View source for United States Federal Systems Integration and Management Center

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{{Infobox government agency
|agency_name     = General Services Administration
|logo            = Logo Fedsim.png
|logo_width      = 
|logo_caption    = 
|seal            = US-GeneralServicesAdministration-Logo.svg
|seal_width      = 140px
|seal_caption    = GSA Star Logo
|formed          = February 29, 1972
|preceding1      =
|preceding2      =
|headquarters    = 1800 F Street, NW<br />Suite 3100<br />Washington, DC  20405
|employees       = 246
|budget          = $50 million
|chief1_name     = Chris Hamm <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://fcw.com/articles/2014/10/28/new-fedsim-director.aspx?admgarea=TC_Management|title=Hamm new FedSIM director -}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://fcw.com/articles/2012/03/30/federal-100-hamm-christopher.aspx|title = Federal 100: Christopher T. Hamm -}}</ref>
|chief1_position = <br />Director
|chief2_name     = Pete Burr <ref>https://www.linkedin.com/pub/pete-burr/2b/a3b/215  {{Self-published source|date=June 2022}}</ref>
|chief2_position = <br />Deputy Director
|chief3_name     = Ken Evans <ref>{{Cite web |url=https://fedsim.gsa.gov/KE_bio.html |title=Ken Evans Bio |access-date=2019-12-09 |archive-date=2019-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209223749/https://fedsim.gsa.gov/KE_bio.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> 
|chief3_position = <br />DOD/Air Force Sector Director
|chief4_name     = Kristen Knapper <ref>http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kristen-knapper/51/a52/383  {{Self-published source|date=June 2022}}</ref>
|chief4_position = <br />Civilian Sector Director
|chief5_name     = Mike Marquez <ref>{{Cite web |url=https://fedsim.gsa.gov/MM_bio.html |title=Mike Marquez Bio |access-date=2019-12-09 |archive-date=2019-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209223614/https://fedsim.gsa.gov/MM_bio.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|chief5_position = <br />Army/Navy Sector Director
|chief6_name = Jim Piché <ref>{{Cite web |url=https://fedsim.gsa.gov/JP_bio.html |title=Jim Piche Bio |access-date=2019-12-09 |archive-date=2019-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209223617/https://fedsim.gsa.gov/JP_bio.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|chief6_position = <br />Homeland Sector Director
|website         = https://fedsim.gsa.gov/
|chief7_name = Angie Donahoo <ref>{{cite web | url=https://fedsim.gsa.gov/leadership/ | title=Fedsim &#124; Our Leadership }}</ref> |chief7_position = <br />Innovation Sector Director
|chief8_name=|chief8_position=|chief9_name=|chief9_position=|parent_department=}}

[[General Services Administration|GSA]] FEDSIM<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://fedsim.gsa.gov/|title=FEDSIM Website}}</ref> provides assisted acquisition support for [[information technology]] systems and services, and professional services, to other U.S. Government agencies on a fee for service basis.  FEDSIM’s business lines include system and network operations and maintenance, development of new applications, purchases of hardwares and softwares, and many other IT goods and services, as well as professional services such as logistics. FEDSIM contracts with large and small private sector companies for these systems and services.

