Personal Technology
t's not often that government employees get preferred treatment. But computer companies like Dell Computer Corp. and Micron Electronics Inc. have thrown out the red carpet with plans that offer federal employees discounts on personal purchases.
Dell and Micron, two of the top personal computer suppliers to federal agencies, offer Web sites specifically for personal purchases by federal employees.
Dell offers pre-selected packages on its Federal Employee Purchase Store Web site. Although Dell's prices are always lower than standard retail prices, there is no set discount, says Rick Davis, group brand manager for the federal segment at Dell. "Our federal customers wanted discounted systems so they could extend their workday. These systems are personal-oriented, vs. what is on the desktop at work," Davis says.
Dell offers systems with the latest technology. But the company also has computers "at the lower end of the spectrum for people who may be buying for a college student and don't want to spend a bunch of money," Davis says.
Micron's online store for federal customers is at www.micronpc.com/gov/federal/fepp1.html. Unlike Dell, Micron offers a standard discount of 5 percent off consumer prices on its entire set of IT offerings. In seven weeks at the end of 1999, Micron sold more than $250,000 worth of computers to federal employees for home use.
Gateway Inc., another popular General Services Administration schedule vendor, also has a program. Interested customers can use the Gateway Web site, www.gateway.com, and take 2 percent off the consumer prices.
Intergraph Federal, a maker of workstations often used for computer-aided design (CAD), offers federal employees its standard GSA schedule pricing. This is a 10 percent to 15 percent discount off their consumer prices. "People who are buying higher-end workstations are bringing home some of the low-end CAD packages to view drawings from work," says Charlie Brown, program office executive manager at Intergraph. "If you like it at work, you should like it at home." To investigate Intergraph's GSA schedule offerings point your browser to www.intergraph.com/federal/contracts/gsa.
Compaq Computer Corp. offers discounts on its Presario line of home computers, and ships them free of charge. Many other companies active in the federal marketplace also offer discounts to federal employees. Often the discounts are neither advertised nor set at a fixed amount. The only way to find out about them is to ask.
PDAs Gain Acceptance
These days it's no surprise when a government executive pulls out a personal digital assistant and gets busy. Whether it's in meetings or between floors on the elevator, executives are depending on PDAs more than ever before.
"I see about 10 to 20 percent of workers using PDAs," says Rick Therrien, leading edge services deputy in the Navy's Chief Information Office. "People are using them to hold their schedules and e-mails."
The PDA market has been strengthened by the success of 3Com Corp.'s Palm handheld series. "I use my PalmPilot for contact management. That's where my phone book is," says Debby Young, Y2K program manager for the Naval Air Warfare Center's Weapons Division.
Young routinely flies between military installations at Point Mugu, Calif., and China Lake, Calif. "It's a 45-minute flight, so I take my e-mail and read it on the plane."
Young is not alone in her reliance on the Palm PDA. "We have Palm disciples, people who go to meetings and take notes with the PDA rather than using pen and paper. I used to carry a Day-Timer organizer and I don't any longer," she says.
While there is no contract in place for the technology, the Commerce Department buys PDAs when employees find uses for them, says Roger Baker, chief information officer.
"When it comes to PDAs, a lot of people go on their own nickel," says Therrien. Some government employees like buying their own PDAs so they can keep the units when they get transferred, says Therrien.
Armed and Ready
Did you know hackers might be wooing your computer over the Internet? According to Stephen R. Northcutt, chief of information warfare at the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, even the most uninteresting personal computers are subject to vulnerability scans. Curious? Disbelieving? If so, you should install personal firewall software-"just for grins," Northcutt says. One option is BackOfficer Friendly from Network Flight Recorder Inc., an intrusion detection software developer in Rockville, Md. BackOfficer will notify you every time a probe makes an advance on your system and will even go on the offensive by confounding scanners with false information. Also, it blocks attacks like Back Orifice, a program that enables hackers to remotely control PCs.