: <20050311095108.L5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 10 March 2005 Donations to American Red Cross to be Distributed Through Major Regional Offices http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/03-10-2005/0003161374&EDATE= --- ORLANDO, Fla., March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) announced today it is making corporate contributions totaling $250,000 to the American Red Cross. All funds are designated to support tsunami relief. Major SAIC offices in Orlando, Fla., Huntsville, Ala., Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Norfolk, Va., are each contributing $25,000. SAIC's McLean, Va. offices and SAIC headquarters in San Diego, Calif. are each contributing $75,000 to the corporate total. "Historically, our employee owners have come forward in the times of tragedy and natural disaster, because it's important to do what we can to help," said Beverly Kitaoka, general manager of SAIC's Training & Simulation Solutions business unit. "As a result of the three hurricanes that we endured this year, our workforce is particularly sympathetic to the plight of the tsunami victims, people from 11 countries who have suffered far beyond anything in our experience. Tsunami relief and re-building will be a long-term activity, and we're pleased to be able to contribute to this most worthy cause." SAIC employees from around the world immediately sought ways to help with relief efforts, and to find ways to support improved tsunami warning systems. Soon after the disaster, SAIC employees entered the tsunami-devastated region to help support relief-related projects, such as medical data management and communications. SAIC employees also have been available to customers as they determine their needs for environmental, ecological, and water resource support. Worldwide, SAIC employees have donated to relief efforts. In SAIC's Bangalore, India office, many employees contributed a day of wages and more to the relief effort. Additionally, SAIC experts in seismology, underwater acoustic signal processing, and emergency alert and response have been coming together throughout the company to find solutions for better tsunami warning and response. Much of SAIC's expertise in seismology and acoustics is used to support the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. SAIC designed and built the system and customized electronics in sensors used for the worldwide network of hydroacoustic stations that monitor the ocean for nuclear explosions. Also, SAIC provided all the software that enables the treaty's International Data Center (IDC) to receive, process and analyze hydroacoustic, infrasound, and seismic data from global networks that monitor below ground testing as well as testing in the oceans and the atmosphere. SAIC conducted an analysis of IDC's processing results of the earthquake that generated the tsunami, and the software for seismic data was used to locate the main shock and thousands of aftershocks. Moreover, data that came from SAIC-designed underwater sensors in Diego Garcia, 2,400 kilometers from the epicenter, was used to make sonograms of the earthquake and resulting tsunami. With established expertise in earthquake monitoring, underwater signal processing, ocean deployment, and emergency notification and planning, SAIC hopes to diminish the tragic consequences of future tsunamis. SAIC is the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the United States, providing information technology, systems integration and eSolutions to commercial and government customers. SAIC engineers and scientists work to solve complex technical problems in national and homeland security, energy, the environment, space, telecommunications, health care, and logistics. With annual revenues of nearly $7 billion, SAIC has more than 45,000 employees at offices in more than 150 cities worldwide. More information about SAIC can be found at http://www.saic.com. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Fri Mar 11 14:55:02 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 09:55:02 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC likely to lose its FBI contract Message-ID: <20050311095330.J5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> March 11, 2005 SAIC likely to lose its FBI contract http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20050311-9999-1b11fbi.html --- Problems with software are thought unsolvable By Bruce V. Bigelow UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER March 11, 2005 The FBI has made plans to replace the troubled software program developed by San Diego's SAIC to help the bureau manage investigations and track terrorists. In discussing the plan Tuesday before a panel of the House Appropriations Committee, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said he has taken steps to avoid the pitfalls that have made SAIC's software practically unuseable. Advertisement The FBI director all but said he has decided to terminate SAIC's $170 million contract to provide the software, known as the Virtual Case File system. "We expect our new project will take about 3 years to complete," Mueller said, according to a transcript of the hearing in Washington, D.C. "It's a project that will be the successor to Virtual Case File." Mueller told the committee he could not yet provide a pricetag for the new project, temporarily called "Project Z" by the FBI. The new program would be designed on a modular basis, with separate program components that could be updated with new technology that would not require redesigning the entire software package, Mueller said. Some commercially available, off-the-shelf technology would be adopted to handle certain office needs, such as finances, records and workflow management. "What we are doing in the next month or so is putting out or identifying the plan so that we can go out to contractors," Mueller said. "And our hope is that by sometime this summer, we'll have identified the costs." Jared Adams, a spokesman for SAIC, also known as Science Applications International Corp., declined to comment yesterday. SAIC continues to operate under its contract with the FBI, which was revised last year. The company provided a pared-down version of the Virtual Case File program to the FBI in December, and the bureau has been evaluating the software in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans. Mueller told Congress last month that bureau officials were trying to determine how much of the program might be salvaged. But Mueller did not seem to offer much hope in his public testimony this week. "I am tremendously disappointed that we did not come through with Virtual Case File," he told the committee. "Our ability to handle a project like that was not what I thought it was," Mueller said. "It's my fault for not having put the appropriate persons in position to review that contract and assure that it was on track." Independent outside specialists looked at the program, Mueller said, and "came back with the conclusion that it was not scaleable, that the engineering was not what it should be in order to make it the effective tool for the FBI and requires us now to go a different route." The Virtual Case File software was the third and final element in a three-part program, known as Trilogy, that has run up an overall pricetag of nearly $600 million since the contracts were awarded during summer 2001. Trilogy was intended to overhaul the FBI's outdated computers and paper files with a secure high-speed network. But the system requirements used by the government to solicit bids for the Trilogy program changed significantly following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "We came to recognize that there were a number of capabilities that we needed that we did not anticipate needing prior to Sept. 11," Mueller told the panel. As a result, the computer system that began as an investigative case management system was changing as a work in progress to meet the global terrorism threat. SAIC executives told reporters last month the agency had a parade of program managers and demanded too many design changes. During 15 months that SAIC worked on the program, 19 government managers were involved and 36 contract modifications were ordered. The first two parts of the Trilogy program have been completed, Mueller said. "We have completely transformed the infrastructure with the hardware that we brought on board with the FBI," he said. "We have more than 330,000 computers we've brought in. The hardware that accompanies them, the upgrading and the operating system was one piece of Trilogy that was successfully undertaken and went in