==History==

In 1972, the U.S. Congress established the Federal Computer Performance Evaluation and Simulation Center at the [[General Services Administration|General Services Administration (GSA)]] with the goal of providing expertise in computer performance evaluation and modeling to other Government agencies for a fee. GSA delegated the organization to the [[U.S. Air Force]] Data Automation Agency<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=_BGDRGWzVw4C&dq=FEDSIM&pg=PA119 Proceedings of the Computer Performance Evaluation User's Group 1974 - FEDSIM Status Report]</ref> as GSA’s executive agent. FEDSIM is funded by fees paid by its customer agencies rather than an appropriated budget. Initially, most FEDSIM projects supported the Air Force, [[U.S. Army|Army]], [[U.S. Navy|Navy]], and other [[United States Department of Defense|Defense Department]] agencies. Subsequently, FEDSIM’s clients have come to include all cabinet-level departments, many independent agencies like the [[Environmental Protection Agency]] and [[NASA]], small U.S. Government offices, both houses of [[U.S. Congress|Congress]], and the [[Judicial branch|Judicial Branch]]. In its early years, FEDSIM supported about a dozen projects with about ten staff members; this has subsequently grown to more than two thousand projects in total, and in 2019 a staff of 246. FEDSIM’s annual revenue has grown from $1 million in the early 1970s to about $20 million in
the mid 80’s and over $1 billion since the turn of the millennium. FEDSIM now outsources most of the work and has expanded its business lines from computer performance evaluation to include anything in information technology (IT) plus professional services. FEDSIM's increasing reliance on the private sector is consistent with the current Government policy of contracting out tasks that are not an "Inherently Governmental Function".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.acquisition.gov/far/html/Subpart%207_5.html |title=Federal Acquisition Regulation, Subpart 7.5, Inherently Governmental Functions |access-date=2013-02-06 |archive-date=2013-02-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130218185152/https://www.acquisition.gov/far/html/Subpart%207_5.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> FEDSIM’s roles have evolved from technical analysis using internal computer performance experts during its first 20 years to award and administration of external contracts, financial management, and project management support for its agency customers during the last 20 years.

The [[U.S. Navy]] established the Federal Conversion Support Center<ref>[http://www.gao.gov/products/FGMSD-77-34 GAO Report FGMSD-77-34: Millions in Savings Possible in Converting Programs From One Computer to Another]</ref> around the same time that GSA created FEDSIM. Because of Government regulations, agencies often needed to open their computer acquisitions to a variety of manufacturers; the Conversion Support Center analyzed the cost to convert software from one vendor architecture to another in that situation. The Conversion Support Center transferred to GSA in 1979 and became the core of GSA’s Office of Software Development and Information Technology (OSDIT).<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=HnXc-0VvV4YC&dq=fedsim+computerworld+1979&pg=PA7 Jan. 15, 1979 ComputerWorld Article - Software Units Transfer to GSA]</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/officeofsoftware021934mbp OSDIT Strategic Information Resources Planning Handbook, Feb. 1985]</ref> Like FEDSIM, OSDIT provided technical experts to other agencies for a fee. In 1985, because of the small number of its Air Force-specific projects, FEDSIM transferred from the Air Force back to GSA. FEDSIM and OSDIT merged in 1990. As outsourcing became more prevalent in U.S. Government IT shops, FEDSIM created, awarded and administered contracts for IT services such as [[IT disaster recovery|disaster recovery]], [[local area network]]s, and [[data center]] outsourcing. [[System integration|System Integration]] has been FEDSIM’s single most important business area in the last 20 years. In 1987, FEDSIM was renamed the Federal Systems Integration and Management Center to reflect this change.

FEDSIM projects during the 70s and 80s included designing and optimizing agencies’ national data communications networks; simulation of the performance of a major weapons system; sizing and estimating the cost of creating a new agency data center; purchasing mainframe computers for client agencies; and many others. Large and long-running FEDSIM projects from the 80s and up to the present have included IT support of [http://www.disa.mil/Services/Network-Services/Anti-Drug-Network ADNET],<ref>[http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/100444 July 11, 2001 - GSA Boosts IT Support in War on Drugs]</ref> a multi-agency Anti-Drug Network; development of the [[Internal Revenue Service]]’s Electronic Filing system [[IRS e-file|E-file]]; purchase of scientific computers for the [[National Institutes of Health]]; program management support to [[Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization|JIDA]], the Defense Department’s Joint Improvised-threat Defeat Agency; and multi-faceted system integration projects for the [[Agency for International Development]], the [[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation]], and others.  As of 2015, FEDSIM's largest contracting vehicle, valued at $6 billion, supports the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS's) [[Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation]] program to provide IT Security software and hardware tools and services for continuous protection of civilian agency networks and systems from cyberattack.

