Government Customers Research Articles

What I did last summer: a software development benchmarking case study

Rockwell Collins, a world leader in the design, production, and support of communications and aviation electronics solutions for commercial and government customers, recently funded a benchmarking study. The study aimed to improve the ability of Rockwell Collins' applications development department to deliver software solutions to its internal customers. The deliverables from this study included current performance, recommendations for improvement, and a database containing the department's historical project performance.

CompUSA's CEO James Halpin on technology, rewards, and commitment

Executive Overview CompUSA is the largest retailer and reseller of personal computer-related products and services in the United States, and with 1998 revenues of $5.8 billion, has the highest sales per square foot of store floor space in the entire retail industry. Founded in 1984 in Dallas as Soft Warehouse, a direct seller to business customers, the firm opened its first retail superstore in 1985. The company's mission is to market goods and services at the best value to help customers manage information to improve personal and organizational life. CompUSA currently operates 210 computer superstores in 79 major metropolitan markets across the United States that serve retail, corporate, government, and education customers, and has 20,000 team members. The company also maintains technical service departments and classroom training facilities, and has its own build-to-order personal computer series, CompUSA PC. In 1998, CompUSA acquired Tandy Corporation's subsidiary. Computer City, and in 1999 launched a...

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE AT DOE LABS

Some 100 catalysis researchers, mainly from 12 Department of Energy laboratories, gathered in Albuquerque late last month to better acquaint themselves with the range of government laboratory catalysis expertise, with an eye toward beneficial research collaborations. idea for the meeting came from Sandia National Laboratories catalysis researcher Nancy B. Jackson, who recently learned of major efforts on the part of European and other countries to organize, improve, and advance their catalysis research programs. The Dutch have NIOK [Netherlands Institute of Catalysis]. British have iAc [Institute of Applied Catalysis]. Israel has a catalysis program. And a number of these research organizations are already making alliances with U.S. industrial firms. What do U.S. catalysis researchers have to offer their industrial and government customers? Jackson asked. While many of the attendees agree that government labs, with their highly skilled personnel and state-of-the-art equipment, represent world-cl...

Regional Surveys in Victoria – Experiences And Lessons

The Victorian Government, through the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, is in the final year of a 3-year, $16.5 million program, the Victorian Initiative for Minerals and Petroleum (VIMP) to support the state’s mineral and petroleum exploration industry. Projects being undertaken as part of the initiative include acquisition of airborne magnetic and radiometric data, gravity and regional seismic data, stratigraphic drilling, geophysical interpretation and geological mapping. Major airborne survey areas are in the northwestern part of the state, the eastern highlands and the Otway Basin.Since 1992, major changes have taken place in legislation, quality of available data and government customer focus. This encouragement from government has resulted in a significant increase in exploration in Victoria. However, many areas still remain under-explored. For the first time, the explorer now has access to high-quality detailed regional scale datasets to include in a modern exploration program and to help determine mineral exploration targets.The VIMP program has led to an increased level of sophistication in survey and product requirements. Major developments in data acquisition and processing have taken place in the airborne survey industry partly as a result of the VIMP surveys. Government and industry require contractors to carry out surveys to obtain high quality data, in a timely and cost-effective manner. In addition, Government requires regionally consistent data and marketable products with a long shelf life.

A Pathfinder for international space commercialization

Space Commercialization can be defined as the development of a product, capability, service or other profit opportunity by private industry in response to market-driven requirements (existing or projected) using company funds and at company risk. The resultant capability is then marketed (sale or lease) to private and/or government customers. The commercial contractor will be successful if it provides the desired products and services in a manner that is determined by the customer base to be a substantially better value than similar products or services available from the competition. Profit is the principal incentive; value is the principal objective. Established in 1984, SPACEHAB, Inc. is well underway in achieving its goal of being the world's premier commercial space services provider.