on time." The baone of the Trilogy program, which called for the installation of classified local-area networks and wide-area networks also was successfully accomplished, Mueller said. Mueller told the panel the FBI has gained tremendous additional capabilities since Sept. 11. But he also indicated just how limited some of the bureau's capabilities are. "Our agents are still with a green-screen interface for the most part to our case information, which makes it difficult for them to get it," Mueller said. "It's not the GUI (Graphical User Interface) Web-based interface that we are all used to. That is my biggest disappointment." Bruce Bigelow: (619) 293-1314; bruce.bigelow at uniontrib.com From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Tue Mar 15 13:21:59 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 08:21:59 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] (no subject) Message-ID: <20050315082117.Q5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> MARCH 14, 2005 $170 Million Lesson http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/story/0,10801,100335,00.html --- Opinion by Frank Hayes MARCH 14, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Last week, the FBI announced that its Virtual Case File project is dead. That means the $170 million spent since mid-2001 isn't buying the FBI a better way to share information among its agents about ongoing investigations. Instead, the FBI gets what we call a "learning experience." Fortunately, the FBI does seem to have learned some things. Instead of throwing even more money at the same idea -- a custom-built case-handling system -- the FBI is now looking at other options, such as an off-the-shelf system the FBI can buy and modify to get it working for users sooner. The FBI is also shaking everything useful it can out of the failed project. There's an enterprise architecture in place now, and an IT road map, and technical standards. Going forward, there will be new contracting practices, along with all the user requirements and domain knowledge gleaned from this false start. Maybe most important, once it became clear that the software delivered last December by Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) wasn't going to do what the bureau needed, FBI Director Robert Mueller publicly pulled the plug. And it took the FBI only three months to make the decision. In big-project-killing time, that's nearly instantaneous. Acknowledge the failure, salvage what you can from the wreckage, try a different approach next time: three good lessons for the FBI to absorb. Will they stick? We'll see. Meanwhile, what about SAIC, the contractor that took more than three years to deliver software that didn't do the job for the FBI? Has it learned, too? Here's one clue: SAIC won't even admit that Virtual Case File is dead, despite the FBI director's testimony before Congress. The software is still being tested, SAIC insists. It'll be three months or so before the FBI makes a decision. Besides, says SAIC, the Sept. 11 attacks forced changes on the project's requirements. And the FBI kept changing CIOs and project managers. And what the FBI called software deficiencies were really more changes in requirements. And users kept rejecting SAIC's software designs, taking what one SAIC executive complained was a "trial-and-error, we-will-know-it-when-we-see-it approach to development." Uh, guys? Stop tap dancing. You'll still get your money. SAIC also says it was the one that finally convinced the FBI to give up its original big-bang grand plan and go for an incremental approach, building on legacy systems and rolling out capabilities as they became available. No question, that's the right way to do it. Unfortunately, SAIC came up with this approach in mid-2004, three years into the project. Things should have been run that way from the beginning. And from the beginning, SAIC should have known that a user-facing IT project today is bound to require lots of prototyping, lots of users kicking the prototypes around and lots of requirements redrafting. If the FBI didn't understand that -- well, that's why the bureau hired outside experts, isn't it? And in the frantic days after Sept. 11, SAIC should have spotted that stable requirements for this project just weren't in the cards. The FBI needed results in the face of a crisis. SAIC should have shifted gears and methodologies to start producing working deliverables right away, no matter how far the project was from a complete set of requirements. That's not the way government IT projects are traditionally built. That approach is messy, unpredictable and sometimes wasteful. And it demands a lot from both users and contractors. No wonder both SAIC and the FBI shied away from it. But it's an approach that delivers what's needed: results, fast and useful, in the face of the crisis instead of years later. If the FBI can absorb that lesson, maybe this $170 million learning experience will turn out to be money well spent after all. Frank Hayes, Computerworld's senior IT columnist, has covered IT for more than 20 years. Contact him at frank_hayes at computerworld.com. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Wed Mar 16 02:07:36 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 21:07:36 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC sells Telcordia to Providence and Warburg for $1.35B Message-ID: <20050315210722.D5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> March 15, 2005 SAIC sells Telcordia to Providence and Warburg for $1.35B http://lw.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=223285&p=13 --- March 15, 2005 San Diego, CA -- Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a research and engineering firm, today completed the sale of its wholly-owned subsidiary Telcordia Technologies, a provider of telecommunications software and services, to an affiliate of Providence Equity Partners (Providence) and Warburg Pincus (Warburg) for approximately $1.35 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments. "Telcordia and its employees are poised to make meaningful contributions to an exciting and dynamic industry," remarks Ken Dahlberg, SAIC chairman and CEO. "We believe its value will be greatly enhanced by new ownership under Providence and Warburg, and that SAIC received a fair purchase price that reflects Telcordia's bright prospects." SAIC purchased Telcordia from the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) in November 1997. "The sale will strengthen SAIC's balance sheet and better enable us to pursue more focused strategic initiatives," concludes Dahlberg. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Wed Mar 16 02:09:09 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 21:09:09 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Pinkerton Government Services and SAIC Announce Marketing Relationship Message-ID: <20050315210745.S5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> Tuesday March 15, 11:18 am ET Pinkerton Government Services and SAIC Announce Marketing Relationship http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050315/cgtu048_2.html --- SPRINGFIELD, Va., March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Pinkerton Government Services ("PGS") and Science Applications International Corporation ("SAIC") announced today, that they are combining resources in a strategic relationship to provide innovative, comprehensive, high technology, security solutions to federal government clients. PGS and SAIC possess unique and complementary skill sets for performing the work required to assist in enhancing our nation's security and providing for the physical protection of federal government installations and infrastructure. Ron Harper, Chief Executive Officer for Pinkerton Government Services, Inc. said that, "We are excited about our new relationship with SAIC and look forward to working together to offer our customers the strongest security solutions team in the business." The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 heightened awareness of the need for increased investment in U.S. national security. Enhancement of the level of preparedness for major U.S. government installations and critical infrastructure such as nuclear utilities, nuclear fuel cycle and weapons facilities, research and development facilities, and military installations is a costly and complicated undertaking. PGS and SAIC feel that this relationship positions them to provide the integrated, cost effective, and comprehensive solutions that are so essential to success in this critical area. "SAIC is pleased to have this new relationship with PGS. We are confident