Evolution, not revolution

With this issue, we introduce a new tagline for Washington Technology and announce the launch of our new Web site.

We've changed the tagline to "The National Magazine for Government Contractors" from "Business Intelligence for Government Systems Integrators."

The dropping of "systems integrators" reflects how the marketplace has changed.

While systems integrators remain the heart of our readership, we find we're serving readers at many other companies: technology companies, resellers, managed services providers, consultants and professional services firms.

We also felt that the tagline needed to expand in scope to accommodate the growth of outsourcing and managed services; a growing percentage of work that contractors are doing today doesn't quite fit the term "systems integration."

Many of the companies we write about are taking on projects such as processing passports and student loans or running finance and human resource functions, which aren't traditional IT projects but are rich in IT nonetheless.

We also want to embrace other kinds of work that the companies our readers work for are doing, such as providing professional, engineering and scientific services.

The addition of the word "national" also reflects significant change ?
so much of the work you do today is national in scope and impact. Our readership outside of the Washington area is about double our around-the-beltway readership. That demographic has been true for at least a decade, and we wanted our tagline to acknowledge that.

The second change with this issue is the launch of our new Web site. Months of planning have gone into this, and you'll find our site has a new layout and new tools for finding the stories and information on which Washington Technology has built its reputation.

A more detailed explanation appears on Page 4, but what I'm proudest about is the framework that this redesign gives us for growth.

Maurice Bakley and his Web team have done a phenomenal job laying a foundation for more and better things to come.

We hope you enjoy, and find useful, the changes we've made ? we think they'll help us serve you better. As always, let us know what you think; we thrive on it.

E-mail Editor Nick Wakeman at nwakeman@1105infogroup.com.