{| class="wikitable" style="background:white;"
|- style="background:#efefef;"
! colspan="3" | FEDSIM Directors
|-
||1
||Col. Kent Berge
||1972 – 1973
|-
||2
||Col. Richard Lejk
||1973 – 1977
|-
||3
||Col. David Igelman <ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=849&dat=19780731&id=Ky5PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RE4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=2983,1732680  July 31, 1978 ComputerWorld Article - Search for new FEDSIM Technical Director]</ref>
||1977 – 1980
|-
||4
||Col. Richard Blair <ref>[https://www.gao.gov/assets/130/129251.pdf GAO Report on National Science Foundation computer performance, citing a FEDSIM report signed by Col. Blair]</ref>
||1980 – 1984
|-
||5
||Col. Ben Gomez <ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.firestorm.com/dupont-demonstrates-plan-testing-payoff-after-aniline-leak/ |title=Report and analysis of a toxic chemical leak by former FEDSIM Director Gomez |access-date=2019-12-09 |archive-date=2019-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209232349/https://www.firestorm.com/dupont-demonstrates-plan-testing-payoff-after-aniline-leak/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
||1984 – 1985
|-
||6
||Col. Charles Conoyer
||1985 - 1986
|-
||7
||Charles Self
||1986 - 1996
|-
||8
||John Ortego
||1996 - 1998
|-
||9
||Tim McCurdy
||1998 - 2003
|-
||10
||Lisa Akers
||2003 - 2008
|-
||11
||Steve Viar
||2008 - 2014
|-
||12
||Chris Hamm
||2014 -
||
|}
FEDSIM’s leaders have gone on to become Assistant Commissioners, Commissioners, directors of the Government’s largest data centers, independent consultants, and in senior leadership positions in the industry.<ref>https://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-r-ortego/10/741/3a8  {{Self-published source|date=June 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/100131|title = Charles Self Appointed to Head GSA's FTS Office of Information Technology Integration}}</ref><ref>https://www.linkedin.com/pub/lisa-akers/6/516/49a  {{Self-published source|date=June 2022}}</ref>

==Organization==

FEDSIM is currently organized as a Client Support Center housed within GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) - Office of Assisted Acquisition Services.  FEDSIM is divided into seven sectors: Civilian, Air Force, DoD, Army, Navy, GCC, Innovation. Each sector understands the specialized circumstances and regulations applicable to their respective areas.  These sectors are subdivided into groups focused on specific organizations within each client so that staff members gain knowledge of their agencies and can develop long-term relationships with the client.  This specialization helps FEDSIM deliver value to each client agency.

==Responsibilities==

FEDSIM provides assisted acquisition services to civilian and military U.S. Government agencies worldwide.  FEDSIM specializes in large, complex procurements.  It establishes an Integrated Project Team that manages the procurement from requirements gathering to award and through to the end of the performance period.  FEDSIM also supports less complex initiatives and offers consulting and advisory services for projects that do not require full-time support.  FEDSIM offers innovative, dedicated approaches to acquisition resulting in cost savings and higher quality goods and services.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104719|title = FEDSIM - Federal Systems Integration and Management Center}}</ref>

For example, over the last 10 years, FEDSIM has provided its agency clients with emerging methods and technologies like server [[virtualization]] and [[cloud computing]]; commercial off-the-shelf [[Commercial off-the-shelf|COTS]] software for system development with enterprise products like [[SAP ERP|SAP]] and in niche areas like insurance underwriting; [[social media]] and [[mobile technology|mobile technologies]]; and others.  FEDSIM has expanded the breadth of its offerings in [[professional services]] like [[logistics]] or to meet unique needs such as strategic weapon system planning and policy making for the Air Force.

FEDSIM acquisition innovations include the use of performance-based contracting methods<ref>[https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/omb/procurement_guide_pbsc OMB Best Practices for Performance-Based Contracting]</ref> and [[strategic sourcing]] methods that lower costs by consolidating purchases across many agencies.  As U.S. Government IT acquisitions have suffered a resurgence of legal disputes (protests) following a change in the applicable law,<ref>[http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-110publ181/html/PLAW-110publ181.htm National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2008, P.L. 110-181]</ref><ref>[http://www.gao.gov/legal/bids/bidprotest.html Government Accountability Office - Bid Protests]{{Dead link|date=November 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> FEDSIM has become experienced in protest defense to the point that agencies seek its services for this reason.

==References==
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[[Category:Government agencies in the United States]]
[[Category:Government agencies established in 1972]]
[[Category:Executive branch of the government of the United States]]