The Department of Defense Standard Procurement System (SPS) and Federal Technical Data Solution (FedTeDS) were awarded Grace Hopper Government Technology Leadership Awards by the Council for Excellence in Government and Government Executive magazine. Sandra Bates, commissioner of Federal Technology Service at the General Services Administration, and Timothy B. Clark, editor and president of Government Executive, presented the awards Dec. 10.

     The Grace Hopper Awards salute projects that have directly aided the missions of federal organizations by boosting efficiency and effectiveness, lowering costs and/or improving service to the public through original uses of technology. The award is named in honor of the Navy’s late great computer expert Rear Adm. Grace Hopper.

     SPS won in the category of "Breaking Down Barriers between Offices, Agencies and Departments, or between Federal, State, and Local Governments." FedTeDS won in the category of "Addressing Privacy and Security Concerns." SPS is a system in DoD that performs a range of procurement processes for the acquisition workforce. Currently, it is deployed in each of the military services and 13 departmental agencies to more than 23,000 users. More information on SPS can be found at http://corpcomm-inc.com/spsconnection.htm.

     The FedTeDS program, which was developed initially as strictly a DoD system, is a Web-based system that allows acquisition professionals to securely provide sensitive, but unclassified, acquisition related information (such as technical specifications or blueprints) to the vendor community. It is now a part of the Department of Homeland Security, GSA and several other federal agencies via the federal eGov Integrated Acquisition Environment initiative. More details regarding FedTeDS are available at http://www.fedteds.gov.