that the SAIC/PGS team offers our clients the best and most comprehensive integrated security solutions available," said Steve Selecman, SAIC Vice President for Operations. SAIC is a recognized leader in national and homeland security solutions, supporting federal critical infrastructure protection initiatives with technologies and expertise such as threat, intelligence, and investigation services; vulnerability and security risk assessments; development, design and installation of physical security systems; security programs, policies and procedures; training and emergency management. In addition to being named the #1 Systems Integrator for the Federal Government (Government Executive, 8/2003), SAIC received the Frost and Sullivan award for market leadership in homeland security in both 2003 and 2004. It is the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the United States, providing information technology, systems integration and eSolutions to commercial and government customers. More information about SAIC can be found at http://www.saic.com . Pinkerton Government Services is a company dedicated to providing "government regulated" security services. Their expertise and abilities include armed and unarmed guard services, guard service management, fire services, technical security services such as console operations and canine bomb detection, and administrative security services such as badge and visitor management. They have a full services agreement with Securitas, a global security leader with more than 200,000 employees worldwide and the largest security provider in the United States. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.pgs-usa.com. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Mar 17 13:32:31 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 08:32:31 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC completes Telcordia sale Message-ID: <20050317083221.V5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> March 16, 2005 SAIC completes Telcordia sale http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20050316-9999-1b16calbrfs.html --- San Diego-based SAIC said it has completed the sale of Telcordia Technologies, its New Jersey telecommunications subsidiary, for roughly $1.35 billion in cash. Telcordia was acquired by the investment firms Providence Equity Partners and Warburg Pincus. SAIC's chairman and CEO, Ken Dahlberg, said the sale will strengthen SAIC's balance sheet and better enable the company to pursue more focused strategic initiatives. SAIC acquired the business previously known as Bellcore from the regional Bell operating companies in November 1997. Also... Pinkerton, SAIC form alliance Virginia-based Pinkerton Government Services and Science Applications International Corp. have formed a strategic relationship to provide high technology security services to federal agencies. Financial terms were not disclosed. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Fri Mar 18 13:48:40 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 08:48:40 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] $119M Takes 891,000-SF Telcordia Campus Message-ID: <20050318084645.I5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> March 16, 2005 03:32pm $119M Takes 891,000-SF Telcordia Campus http://www.globest.com/news/243_243/newjersey/132233-1.html --- PISCATAWAY, NJ-Investment firm WP Carey & Co. has acquired the headquarters campus of Telcordia Technologies Inc. for $119.3 million. The sale of the six-building, 891,319-sf campus encompassing office, lab and related space factors out to just under $134 per sf. Telcordia will stay in and maintain control over the facilities under a long-term sale-leaseback deal that includes multiple renewal options. The sale of the campus was related to a larger deal that closed earlier this week in which private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Providence Equity Partners acquired Telcordia, a telecommunications software and services firm, from parent Science Applications International Corp. Warburg Pincus and Providence Equity are co-partners in the company's acquisition, the terms of which were not disclosed. Cushman & Wakefield's investment banking division structured and placed the transaction on behalf of the sellers. Indeed, the co-buyers of Telcordia used the cash from the sale of the campus to help close the acquisition, according to Larry Bettino, a managing director at Warburg Pincus. "This sale-leaseback transaction proved to be an important component in our overall acquisition financing." "By converting Telcordia.s real estate assets into cash, we were able to maximize our bid and in the end win the deal." Bettino continues. "The ability to execute the transaction was crucial in the success of this deal." This transaction "reflects how private equity firms can utilize sale-leaseback financing to fund major acquisitions," says Jason Fox, a director at the New York City-based WP Carey. His company bought the asset on behalf of Corporate Property Associates 16-Global Inc., a member of the $7-billion WP Carey Group of income-generating, publicly held, non-traded REITs. "Over the years, private equity firms have come to realize the benefits of converting the real estate assets of their current and future portfolio companies into working capital." Telcordia provides software and services for IP, wireline, wireless and cable. Besides its headquarters campus here, the company has offices throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Central and Latin America. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Tue Mar 22 13:16:19 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2005 08:16:19 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Bluesocket Signs Joint Marketing Agreement with SAIC to Secure Wireless Networks Message-ID: <20050322081549.A5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> March 21, 2005 09:11 AM US Eastern Timezone Bluesocket Signs Joint Marketing Agreement with SAIC to Secure Wireless Networks http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050321005546&newsLang=en --- BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 2005-- New Alliance to Offer Wireless LAN Security Solutions in Government and Commercial Sectors Bluesocket, Inc., (www.bluesocket.com) a leader in open wireless security and management solutions, today announced that it has signed a joint marketing agreement with SAIC of San Diego, Calif., the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the United States. The two companies will jointly market WiFi services and technology for easy management and WiFi network security certified by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Bluesocket's Wireless LAN (WLAN) technology meets the highest government standards for encryption, transparent authentication, single sign-on, and secure mobility. By leveraging Bluesocket's technology, SAIC can strengthen further its ability to provide customers with best-of-breed solutions for Mobile Workforce Automation and Remote Access Network Services. "This alliance enables Bluesocket and SAIC to creatively and collaboratively identify, qualify, and close new business opportunities by leveraging the core competencies of both companies," said Wayne Preschel, Bluesocket's director of Systems Integration for Federal Sales. "With Bluesocket, SAIC can provide clients with a simple, secure, and reliable trust boundary to their wireless LAN infrastructure." Bluesocket's WLAN solutions secure and control WiFi networks and provide universal authentication, Secure Mobility(R) and policy and bandwidth management. Bluesocket customers can secure their critical information while giving their employees and partners the flexibility to access the information remotely with wireless devices. Bluesocket's real-time monitoring of WiFi users' data detects malicious traffic based on the users' actual behavior. This lets administrators automatically block network access to hackers or worm infected users well before traditional signature-based tools have updates available. "SAIC has completed installation of Bluesocket's policy-based WLAN security and management solution in our Public Safety Integration Center which complies with the DoD's 8100.2 Wireless Directive and NIST's FIPS 140-2 certification," said Robert Phoebus, director of the Wireless Systems Division for SAIC's Telecommunications Services Business Unit. In December, Bluesocket joined SAIC's Public Safety Integration Center, a testing and demonstration facility that is used to illustrate the successful integration of capabilities and expertise from SAIC with vendors, service