Dec 30

Government Shutdown’s Impact on Contractors and Employees

Contractors Face Considerable Financial Risk

With Congress and President Trump at a budget impasse, funding for significant portions of the US Federal government ended midnight Friday, December 18, 2018. Historically, government employees are not paid on time but are retroactively paid after the new budget is implemented. The same is not true for government contractors.

Government contractors compete against each other to provide a wide range of services such as computer programming, construction, security guards, cafeterias, janitorial services, technical experts, maintenance workers, and much more. When the government shuts down, contractor staff are not needed or can’t do their work. But they are real companies and people who suffer. Long-term, it’s bad for US taxpayers.

Our Contract with Amtrak is Suspended

We have a government contract with Amtrak which was suspended by this letter:

This contract provides help for Microsoft Access database programming and is relatively small. We do not have dedicated staff for the contract, so we are not really affected as our people will work on other projects.

Unfortunately, we have colleagues who are government contractors or in businesses more dependent on the government who are significantly impacted by the shutdown. This is especially true for companies who provide staff to work at government facilities that are now closed. Most are hesitant to speak publicly about their experiences in fear their government clients would be offended, so we’d like to share our experiences and theirs.

Very Tough Situation and Decisions for Government Contractors and Their Employees

Since government contractors are unlikely to be repaid when the budget is finally resolved, government contractors with dedicated staff for those contracts need to decide whether to pay their employees for time they never expected to not charge to the government. The impact is somewhat offset by the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, and maybe they can force employees to take vacation days. But as the shutdown lasts longer, contractors will have to pay their employees from their own funds. Not paying them runs the risk that the employees leave and won’t be available once the budget is resolved. One cannot expect employees to remain loyal if they aren’t paid. Meanwhile, employees are dusting off their resumes and seeking alternative employers.

Small businesses are especially vulnerable since many contracts have small profit margins, so without significant cash and lines of credit, a cash flow problem can quickly bankrupt a company. Even generous owners who try to do the “right thing”, may not be able to if their cash is depleted. That would lead to fewer government contractors in the future and higher costs to taxpayers.

A friend of mind who owns a firm completely focused on servicing the federal government shared:

“As contractors, our employees still get paid and yet we are unable to bill. Cash is king and small companies like mine live and die by cash. This is the worst.”

Media Coverage

On December 26th, we sent a Twitter message with the letter we received from Amtrak and the sympathy we feel for government contractors and their employees.

That led to our inclusion in a Washington DC News article on WUSA Channel 9 (CBS) by John Henry that evening. A video of the coverage with our Amtrak letter and insight are in this article: #ShutdownStories: Government contractors tackle life without pay during partial shutdown

On December 27th, I was interviewed in the Huffington Post article by Sarah Ruiz-Grossman about the challenges facing contractors entitled
Shutdown Leaves Government Contractors Without Work And Likely No Back Pay.

“Business owners who have [dedicated] staff are making the decision: Do we pay people or not, even though we won’t get paid by the government? Either you force people to take vacation, or you pay them, to be a good company ― but depending how long it drags on, one may not have a choice.”

On December 27th, Bridget Johnson included us in her Homeland Security Today article:
Federal Employees, Contractors Tweet Worries with #ShutdownStories

Self-Inflicted Wound that Should be Resolved Promptly

Eventually the budget will be resolved. We hope the parties come to their senses and do it sooner rather than later because innocent people who’ve dedicated their firms and lives to providing a professional service to US taxpayers are at risk and feeling real pain. That’s terrible for them now and our country long-term.

Dec 07

Too Big to Fire: How Government Contractors on Healthcare.gov Maximize Profits

Healthcare.govHow Could the Federal Government Spend So Much and Get So Little?

The government contractors in the Healthcare.gov project continue to make fortunes after delivering a technical disaster. Unfortunately, this is common among IT projects delivered by large government contractors. Each year the government spends billions for poorly designed or non-functional systems that never even get deployed.

When I wrote my original blog post about Healthcare.gov, I thought the web site was created by incompetent people. Now I believe that in addition to being incompetent or inexperienced, decisions were made to maximize contractor profits.

This is philosophically different from the way we think at FMS. We always want to deliver functional systems on-budget and on-time. We take pride in creating solutions that don’t require additional work to fix them. As a small firm, we’re held accountable for our deliverables. If we fail, we would never be invited back. For large government IT contractors, it’s a totally different world.