Integrating Design Education, Research and Practice at Carnegie Mellon: A Multi‐disciplinary Course in Wearable Computers

AbstractThe Engineering Design Research Center (EDRC) at Carnegie Mellon University has created a two‐semester design course that integrates research and education through industrially‐sponsored design projects. Over the six semesters that the course has been taught, teams of undergraduate and graduate students have designed and fabricated five new generations of wearable computers. These computers have been delivered to industrial and government customers for use. The Wearable Computer Design course at the EDRC is cross‐disciplinary and inter‐departmental, drawing students from four colleges in nine disciplines including five engineering departments (chemical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering, and engineering and public policy), architecture, computer science, industrial administration and industrial design. Students in this course learn about design theory and practice, participate in research, and successfully deliver products to sponsors. The students are exposed to the design cycle from concept, to multi‐disciplinary design tradeoffs, to manufacturing, and finally to customer satisfaction and user feedback. This class also serves as a testbed for learning about the needs of a multi‐disciplinary design team, for anticipating the needs of geographically‐distributed design teams, for reflecting on the interplay between product design and design process, and for evaluating the design tools and design methodologies that have been developed at the EDRC.

Commercial Buying Practices in the Department of Defense: Barriers and Benefits

This article compares the results of three research initiatives to identify obstacles that commercial firms in the electronics, space launch, and aircraft industries face in doing business with the defense department. It also assesses the benefits of using commercial buying practices. The research supports previous research findings that some obstacles, such as payment and specification problems, appear to be universal problems for firms dealing with government customers. However, just as the electronics, space launch, and aircraft industries have different industry characteristics, there are also unique defense procurement problems that restrict commercial firms in the industries from selling to the Department of Defense. The research suggests that while DoD should examine its overall contracting process and requirements to make it easier for commercial firms to accept and perform government contracts, it must also focus on industry unique obstacles to gain the greatest benefit.Even though there have been repeated calls for greater use of commercial purchasing practices in the Department of Defense (DoD), the actual adoption of such practices has been quite limited. This article explores the potential barriers and benefits of DoD use of commercial buying practices in the electronics, space, and aircraft industries.

The Aquila launch vehicle: A hybrid propulsion space booster

The American Rocket Company's Aquila Launch Vehicle is the world's first hybrid propulsion space booster designed to deliver 3,200 lb m (1,450 kg) payloads into low Earth orbit. By using AMROC's low-cost hybrid propulsion, the Aquila launch service will provide reliable, routine access to space; high accuracy orbital placement; and an unprecedented degree of production, ground and flight safety. AMROC plans to offer launch services to commercial, international and government customers beginning with an initial launch capability for polar orbits from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California in 1995. This paper will discuss the key features of the Aquila Launch System.

Market planning for government procurement

Marketing can be profitable to governments. As for all marketing efforts, a knowledge of what, when, and why the government customer buys is mandatory to corporate success. These can be learned by studying the customer's planning, programming, and budgeting activities. This article presents a schematic of the federal planning and budgeting system and recommends that the industrial marketer invest in an effort to determine the specific system for the government agency of interest.

The Changing Bargaining Structure in Construction: Wide-Area and Multicraft Bargaining

This study, based chiefly on interview data from the Midwest, examines the changes in the bargaining structure of the construction industry. The authors find that--because of government intervention, contractor and customer efforts, and national union interests--shifts to both wide-area and multicraft bargaining have occurred. They discuss the implications, problems, and prospects of these two kinds of enlarged bargaining units. (Author's abstract.)

Observations on the Theoretical Basis of Cost-Effectiveness

This paper presents some observations on the theoretical foundation of cost-effectiveness analysis. It describes the results of continuing research to develop a comprehensive and rigorous description of the important elements of cost-effectiveness as used by the aerospace industry for military and commercial systems planning. The primary objective is to utilize basic mathematical and statistical theory to construct the rules, properties, and hypotheses that are needed to satisfy the contractual requirements imposed by various government customers.