providers and the federal government to suit specific customer needs. About SAIC Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) is the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the United States, providing information technology, systems integration and eSolutions to commercial and government customers. SAIC engineers and scientists work to solve complex technical problems in national and homeland security, energy, the environment, space, telecommunications, health care, transportation and logistics. With annual revenues of nearly $7 billion, SAIC and its subsidiaries, including Telcordia Technologies, have more than 45,000 employees at offices in more than 150 cities worldwide. More information about SAIC can be found at www.saic.com. About Bluesocket, Inc. Founded in 1999, Bluesocket is the leader in open wireless security and management solutions that simplify the complexities of mobile enterprises. Thousands of Bluesocket Wireless Gateways are deployed by leading enterprises including Harvard University, Honeywell, Universal Health Services, Toyota, Parker Hannifin and others who require policy-based, open-systems solutions to secure, manage, and profit from their wireless networks. (www.bluesocket.com) Secure Mobility, BlueSecure and BlueView are trademarks or registered trademarks of Bluesocket, Inc. All other trademarks, trade names and company names referenced herein are used for identification only and are the property of their respective companies. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Tue Mar 22 21:24:55 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2005 16:24:55 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] United States Air Force Awards SAIC and Eagle Broadband Contract for Eagle's SatMAX Non-Line-of-Sight Satellite Communications Technology Message-ID: <20050322162333.D5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> March 22, 2005 10:15 AM US Eastern Timezone United States Air Force Awards SAIC and Eagle Broadband Contract for Eagle's SatMAX Non-Line-of-Sight Satellite Communications Technology http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050322005353&newsLang=en --- HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE) Scott Air Force Base to Use Exclusive Indoor Wireless Satellite Technology to Ensure Reliable Voice and Data Communications to Enhance Mission Effectiveness Eagle Broadband, Inc. (AMEX:EAG), a leading provider of broadband, Internet protocol (IP) and communications technology and services, announced today that Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and Eagle have been awarded a contract from the U.S. Air Force for Eagle's Satellite Media Access Extender (SatMAX(TM)) non-line-of-sight satellite communications technology which has been shipped for immediate deployment at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. Scott Air Force Base has purchased the SatMAX(TM) technology from SAIC and Eagle Broadband using SAIC's GSA schedule. Scott Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force joint command headquarters base that controls and directs missions that range from deploying troops for national defense to transporting the President of the United States. Under the terms of the contract award, SAIC and Eagle Broadband are providing Scott Air Force Base with a turnkey SatMAX(TM) solution including network design, installation, training and 24/7 support services. Scott Air Force Base plans to use Eagle's exclusive SatMAX(TM) technology to provide reliable voice and data communications via the Iridium satellite network in non-line-of-sight environments. Scott Air Force Base's deployment plan includes use of the SatMAX(TM) technology within a critical control center enabling multiple officers and personnel to use their existing Iridium satellite phones to concurrently make fully wireless, secure calls from inside the facility. The enhanced, non-line-of-sight satellite communications and wireless mobility made possible by the SatMAX(TM) can help ensure uninterrupted communications for Scott Air Force Base personnel and improve mission effectiveness with highly reliable ground-to-ground, ground-to-air and air-to-ground communications. Scott Air Force Base is home to the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) and the Air Mobility Command (AMC). Scott is also home to the 18th Air Force Headquarters, the 375th Airlift Wing, the 932nd Reserve Airlift Wing and the 126th Air National Guard Refueling Wing. The United States Transportation Command is the largest transportation enterprise in the world. As the single manager of America's global defense transportation system, USTRANSCOM is tasked with the coordination of people and transportation assets to allow our country to project and sustain forces whenever, wherever, and for as long as they are needed, in both times of peace and war. Air Mobility Command (AMC), the air component of USTRANSCOM, is also headquartered at Scott Air Force Base. The Air Mobility Command (AMC) has the primary mission for providing all of the armed services airlift, aerial refueling, special air missions and aeromedical evacuation. AMC also contracts and controls the command contracts for commercial airlifts for the Department of Defense. "The ability to provide secure, reliable communications from any location on Earth is more important than ever for the U.S. government and military," said Eric Kaiser, SAIC vice president, life cycle support services. "We look forward to teaming with Eagle Broadband to deploy Eagle's SatMAX(TM) technology to meet the critical communications needs of Scott Air Force Base as reflected in this contract and for other government and military customers around the world." Dave Weisman, Eagle Broadband chairman and CEO, commented, "We are honored that Scott Air Force Base has selected Eagle's SatMAX(TM) technology to enhance their communications and mission support. This contract award demonstrates how the SatMAX(TM) can be used to provide reliable, secure satellite communications in non-line-of-sight environments to support active operations and enhance mission effectiveness. We look forward to working with SAIC to assist Scott Air Force Base and other military customers improve their communications through use of the SatMAX(TM) technology." Eagle's exclusive SatMAX(TM) non-line-of-sight satellite communications technology enables military, government and enterprise customers to quickly and easily make reliable, fully wireless, voice and data communications available from any non-line-of-site location, including inside buildings or structures, onboard vehicles, aircraft or ships, from obstructed areas, etc. With the SatMAX(TM), users of the Iridium satellite network can use their existing satellite phones to make multiple concurrent calls within SatMAX-enabled "hotspot" areas from any location on Earth. The technology enables routine, mission critical and backup communications that can improve safety and security, emergency preparedness and response, user productivity, mobility, problem solving and mission support. For additional SatMAX(TM) product or ordering information, please call 800-628-3910 or send an email to SatMAXinfo at eaglebroadband.com. About SAIC SAIC is the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the United States, providing information technology, systems integration and eSolutions to commercial and government customers. SAIC engineers and scientists work to solve complex technical problems in national and homeland security, energy, the environment, space, telecommunications, health care, and logistics. With annual revenues of nearly $7 billion, SAIC and its subsidiaries, including Telcordia Technologies, have more than 45,000 employees at offices in more than 150 cities worldwide. More information about SAIC can be found at www.saic.com. About Eagle Broadband Eagle Broadband is a leading provider of broadband, Internet Protocol (IP) and communications technology and services that create new revenue opportunities for broadband providers and enhance communications for government, military and enterprise customers. Eagle leverages years of proven experience delivering advanced IP-based broadband bundled services to provide service provider partners with a way to deliver next-generation entertainment, communications and security services to their subscribers. The company's product offerings include IPTVComplete(TM), the fastest, lowest cost way for broadband providers to deliver the most competitive IP video services, the Media Pro line of HDTV-ready IP set-top boxes that enable broadband providers and hotel operators to maximize revenues by delivering state-of-the-art, interactive entertainment services and the SatMAX(TM) satellite communications system that provides government, military, homeland security and enterprise customers with reliable non-line-of-sight voice and data communications from any location on Earth. