Editor's Note

Information technology companies whose primary business focus is the government are looking pretty good these days, especially if you compare them to sagging Internet companies with catchy .com names whose investors have been running for cover the past few weeks.Indeed, a handful of these small-cap companies that sport an odd assortment of alphabet-soup monikers are looking so good that insiders are snapping up shares as fast as they can. Washington Technology Staff Writer Richard McCaffery takes a close look at this trend in a cover story in this issue, where he talked with small-cap principals and leading analysts to find out why the move to buy. In the case of small but fast-growing government contractors such as GRC of Vienna, Va., Titan Corp., of San Diego, and several others, the answer is simple: opportunity. Many of the company leaders in the federal IT sector view their companies as excellent long-term investments and have been scooping up shares accordingly. And why not? So far this year, Legg Mason's Federal IT Services Index companies have outperformed their commercial counterparts.Also sure to catch the attention of integrators and their partners are a pair of cover stories written by Staff Writer Nick Wakeman. One covers the General Services Administration's forthcoming Professional Engineering Services schedule; the other tracks Science Applications International Corp.'s acquisition of Boeing Information Services.As journalists are wont to do, I must point out that SAIC's hot pursuit of the Boeing unit was first reported by Washington Technology in the April 26 issue. In his latest story, Nick talks to analysts and top industry officials to find out what Boeing Information Services brings to the table and how the deal repositions the nation's largest employee-owned research and engineering company.XXXSPLITXXX-