Blame Others

Over the years, many large IT government contractors have abused taxpayers so often that they forgot the public would actually use Healthcare.gov and judge their performance. Even now, with their legions of lawyers and media spin, they are deflecting the story to blame government officials, other contractors, etc. without taking any responsibility. I agree there were problems with other parties, but that’s in addition to their own behavior.

Charge Extra for What Should be Included

Government contractors are experts at adding change orders and generating more revenues for features that should be already included. For instance, we are now hearing about problems with data security for the Healthcare.gov site. Security should be implemented from the beginning. Anyone with any experience collecting personal information such as social security numbers and birthdays knows that. However, the government contractors who won these contracts based on “past performance” suddenly suggest others are to blame for not specifying it earlier. That’s like buying a car and discovering brakes were an add-on. No, it should be included without asking for it. Storing data requires doing it securely.

Too Big to Fire

Given the awful work delivered on October 1, there’s no chance that the same team can be trusted to deliver a functional system. They already showed the world what they considered shipping quality, yet they remain. Unfortunately, our existing procurement system keeps these large government contractors because they are simply Too Big to Fire.

No Accountability for Large Technology Contractors

A small government contractor that performed so badly would not be allowed back into these agencies. The large ones can deflect the blame and legally challenge any attempt to hold them accountable. They never issue refunds, and in fact, profit from their mistakes with awards of new contracts and change orders. They are effectively not held accountable for their awful past performance, so the disasters repeat themselves whether it’s at HHS, FBI, Air Force, IRS, etc. The federal government is littered with expensive projects that were never used or functional, but highly profitable for the contractors.

Our Government Contracting System Encourages This

What happened with Healthcare.gov is exactly what our system encourages contractors to do. Had the contractors finished on time and properly, they would have made less money than delivering a flawed system. The government has tried to privatize its services by using outside contractors. Unfortunately, these government contractors are specialists at getting government contracts and milking taxpayers more than their technical ability. They would never survive in the private sector.

Policy Makers Now Have Political Risk for Technology Decisions

This is the first time an administration has paid such huge political cost for mismanaging technology. Prior to this, Presidents understood they were responsible for the economy, jobs, wars, terrorism, crime, responding to natural disasters, etc. They never realized there was political risk with technology. President Reagan wasn’t blamed for the Space Shuttle exploding, but this administration has become responsible for this web site disaster.

Contractor Goals and Values Do Not Align with Policy Makers

Frankly, I don’t think the politicians have any better handle for designing rockets or web sites. They relied on contractors and these contractors misled them. The policy makers don’t realize the goals and values of the contractors differ from theirs. Watching our leaders say the self-serving things their contractors tell them is even more embarrassing. Those contractors are not your friends!

Lobbying and Post-Retirement Jobs Drive Business

Some government officials are swayed by promises of post-retirement jobs at the contractors they supervise. Look at all the former program managers, contracting officers, Congressmen, admirals and generals at these government contractors and their lobbyists to understand how business is done.

Contractors get on contracting vehicles like the IDIQ for Healthcare.gov (termed “Licenses to Hunt”), then send in their well connected people to get contracts directly or wire contracts by “helping” draft requests for proposals (RFPs) favoring their organization. Perfectly legal. Not taxpayer friendly.

Bipartisan Reform Required

This is a bipartisan issue because unless IT government contracting is reformed, this is going to bite future politicians/policymakers of both parties. They do not have the training or experience to manage these technology projects. Especially when the contractors are run by used car salesmen who say, “You should get the undercoating” and the government people are technically unqualified to say “No”.

Technology Accountability Office (TAO)

We need the creation of a Technology Accountability Office (TAO), similar to the GAO to help agencies properly manage and buy these solutions, or an agency that manages large IT projects so the Best Practices are dispersed across the agencies. Right now, politicians have no clue whether a project should cost $1 million or $100 million, and whether it can be done in 3 months or 3 years. It’s total chaos and taxpayers are paying the tab.


Related Resources

Here are a few opportunities where I’ve spoken about these issues.

fox-and-friendsNovember 30: Fox & Friends Live Interview with Clayton Morris

ObamaCare: Mistake or moneymaker?

A one-on-one interview with Clayton Morris for four minutes discussing how large government contractors profit from delivering systems that don’t work: “If we follow the money, we’ll see the stink in the system…Too Big to Fire”

fox-friends-2013-11-30-clayton-luke-graphic fox-friends-2013-11-30-luke


Greta van SusterenNovember 26: On the Record with Kimberly Guilfoyle

Will HealthCare.gov be in good health by Nov. 30?