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas. For more information, please visit www.eaglebroadband.com or call 281-538-6000. (EAGG) Forward-looking statements in this release regarding Eagle Broadband, Inc., and SAIC are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, continued acceptance of the company's products, increased levels of competition, new products and technological changes, the company's dependence upon third-party suppliers, intellectual property rights, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Mar 24 22:52:23 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 17:52:23 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] BOEING: FCS Team Issues Final Requests for Proposals for Class II and III Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Message-ID: <20050324175202.P5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 23 March 2005 BOEING: FCS Team Issues Final Requests for Proposals for Class II and III Unmanned Aerial Vehicles http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=53964&src=0 --- /noticias.info/ ST LOUIS, March 22, 2005 . Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), as the Lead Systems Integrator team for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, recently released separate Requests for Proposals for development of FCS Class II and III Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems. Industry participants will have 30 days in which to respond with contract awards anticipated in early August. A phased acquisition approach will be implemented for Class II and III development efforts, working collaboratively with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Multiple contracts will be awarded in early August 2005 for Phase I, involving technology and risk reduction demonstrations. Phase II will include flight, logistics and training demonstrations of both industry- and DARPA-developed systems. Candidates will be evaluated for their suitability to meet FCS requirements during a 24-month concept maturation phase, which will result in down-selects for the final phase of System Design and Development when the LSI and Army will select the best-value solution for Class II and III systems. "Leveraging best-of-industry solutions and current government development efforts will yield innovative, affordable and technologically superior UAV systems," said Mark Franzblau, FCS UAV integrated product team leader. "Such systems will dramatically enhance situational awareness and soldier survivability on the battlefield." The Class II UAV system will provide reconnaissance, security/early warning, target acquisition and designation at the company level in support of line-of-sight, beyond line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight engagements. It will be vehicle mounted, capable of taking off and landing in unimproved areas and provide enhanced dedicated imagery, accomplishing its mission while being cued remotely by Army personnel. The Class III UAV system will have greater endurance and a larger payload-carrying capacity than the Class II system. It will be a multifunction aerial combat support system capable of providing reconnaissance, communications relay, security/early warning, target acquisition and designation at the battalion level. The Class III system also will provide remote reconnaissance and terrain information, and be capable of taking off and landing in unimproved areas. Both FCS Class II and III UAV systems, once operational, will be deployed with the first full FCS-equipped unit of action beginning in 2014. SAIC is the nation's largest employee-owned research and engineering company, providing information technology, systems integration and eSolutions to commercial and government customers. SAIC engineers and scientists work to solve complex technical problems in national and homeland security, energy, the environment, space, telecommunications, health care, transportation and logistics. With annual revenues of nearly $7 billion, SAIC and its subsidiaries, including Telcordia Technologies, have more than 45,000 employees at offices in more than 150 cities worldwide. More information about SAIC can be found at www.saic.com. A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world's largest space and defense businesses. Headquartered in St. Louis , Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $30.5 billion business. It provides network-centric system solutions to its global military, government, and commercial customers. It is a leading provider of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems; the world's largest military aircraft manufacturer; the world's largest satellite manufacturer and a leading provider of space-based communications; the primary systems integrator for U.S. missile defense; NASA's largest contractor; and a global leader in sustainment solutions and launch services. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Mar 24 22:54:26 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 17:54:26 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Anatomy of an IT disaster: How the FBI blew it Message-ID: <20050324175400.N5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> 24 March 2005 Anatomy of an IT disaster: How the FBI blew it http://www.techworld.com/storage/features/index.cfm?featureid=1283 --- How not to create create electronic documents By Eric Knorr, InfoWorld (US) Some U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents ruefully refer to the trilogy project, a massive initiative to modernize the FBI's aging technology infrastructure, as the "Tragedy" project. It certainly has all the earmarks of tragedy: the best intentions, catastrophic miscommunication, staggering waste. Trilogy, as the name suggests, had three parts: an enterprisewide upgrade of desktop hardware and software; deployment of a modern network infrastructure; and an integrated suite of software for entering, finding, sharing, and analyzing case information. In a congressional hearing last month, FBI Director Robert Mueller was careful to note that the first two parts of Trilogy have been completed: no less than 30,000 computers, 4,000 printers, 1,600 scanners, 465 servers, and 1,400 routers were deployed as of April 2004. After more than four years of hard work and half a billion dollars spent, however, Trilogy has had little impact on the FBI's antiquated case-management system, which today remains a morass of mainframe green screens and vast stores of paper records. As Senator Judd Gregg observed, "the software, which runs the hardware, is a huge problem." The problem with that software, known as VCF (Virtual Case File), is that it isn't in production and may never be. VCF may be one of the most extreme examples of requirements bloat in IT history. What began as a fairly modest software project swelled into an all-encompassing replacement for a panoply of woefully outmoded applications and procedures. Along the way, the FBI went through five different CIOs, 10 project managers, and 36 contract changes. The result, said Senator Patrick Leahy at February's Senate Appropriations Committee hearings, "has been a kind of train wreck in slow motion." Accounting for US$170 million of Trilogy's $581 million price tag, VCF fell afoul of extraordinary circumstances --notably, the Sept. 11 attacks, which piled enormous pressure onto the Trilogy project and altered the course of VCF dramatically. FBI representatives declined to be interviewed for this story. But thanks to the Senate hearings, a report from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and interviews with the FBI contractor that developed VCF, InfoWorld has been given a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a colossal IT failure. Green screens and filing cabinets Sen. Leahy offered another, more whimsical analogy for Trilogy: the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, in which Bill Murray wakes up each morning to relive the same day. Since 1997, proposals for modernizing the FBI's technology and processes have emerged again and again, culminating with Trilogy. Trilogy itself then underwent a cyclic series of evaluations and funding requests until Congress finally learned that its third leg, VCF, might never materialize. For the foreseeable future, that leaves the FBI with its obsolete, mainframe-based ACS (Automated