Do I dare to follow my dream?

This month’s blog posting is from our own Jane Maliszewski, Chair of WIT’s Programs Committee. This post focus on the upcoming WIT.Connect: Dreaming Big, Growing Big, Thursday September 18th, 6:00-8:30 PM at the Gannett Building, 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean. Register at: http://bit.ly/Z5QOOn. Please see her bio after the blog post.

 Do I dare to follow my dream?

Guest post by Jane Maliszewski

I met an energetic young woman at a tech event earlier this week and we got into a deep conversation about her career path. She's worked in several areas--HR, facilities, systems, project management--but her real love--I could sense from the intensity in her voice and expressiveness of her eyes-- was Business Analysis/ Business Requirements. 

She was animated as she spoke about how BA is not often done well and so many projects fail to meet customer expectations because the developer side and the customer side aren't talking the same language. As an IT executive for many years, I knew exactly what she was talking about! 

Her most enjoyable projects were the ones where she could serve in this conduit role, linking the customer needs with the product's development. She had even started some small workshops at her company to teach others how to do better requirements analysis. 

In our brief time together we didn't quite get to the point of framing out a dream to follow. But our upcoming WIT.Connect was definitely on my mind and I hope she will be there to gain inspiration and momentum on this passion that clearly drives her. 

On September 18^th WIT will have this amazing panel of successful women sharing the stories of their dreams, what matters to them, how they were challenged, persevered, and where they ended up. Like my new connection, who sees a gap that needs filling in requirements analysis, these women saw something that needed doing and followed that dream. 

Our panel: 

• Michele Bolos, Founder & CEO of NT Concepts, a technology and business solutions company, who has a passion for rewarding entrepreneurship


• Dr. Nicole Close, WIT Leadership Award and Founder & CEO at Empiristat, who carved out a unique niche in the bio-med field and is a serial entrepreneur


• Sabrina Hersi Issa, Founder & CEO at Be Bold Media, who combined her knowledge of technology and passion for advocacy into a conduit for civic engagement


• Jennifer Weiss, former publisher at 1105 Media, who followed her dream into a totally different career field as a salon owner

In coaching, we often encourage our clients to write down and speak out loud the thing they want to change, whether that is a fear to conquer or a goal to achieve. Putting it down on paper and sharing it with others is incredibly empowering. During our networking 'connect' time, everyone will have the opportunity to contribute to the "WIT Wall of Dreams" to share in black & white & color what matters to you, your dream. I hope that will be at least your first step towards making it your reality. 

WIT.Connect: Dreaming Big, Growing Big, Thursday September 18th, 6:00-8:30 PM at the Gannett Building, 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean. Register at: http://bit.ly/Z5QOOn.

 

Jane Maliszewski is an Executive Coach and founder of VAULT Associates, a consulting business providing leader development and organization effectiveness services to technology companies. She often works with leaders who want to develop Emotional and Social Intelligence competency to create positive changes in their professional and personal lives. Jane served 27 years as an officer in the US Army. She has Masters degrees in Business Administration and National Strategy, and advanced professional certification in Leadership Coaching, Organization Development, and Knowledge Management. Jane is a WIT Board member and Chair of the WIT Programs Committee. Favorite things -- besides helping people achieve their potential! -- are cooking and adventure travel.

“Easy to Find, Easy to Buy” – Envisioning the Next Step for Cloud Computing on IT Schedule 70

This month’s blog posting is from Mary Davie, you may remember her as one of the speakers on our June 19^th panel for Government Leaders at the Helm. Please see her bio after the blog post.

“Easy to Find, Easy to Buy” – Envisioning the Next Step for Cloud Computing on IT Schedule 70

Excerpted from Mary Davie’s “Great Government through Technology” GSA Blog

GSA has led efforts to create a 21st century government, including introducing cloud to federal agencies. We offer a variety of contract vehicles that help agencies streamline acquisition of cloud technologies, including IT Schedule 70, the Email as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs), and Government wide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC) like Alliant and Alliant Small Business.

As the cloud marketplace is maturing, we are seeing an increased focus on IT Schedule 70 as one of the main acquisition vehicles for agencies.

IT Schedule 70 is already the largest, most widely used IT acquisition vehicle in the federal government, and we are continuously looking to improve what it offers. One area we are exploring is looking for ways to help customers find and buy cloud services.

For example, we are considering the creation of a single Special Item Number (SIN) for all cloud services that would provide clear cloud technology differentiation for customers and improve ease of access to acquire cloud services. We recently released a request for information, seeking industry input on this idea.

IT Schedule 70 already offers cloud services, and our industry partners have cloud offerings in several SINs, so why create a new SIN?

Through customer dialogue and market research, an integrated team of acquisition, technology, and program experts across the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) has identified that there would be benefits to creating a Cloud SIN to all parties involved:

·     GSA Customers – Clear differentiation of cloud services vs. non-cloud IT products and services, and empowered cloud buying through better data

·     Industry Partners – Opportunity to market distinctive solutions and offerings on IT Schedule 70

·     Internal GSA Operations – Enable more granular reporting on cloud sales to enable decision making, and help our customers buy better through data

The goal of this new SIN would be to provide clear cloud technology differentiation and ease of customer access through systems such as eBuy and GSA Advantage!

Since SINs create logical categories of services within a Schedule, we envision the creation of a Cloud Computing Services SIN will provide a level of differentiation for customers that would more easily and clearly identify cloud services.  Additionally, GSA could establish a set of qualifying requirements that would help customers in identifying cloud services that meet acceptable standards around security, data, and other characteristics.

We are always looking for ways to make sure that doing business with us is as easy and reliable as possible. We believe that adding a Cloud Computing Services SIN would realign IT Schedule 70 cloud technology offerings to better reflect the current cloud computing market and satisfy customer needs.

The cloud market is sufficiently mature to offer differentiated and vetted cloud services through a single SIN, and this makes sense for both GSA customer agencies and industry partners. We are looking for feedback to make sure we get it right and look forward to the conversation. Read the RFI.

 Mary Davie’s Biography

Mary Davie is the Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Integrated Technology Services (ITS) in GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS). The Federal Acquisition Service provides buying platforms and acquisition services to federal, state and local governments for everything from office supplies to motor vehicles to information technology and telecommunications products and services.

As the ITS Assistant Commissioner, Mary is responsible for the largest fee-for-service information technology (IT) procurement and services operation in the U.S. government. Mary leads a highly skilled and diverse workforce that manages more than 7,000 contracts, providing access to relevant and timely IT and telecommunications products, services, and solutions to defense and civilian agencies, as well as to state, local, and tribal governments.

Before her current position, Mary served as Assistant Commissioner for Assisted Acquisition Services, responsible for managing the acquisition of $3.5B in information technology and professional services products, services and solutions to federal agencies worldwide.

Mary has also served as the Acting Assistant Commissioner for marketing and business development in FAS. Mary led business development and marketing efforts intended to increase agency awareness and satisfaction with GSA products, services and solutions. She was responsible for developing strategy, planning for new business, and leading teams to develop customer-focused, integrated solutions.

Mary is an active advocate of the use of Web 2.0 and social media tools to improve government acquisition. She was a founding member of the Better Buy Project and has contributed to the Better Buy Blog.

Mary began her career with GSA in 1989. She has two Bachelor of Science degrees in business finance and business management from Virginia Tech, and a Master’s of Business Administration with a focus in technology management from the University of Phoenix.