Greta van Susteren is on vacation, so I chatted with Kimberly who was in New York City while I was on Greta’s studio in Washington, DC.

Kimberly-Guilfoyle-Luke Kimberly-Guilfoyle-Luke2

“Over time, I’m beginning to see that these government contractors who took over this project have essentially made every decision that favors them as much as possible – to maximize the cost to taxpayers, to maximize their profits.”

Related article by Greg Richter based on the broadcast: Software Developer: ACA Website Designers Just Lining Own Pockets


House Homeland Security CommitteeNovember 13: House Homeland Security Committee Testimony

I had the opportunity to discuss the problems with government IT contractors in my prepared testimony and questions from Chairman McCaul.

Homeland Security Committee Testimony

Testifying before the House Committee on Homeland Security


nj-star-ledgerDecember 17: The Star Ledger by Paul Mulshine

“Luke Chung is the best authority I’ve come across on the Obamacare software debacle.”

How contractors got rich by screwing up Obamacare


Additional Media Coverage for Changing the National Discourse on Healthcare.gov


Jul 03

Inspection Software for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)With the upcoming 4th of July celebrations, we at FMS are proud to have worked with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) over the past year to help them better maintain and preserve the important documents of our nation. Here’s what we did in our new case study, Inspection Software for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

About the National Archives

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the record keeper for the United States. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are important enough for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by NARA forever.

Natonal Archives Building in Washington DC

Background

To ensure the quality of work performed by their Facilities Management service providers, the National Archives and Records Administration performs both random and targeted inspections of completed work orders.

Problem

Inspection findings were documented on paper, which ironically, wasn’t efficient for the NARA. Reports were manually created to generate the service results. This manual process was time consuming and prone to human error.

Solution

FMS was selected to create a professional, multiuser system to collect the inspection results electronically and generate a variety of management reports.Within two months, we deployed our solution which offers data entry screens to replicate a variety of existing forms and many new management reports. An intuitive user interface made it easy for users without requiring extensive training. More importantly, we established a solid database foundation to improve NARA processes both today and into the future.

Operational Impact

  • Stores inspection results into a shared database
  • Increases efficiency and accuracy of the collection and reporting process
  • Gathers information and performs statistical analysis in ways that were previously not available
  • Eliminates the need to maintain paper files
Jul 01

Microsoft Access Inconsistent Compile Error for a Field Reference in a Form

Our Professional Solutions Group was recently asked to diagnose a Microsoft Access database experiencing recurring compile errors with code behind a form that looks like this:

If IsNull(Me.Comments) Then

where Comments is not a control on the form, but a field in the form’s RecordSource.

In general, this compiles and runs fine, but on seemingly random occasions while the program is running, it generates a compile error saying that that field was not found. But the field always existed on the form’s RecordSource, so why was this happening?

Solutions

There are a few ways to avoid this problem:

  • Change all the Me. to Me! which is the proper way to reference a field in VBA code, if there is no control bound to this field.
  • Create an invisible  text box that assigns its ControlSource to that field, give the text box a different name (e.g. txtComments), and reference the text box in code.
  • Deploy the database so its compiled state cannot be changed (ACCDE or MDE)

We prefer the use of the invisible text box so that we can reference the control name via the “Me.” syntax rather than “Me!”. The “Me.” syntax is verified when the code is compiled so that a typo with the control name is caught. This is preferable to a runtime error that gets triggered when the user encounters that line of code.

But Why?

Though we knew how to fix this, we were curious to understand why the compilation wasn’t consistent across users. It also didn’t fail when a specific event occurred. It seemed almost random when the compile error arose. And the form triggering the error seemed perfectly fine with a reference to a field that exists in its RecordSource.

The Real Cause for the Compile Error

Through our own research and help from our Microsoft Access MVP colleagues, we discovered that the compile error was tied to programmatically changing the RecordSource of a form. The change is not necessarily on the form where the compile error is triggered.

Microsoft Access seems to reset its internal list of field references some time after the RecordSource is modified, which triggers the compile error. This explains why some users experienced it and others did not since it depended on whether the user opened a form that changed its RecordSource. It also explained why the error didn’t occur immediately after a RecordSource was modified.

Special thanks to Dirk Goldgar for pointing this out. Hope you never encounter this!