Case Support) system, which requires the user to traverse a dozen 3270 green screens to upload a single document. Worse, according to the OIG's report, "the ACS only serves as a backup to the FBI's paper file system (and) information within that system cannot be changed or updated." By the year 2000, aging infrastructure alone -- including 386-based desktop PCs and 12-year-old interoffice networks -- was hobbling the FBI. In September 2000, the FBI proposed FITUP (FBI Information Technology Upgrade Project), for which Congress allocated $379.8 million, spread over an estimated three-year effort. Two months later the project was divided into three parts and renamed Trilogy. Trilogy's requirements for desktop hardware and network infrastructure stayed relatively stable throughout the life of the project (although an additional $100 million was allocated to accelerate completion, to no avail). The software portion was a different story. What we now know as VCF was preceded by Trilogy's original and quite different proposal, UAC (User Applications Component). The objective of UAC was simple: "Webify" five of the 42 mainframe applications employed by FBI agents in the course of investigations. On the face of it, this seems like a sensible first step toward modernization, but it can also be seen as the crucial error of the entire Trilogy project. Putting a pretty front end on green screens did nothing to change the underlying processes, in which paper records were primary. Also, according to the OIG report, the choice of which applications to Webify was not based on objective research and evaluation. Instead, FBI IT managers simply picked the five applications used most often by agents. Disastrous turns The FBI realized it didn't have the internal IT expertise to pull off Trilogy. So in mid-2001, it contracted with DynCorp (later purchased in early 2003 by consulting giant Computer Sciences Corp.) for the desktop and infrastructure components and SAIC (Science Applications International Corp.) for the software. Only a few months after the ink was dry on these contracts, the Sept. 11 tragedy struck, reshaping the mission of the FBI. No longer would the Bureau be concerned merely with law enforcement. Instead, to protect against terrorism on U.S. soil, the FBI needed to get into the intelligence business. This shift turned the requirements for UAC inside out. Instead of beautifying old mainframe apps, the charter changed to replacing those applications with a new, collaborative environment for gathering, sharing, and analyzing evidence and intelligence data. "About six months into the contract, SAIC was essentially told by the FBI that 'we really want to change what you're doing on this contract,' " recounts SAIC Group President Mark Hughes. " 'Set aside the work you've done to date and what we'd like you to do is work with us to build a brand new case-management system for the FBI. And by the way, we don't have any requirements for that yet, so we need you to work with us to help develop those requirements.' " According to Hughes, those requirements were almost impossible to nail down, because the FBI's new mission set in motion a rolling transformation of internal processes. One requirement was a so-called "flash cutover." In other words, says Hughes, "you build this big system, and when it's ready, you turn the old one off and you turn the new one on. To anybody who knows anything about big systems, that's a very risky way to introduce a new system." SAIC claims that it pushed back on this and other unrealistic requirements. At the time, however, SAIC had a cost-plus-award contract. According to Gartner Fellow John Pescatore, these types of contracts estimate the real cost of a project and add a profit margin that is awarded annually to the contractor -- in full, in part, or not at all, depending on the government's rating of the contractor's performance for that year. "So here's what happens," Pescatore says. "In the beginning, you never want to say no, because you'll get a bad rating. It essentially incents the contractor to be much more accepting of out-of-scope changes. It's kind of like a mass-suicide pact, except you're hoping a miracle is going to occur later on." The prototype from hell At the February 2005 hearing, Mueller said that the FBI delivered "finalized" requirements for VCF in June 2002, which included integrating the functionality of the five original ACS applications with the new system. But according to Hughes, the changes kept coming at a rate of more than one per day. Cli ck for larger view. What followed was the mother of all misunderstandings. In 2002, Hughes says, SAIC offered a proposal identifying December 2003 as the deployment date for VCF. He maintains, though, that as the changes rolled in, SAIC alerted the FBI that the cost and delivery date would be seriously affected. Ultimately, instead of a final version, what SAIC delivered in December 2003 was an incomplete system for evaluation. The result, according to Hughes, was consternation. "Apparently the communication about what was going on in the project had not gone up the chain in the FBI and in (the Department of) Justice and in Congress;" he says, "and when we didn't actually deploy a completed system in December 2003, there was a lot of surprise at those levels." Mueller voiced his bitter disappointment over the December version of VCF in the hearings. "When SAIC delivered the first product in December 2003, we immediately identified a number of deficiencies, 17 at the outset. That soon cascaded to 50 or more and ultimately to 400 problems with that software." Hughes still bristles at having that prototype tested as a final version, but he does admit to some culpability. "That tells you one thing we should have done better: talking at every level in the government to make sure everybody was on the same page." Downsized delivery In January 2004, the FBI hired a new acting CIO, Zalmai Azmi, its fifth in four years. Azmi officially took the CIO job in May 2004. An intense back-and-forth between Azmi and SAIC ensued during the first half of that year, with SAIC determined to nail down an unchanging set of requirements and Azmi pushing for delivery based on a contract that was performance-based, rather than cost-plus-award. Both parties got their wish in June 2004, when Azmi and SAIC worked out a two-track plan. In December 2004, SAIC would deliver an IOC (initial operating capability), a workflow application that would automate the case-management document approval process. According to the OIG report, the FOC (full operating capability) was simply a new effort to "identify new requirements for developing a functional case management system to replace the ACS." The IOC delivery is still a source of pride for Hughes. "That system contained 100 percent of the requirements that the customer said they wanted in the IOC system," he says. The IOC system is currently being field-tested, but the FBI's take on it was somewhat different. At the hearings, Mueller and Azmi repeatedly alluded to a still-classified report by the nonprofit Aerospace Corporation that tallied up a long list of deficiencies in the IOC. Azmi also stated that the IOC represents only one-tenth of the VCF's intended capability, a claim that SAIC Executive Vice President Arnold Punaro rejected in interviews with reporters after the hearing, arguing that VCF never had a baseline to begin with. Groundhog Day redux As SAIC labored on the IOC, still other plans were afoot. In September 2004, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security began planning an interagency FICMS (Federal Investigative Case Management System) that would make the still-unfinished VCF obsolete. The FICMS proposal sends FBI case management back to the drawing board at a time when, according to Hughes, SAIC's version of the VCF is further along than it may appear. "There are other capabilities that we have already designed and coded, and in fact the code is actually embedded in the IOC system -- but we turned it off and didn't test it or integrate it, because they didn't want it as part of the IOC." Hughes estimates it will take three years for FICMS to become a working system. Meanwhile, he says, tests have already proven that SAIC's system, if deployed in stages, can scale to do what the FBI needs it to do. "I think it's crazy not to deploy it, regardless of how they want to go in the future," he says. Today, however, everything remains uncertain. The pilot program for the IOC ends this month. The FBI says it will award a contract for the development of FICMS next month. If it does, then the FBI will likely abandon VCF. After