1998's State and Local Standouts

Systems integrators that dominate the state and local scene for information technology services are honing in on specific market segments and repeatable solutions as they chase lucrative opportunities in this exploding area.Washington Technology's 1998 special report, "Who's Who in State and Local Systems Integrators," profiles the winning approaches of companies leading the charge for the $46.2 billion projected to be spent by state and local governments in 1998.Our report, compiled by senior editor Patrick Seitz and WT's staff writers, highlights the move of adroit players such as American Management Systems, Andersen Consulting, Electronic Data Systems Corp., IBM Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Unisys ? all of which are reaping the rewards of focusing substantial resources in this steaming market segment.Major growth opportunities that have these and other integrators salivating are e-business solutions, enterprise resource planning and outsourcing. Other hot areas they are pursuing are finance and administration systems ? the largest state and local spending pocket today ? and the criminal justice and court segment.In case you were asleep most of the year, IBM is pushing its e-business solutions in a big way. Big Blue's e-business solutions provide convenient online services to citizens such as allowing them to renew driver licenses over the Internet. The company also wants a piece of the enterprise resource planning and outsourcing action at the state and local level.Not to be outdone, Lockheed Martin is making a big play with its collection systems, EDS is making a mark in enterprisewide outsourcing and health care systems and AMS is taking tax and revenue collection to a new level. Andersen Consulting is concentrating much of its state and local efforts on helping schools and universities maintain their computer resources, while Unisys is jumping into the social services arena.One trend that has caught the eye of state and local officials nationwide is the move toward benefits-funded, risk-sharing contracts where integrators are paid based on how much money a new system can generate.Learn more about this trend, and discover the other markets and services that leading state and local systems integrators view as major growth opportunities, in our annual special report, which begins on page 32.XXXSPLITXXX-