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The overwhelming feeling among small business owners and industry overall is that winning a contract with one of the three-lettered agencies is not worth the effort. But IC insiders say the opportunities are out there, and companies should be taking advantage of them.

Accreditation and certification of software is a vital, but time consuming process. On Tuesday afternoon, panelists at the AFCEA SOLUTIONS symposium discussed the challenge and ongoing attempts to streamline the process.

The final panel of the 2010 Joint Warfighting Conference focused on two topics that have been discussed consistently for more than a decade: lack of interoperability and convoluted acquisition. Though the panelists agreed on the problems, their opinions about solutions differed slightly.

The mostly static federal bureaucracy can use an entrepreneurial FCSA shot to the arm-but will this new acquisition process just add more layers of red tape to a system trying to streamline? Will it work smoothly, or does the FCSA have too many kinks? How about other potential methods? Please share your ideas.

Managing the myriad programs designed to provide border security has proved challenging. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has launched a variety of technology efforts designed to enhance border security. Likewise, civilian firms are deeply involved with DHS in supporting these programs. Two panels running Wednesday examined the government and industry perspectives of coordinating border security.

While many conferences suffer from waning interest as panel session after panel session present valuable information over two days, this year's AFCEA Homeland Security conference proved to be quite the opposite. Discussions about upcoming contracting opportunities was at least part of the reason.

It's rare that an audience of industry and service members at all ranks get the chance to hear first hand from the first of a kind.

The U.S. Defense Department is taking significant strides toward resolving problems with information technology acquisition in part because of impetus from outside parties. Reports by an independent board and pending legislation have made specific recommendations for changes in the procurement process that the department is working to implement.

A small business innovation research project is taking the Joint Tactical Radio System Ground Mobile Radio program from simulation to emulation through a combination of technical advancements and government cooperation. The effort would enable the military to scale up the radio network and ensure the system will work without investing in actual hardware. Training options also exist as part of the future employment of the technology.

Tony Montemarano, component acquisition executive, DISA, revealed that the agency is working on a campaign plan in which the word "convergence" is used time and time again.