the fact, members of the Appropriations Committee have raised many objections to the way the VCF project proceeded: off-the-shelf software should have been considered, management should have been more forthright about problems, SAIC should have had its feet held to the fire. The reality, though, is that IT backwaters like the FBI can't modernize without an extensible enterprise architecture, which the FBI admits it's only beginning to develop. Meanwhile, Gartner's Pescatore says only 76 percent of FBI personnel are using secure e-mail. Such outrages mean that, before any grand architecture rolls out, point solutions such as VCF must have their day. Side bar interview Peeking under the hood of VCF The details of how the FBI does its business and the systems that support the bureau are classified. Nonetheless, Executive Editor at Large Eric Knorr did his best to get a rough description of VCF (Virtual Case File) -- the $170 million system that never launched -- from SAIC Group President Mark Hughes and Technical Director Frank Perry. EK: I know I'm not going to get a diagram, but can you thumbnail it in words? Frank Perry: Without going into any details, I think what you would find is a pretty standard, three-tier, Web-based, enterprise-scale application for an enterprise of tens of thousands of people. EK: Java-based? FP: Yes. EK: The most alarming thing I heard about this project was the "flash cutover." I imagine on the back end of that three-tier architecture you would still integrate with the legacy system; you wouldn't just shut down all the old mainframes. Or was that what was planned? Mark Hughes: That's what was planned initially, but when they decided to do the incremental deployment, it's just as you say. In fact, the IOC system has been integrated to some degree with their legacy systems, called ACS. EK: How did you integrate with the mainframes? Did you use screen scraping? FP: I don't think we can go into too much detail, but at the level that we did the integration for the IOC capability -- it's a data-level integration. EK: Can you say anything about the security? MH: All I can say about security is that the security requirements of the FBI are really quite unique. On the one hand, they're dealing with pressures to share information. On the other hand, there are sources and methods and things like that, which really need to be classified. And then the FBI had some espionage problems, like the (Robert Philip) Hanssen case, where an insider was using their systems to get information. So the systems have to be designed to deal with that kind of thing, too. EK: Would it be fair to characterize the security as identity based? FP: I don't think we can really get into that. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Fri Mar 25 01:50:43 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 20:50:43 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Scrapped Computer Program Leaves FBI Wanting Message-ID: <20050324204852.X5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> Thursday, March 24, 2005 Scrapped Computer Program Leaves FBI Wanting http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151421,00.html --- By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos FBI Ditches Carnivore Surveillance System WASHINGTON -- Some homeland security experts and lawmakers are wondering how a post-Sept. 11 promise to improve the nation.s intelligence-gathering capabilities hit a monumental snag this month as the FBI (search) announced it is scrapping a $170 million computer overhaul after nearly four years in the making. "If you can't get the simple things right and on time, what does that say about your ability to deal with the larger problem of defending the country against terrorists?" asked Charles Pena, director of defense policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. The FBI said it plans to scrap the multi-million dollar Virtual Case File (search) project, which was built to create a massive, integrated software system for agents to access and share case files and other resources. The agency's inspector general announced in February that the program just isn't capable of delivering. FBI Director Robert Mueller (search) ultimately took responsibility for the debacle, even though he told congressional members he blames, in part, the contractors who worked on the job and internal managers. "Our ability to handle a project like that was not what I thought it was," Mueller told the House Appropriations Committee on March 8. "It's my fault for not having put the appropriate persons in position to review that contract and assure it was on track." Virtual Case File is the last and largest of three phases in the FBI's "Trilogy" project, which was started before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to upgrade the FBI's communication networks, hardware and software. The last component -- to replace the agency's antiquated investigative applications to allow agents to access and share case information -- was greatly enhanced after the attacks. But after many fits and starts and despite hopes to get it on track, Virtual Case File -- which critics say was a key element in addressing intelligence-sharing concerns outlined by the Sept. 11 commission (search) -- still did not function three-and-a-half years after its genesis. "How do you get to the point where you spend three years on something as vital as this to national security only to figure out that it's not going to work?" Pena asked. "When you hear things like this it is just so disheartening." Mueller said the agency will go forward with the network overhaul, but it will be a different program, and won't necessarily use the current Virtual Case File contractor, Science Applications International Corp., a major federal government contractor based in San Diego. Members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees say they are disappointed that so much money was spent -- much of the $170 million was an increase over initial projections -- with nothing to show for it, and vowed to keep closer tabs on the new project. "My disappointment with the extreme waste of taxpayer dollars -- over $100 million -- is surpassed only by my frustration over the fact that we now do not know when the FBI will have this critical case management system in place," said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies, which held the initial hearing on the FBI fiasco in February. "Apoplectic would be too mild a description of my reaction to the unraveling of the Trilogy project -- or the Tragedy project, as some FBI agents have taken to calling it," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said during the subcommittee hearing. "Our highest priority must be to protect the American people. To do its job effectively, the FBI must have state-of-the-art technology that works." In its defense, SAIC contractors told Congress the project suffered from constantly shifting mission changes, which SAIC attempted to keep up with, as well as an aggressive timetable to get the final phase operating. It was further hindered by a lack of consistency in management oversight within the bureau, a fact the FBI fully acknowledged hobbled SAIC's efforts. Steve DelBianco, vice president of public policy at the Association for Competitive Technology, and a former owner of a small information technology firm that designed pilot programs for system overhauls much like the FBI's, said the agency seemed to have jumped into this massive endeavor without prototypes that would have helped prevent the mess. "Unfortunately, if you go straight from design to implementation, where then is the logical point where you say this isn't really going to solve our problem?" he asked. "I think they put the cart before the horse." That kind of behavior is typical for government, said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens for Government Waste, which has documented several recent aborted system overhauls in the federal government. "Some of them are difficult to put together, some are overly-ambitious and many of them are poorly managed," he said. "The problem is more endemic in government because of the lack of a bottom line and the lack of concern in general about how much money is being spent, and the lack of accountability." James Carafano, national security expert with the Heritage Foundation, said this proves the FBI "shouldn't be in charge of information-sharing" among the intelligence community. However, Carafano said he believes this latest disaster shouldn't have a huge impact on the ability of the FBI to get urgent business done. "Where there is a will, there's a way. There's information-sharing all over the FBI," he said. "A lot of it is by phone and fax and carrier pigeon, but it's being done." Mueller told Congress that the agency is far from relying on carrier pigeons. Since Sept. 11, the agency has developed the ability to receive and disseminate intelligence electronically within the FBI and to the intelligence community and allows agents access to standardized intelligence information reports online. