OMB identifies $17.7 billion in excess federal property

Agencies have nearly 22,000 unneeded buildings and land holdings worth a combined $17.7 billion, according to a Bush administration report sent to Congress today.

Five agencies control 95 percent of the properties: the Army, Navy, Agriculture Department, Air Force and Interior Department. Combined, the five agencies’ properties account for 78 percent of the $17.7 billion total. The $17.7 billion represents the cost of replacing existing properties, rather than the market value of those properties.

Congress passed a law in December 2006 requiring OMB to issue the report.

Since 2004, agencies have disposed of more than $4.5 billion in unneeded land and property. The administration expects to successfully meet its goal of disposing of a total $9 billion in unneeded properties by 2009, the report says.

Tim Kauffman, FederalTimes.com

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Oracle’s $3B acquisition of Hyperion: 'A rough road ahead?'

Oracle’s planned purchase of Hyperion may result in software that allows government customers to more easily merge their strategic plans with their operational data, though industry observers also worry about integration issues with the acquisition.

Hyperion CEO Godfrey Sullivan noted in a press release that the field of performance management is converging with that of business intelligence. Folding Hyperion software into Oracle’s Business Intelligence suite would offer customers the ability to align operational data with their strategic goals.

In the government space, performance management software is often used by agencies to track how well departments are meeting the President’s Management Agenda. Such software could also be used to see how an agency is meeting its goals. According to Hyperion’s Web site, the Army Recruiting Command has used the Hyperion Performance Suite to produce reports and executive summaries. The Agriculture Department’s Farm Service Agency also has used that software to prepare financial reports and budgets, according to Hyperion’s site.

While Hyperion users who run Oracle middleware and enterprise resource planning tools may enjoy greater interoperability in the years to come, those that use non-Oracle platforms may experience “a rough road ahead,” speculated Alyssa Farrell, SAS’ government industry marketing manager. SAS also features performance management functionality within its own SAS 9 software.

“We don’t know if Oracle will continue to develop Hyperion software or if it will attempt to transfer the functionality to Oracle’s own solutions suite,” she said.

-Joab Jackson, WashingtonTechnology.com

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