No. 16: IBM builds on its success

IBM Corp. started 2008 with a new leader atthe helm of its public-sector practice. ToddRamsey, who has worked at IBM for 36 years? most recently as the company's general managerof global government industry ? took overfrom Anne Altman as managing director of itsU.S. federal business in early January.Ramsey said his course for continued growthin government markets is to build on success,going after organizational transformation andgreen opportunities.Doing more with less is a key goal of the governmentbecause flat budgets are expected atfederal agencies during the next several years,he said.The company excelled in 2007, doing$1.8 billion in prime contracting business tocome in at No. 16 on Washington Technology'sTop 100 list of federal contractors."Anytime the government'sspending is constrained,it's a concern,"Ramsey said. "But in thisparticular case, it will helpour customers become morecreative and thoughtfulabout how to save operatingcosts in the future."IBM's focus is on makingsure that its offerings canachieve the savings the government is seekingand that it has the contract vehicles to deliverthem, he said.IBM's commitment to helping governmentmake the most of technology kicked into highgear last year. For example, the companyrecently acquired a number of firms with toolsand technologies designed to optimizeinfrastructure, including Cognos ULC, aprovider of business intelligence tools inpublic-sector agencies.IBM also established the ServiceOriented Architecture Institute to helpfederal agencies identify new ways tobuild and use information technology systemsto gain greater efficiencies andenhanced flexibility and reduce costs formanagement, application developmentand operations.Ramsey said he plans to use his globalexperience to introduce federal agenciesto solutions that have already beenproven to work for other governments,including pricing systems that are reducingtraffic jams and road maintenanceexpenditures in Stockholm and Londonand case management systems to helpfight fraud and abuse in health care andsocial services.Packaging solutionsfor reuse "enables our customersto be much moreefficient in how quickly?and successfully they canimplement," Ramsey said.IBM also enjoyed severalother successes during thepast year. A crucial winfrom the Air Force in Aprilwill bolster IBM's presence in the growinghealth IT arena, Ramsey said. The $51 million,four-year knowledge management and trainingsustainment contract is part of a DefenseDepartment initiative to provide service membersand their families with lifelong electronicmedical records.One black mark for the company, though,was IBM's weeklong suspension in March fromnew government work because of allegedimproprieties involving an EnvironmentalProtection Agency contract. The suspensionwas lifted, but the investigation is continuing.In other wins, IBM captured in February thehighly sought-after $9.4 million HighAssurance Platform program from the NationalSecurity Agency, which lets the company partnerwith NSA on the next generation of high-assuranceworkstations, servers and pervasive-computingtechnology. The project is alsoimportant, Ramsey said, because it will tacklethe issue of integrating networks handling differentlevels of security.