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Fri Mar 25 15:27:22 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 10:27:22 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] BIOCOM Announces New Board Officers and Board Members Message-ID: <20050325102640.A5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> Thursday March 24, 2:39 pm ET BIOCOM Announces New Board Officers and Board Members http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050324/lath069_4.html --- SAN DIEGO, March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- BIOCOM, the association representing the life science community in Southern California, is pleased to announce its new board officers, as well as the addition of five new members to its board, which consists of 50 of the top life science leaders in the region. "Our board reflects and represents the leadership and abilities of the life science community in Southern California," said Joe Panetta, president and chief executive officer of BIOCOM. "Our board has been through tremendous evolution and these additions mark a new generation of involved executives that will guide and direct our community for the future." Jack Lief of Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. will become the new chairman of BIOCOM's board. M. Wainwright Fishburn, Jr., a partner at Cooley Godward, LLP, will be vice chair, while Greg Lucier, the chairman, president and CEO of Invitrogen Corp. (Nasdaq: IVGN - News) will be the board's vice president for industry. Stephen Ferruolo, a shareholder with Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, LLP, will be the board's vice president and general counsel, while Susan Atkins, president and CEO of Atkins + Associates will be the vice president and secretary. New board members include Dana Di Ferdinando of Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), Larry Fitch of the San Diego Workforce Partnership, Dr. Mary Lyons of the University of San Diego, Randall Woods of NovaCardia Inc, and Dr. Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos of Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Jack Lief, the new chairman of the board for BIOCOM, is a co-founder of Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARNA - News) and has served as president and CEO of the company since April 1997. Prior to his tenure at Arena, Lief was a consultant to numerous biopharmaceutical companies. Lief has held a number of executive business development positions at Cephalon, Alpha Therapeutics and Abbott Laboratories. He currently serves on the board of TaiGen. Lief holds a B.A. from Rutgers University and a M.S. in psychology (experimental and neurobiology) from Lehigh University. Dana Di Ferdinando is currently the vice president and manager of the Advanced Technologies and Analytic Solutions Operation within SAIC. Di Ferdinando is general manager of a $45 million research and development organization that represents the third strategic business that she has run at SAIC. She also built and ran a successful business in the life sciences area focused on drug development IT solutions as well as a profitable business in applied mathematical solutions for the telecommunications industry. She received her B.S. in Computer Science from Rutgers University and her M.S. in Operations Research from Stanford University. Lawrence G. Fitch is president and CEO of the San Diego Workforce Partnership, Inc., which oversees a $40 million annual budget, funding job training and education programs throughout San Diego. Fitch has received numerous awards for his efforts, including recognition from the National Alliance of Business, the New England Training & Employment Council, and Jobs for America's Graduates. Fitch was recently re-elected Chair of the California Workforce Association, and is immediate past president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Workforce Development Council. He also serves on the executive committee for Lead and the board of directors for the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. Mary E. Lyons, Ph.D. became the president of the University of San Diego in July 2003. Before her present appointment, Dr. Lyons served as the president of the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota. Prior to this, she served as the president of the California Maritime Academy, a campus of the California State University in Vallejo, California. Previously, she was the Academic Dean and Professor of Rhetoric and Homiletics at the Franciscan School of Theology, Graduate Theological Union, in Berkeley, California. Dr. Lyons serves on a variety of academic, community and commercial boards throughout the country. Randall E. Woods is the president and CEO of NovaCardia Inc. Previously, Woods served nine years as the CEO of Corvas International, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company focused on cancer and cardiovascular disease. Prior to Corvas, Woods was president of Boehringer Mannheim's U.S. Pharmaceutical operations. Woods spent more than 20 years at Eli Lilly & Company in sales and marketing positions, which included responsibility for the marketing of $650 million in hospital products and the preparation for the launch of Lilly's anti-thrombolytic, ReoPro. Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D. has served as president and chief executive officer of Anadys Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: ANDS - News) since May 2000. From 1997 to 2000, he served at Aurora Biosciences. Previously, he was section head of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health and is an Onassis Scholar. In addition to Anadys and BIOCOM, he is also a member of the board of directors of Odyssey Thera. Dr. Xanthopoulos received his B.S. in Biology with honors from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and received both his M.S. in Microbiology and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Stockholm, Sweden. BIOCOM is a premiere life science industry association representing more than 450 member companies in San Diego and Southern California. The association focuses on initiatives that positively influence the growth of the life science industry, including capital formation, public policy, workforce development, and scientific discovery and development. For more information on BIOCOM or the San Diego regional life sciences community, please visit the organization's Web site at www.biocom.org, or contact our offices at 858-455-0300. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Sat Mar 26 04:53:13 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 23:53:13 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] SAIC wins $20 million contract Message-ID: <20050325235250.N5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> Friday, March 25, 2005 SAIC wins $20 million contract http://www.sddt.com/News/article.cfm?SourceCode=20050325tle --- Science Application International Corp. of San Diego is being awarded a $20 million indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to provide highly specialized intelligence analysis required by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center. From saic at vision.moundalexis.com Thu Mar 31 01:52:25 2005 From: saic at vision.moundalexis.com (saic at vision.moundalexis.com) Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 20:52:25 -0500 (EST) Subject: [saic] Verisign Recommended to Keep .com & .net Message-ID: <20050330205129.O5256-100000@vision.moundalexis.com> March 30, 2005 Verisign Recommended to Keep .com & .net http://it.slashdot.org/it/05/03/30/2330206.shtml?tid=95&tid=218 --- An Anonymous SAIC Employee writes "The 'independent' company hired by ICANN to advise them on who should run the .com and .net registry has recommended that Verisign (fact sheet) should be chosen to continue to run the registry. Is it any surprise? Telcordia was owned by SAIC (Fact Sheet) during the time the study was conducted. SAIC bought Telcordia (fact sheet) (then Bellcore) in Nov. 1997 and sold it March 15, 2005. Network Solutions was bought by SAIC in 1995 and sold in 2000. Also, Telcordia worked with Verisign on the ENUM project. Is the fox guarding the hen house?"