Additional Resources for Database Compile and Field Reference Issues

For additional tips on Microsoft Access application development, visit our:
Microsoft Access Developer and VBA Programming Help Center

Feb 12

Portland Oregon Microsoft Access User Conference

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon
May 4-6, 2013

FMS President Luke Chung is one of the featured speakers at this annual Microsoft Access conference hosted by the Portland Access User Group. This will be his third year speaking at this wonderful event.

Enjoy an amazing, rustic getaway to a beautiful state park with fellow Microsoft Access enthusiasts. Book early so you can stay at the limited number of cabins available at the conference center. The conference fees are amazing low and includes meals.

LightSwitch and Microsoft AccessLuke will participate in various talks on Microsoft Access development, running a business, and creating solutions using Visual Studio LightSwitch. He’ll also be staying at the site during the entire conference, so you’ll have plenty of opportunity to meet him formally and informally.

For more information, visit the conference site.

Jun 18

Taking Over Legacy Microsoft Access Database Applications

There are many, many legacy Microsoft Access databases that need to be supported and enhanced. Often the original developer is long gone and there’s little to no documentation available. Yet, you’re expected to take care of it.

No matter what technology it is, taking over someone else’s work is always challenging. It’s even more challenging if you become responsible for a system that you (and no one else) understands.

FMS President Luke Chung explored this topic during his presentation at the Portland Oregon Microsoft Access User Group Conference. Learn about the issues and techniques we’ve learned over the years to triage, enhance, and support Microsoft Access applications, including migrating and upsizing to SQL Server and other platforms.

Here’s a paper and PowerPoint presentation: Tips and Techniques for Taking Over an Legacy Microsoft Access Database Applications

Feb 27

The Hot Mommas Project Website Update

HotMommas Web SiteLongtime client Kathy Korman Frey, George Washington University School of Business professor and GWU Entrepreneur in Residence, has engaged the FMS Professional Solutions Group to enhance her HotMommas Project website.

The site is the world's largest collection of public case studies for entrepreneurial women. It is a community where women can learn from the experiences of other women addressing their businesses, family and personal challenges.

Visual Studio
The revamped website is built on Visual Studio .NET, SQL Server with a modern, dynamic interface incorporating our technical and graphic artist resources.

Contact us if we can help you with a similar solution.

Oct 13

The HotMommas Project Case Study Competition Website Update

HotMommas ProjectOur long time client Kathy Korman Frey, George Washington University School of Business professor and GWU Entrepreneur in Residence, has engaged the FMS Professional Solutions Group again to update her HotMommas Project case study competition website and create another brand new website. Professor Frey has amassed the world’s largest public domain collection of women’s case studies, and created an environment where these women can share their experiences and challenges of creating and running companies along with juggling family and other commitments in life.

This effort is almost complete and we’ll be unveiling the revamped case study competition website as well as the new “sister” site next month. Stay tuned!

Sep 22

Email Collaboration using Microsoft Outlook and Exchange from a Database Perspective

One of the challenges most organizations face is how to coordinate communications and tasks among team members and external contacts. With multiple people and clients/projects, emails fly in many directions. People with vital information may be unreachable while customers may be providing information to someone in your organization while others who need that information are oblivious. When someone leaves a team or organization, much of their information is lost.

Microsoft OutlookOver the years, we’ve helped several clients better manage their emails and treat them like a database. We’ve built solutions that work with Exchange and Outlook to automatically classify contacts, tag emails, and store the information in a Microsoft SQL Server database. The data is presented through a Microsoft Outlook add-in showing all communications with a contact’s firm when you create or respond to an email. The data can also be displayed in the Facebook like interface to make it easy for everyone on your team to know what’s going on.

There’s no longer a need to look in someone else’s Inbox since information is immediately shared between everyone who needs to know (even before the recipient opens their message). Searching for messages is quick and easy, and corporate document retention policies can be enforced.

To learn more about this and other innovative activities of our Professional Solutions Group, please contact our consulting team.

Sep 22

Extend Your Microsoft Access Applications Over the Internet with RemoteApp and Total Access Startup

Our paper on Using Terminal Services and RemoteApp to Extend Your Microsoft Access and other Windows Applications Over the Internet has been updated. There’s more information on implementing this plus how Total Access Startup can manage this through user profiles to let every user have a unique experience.

Our Professional Solutions Group has helped organizations run Microsoft Access application over the web and can even help you use host RemoteApp instances for your users. Contact our consulting team for more information.