From many comes one

Cisco Systems Inc. is expanding itsGovernment Services unit to includeits state and local, education, andhealth care services groups. The newPublic Sector Organization formallybegins operations Aug. 1, the start ofCisco's fiscal year.The idea is to provide more focus anddirection on government customers,said Bruce Klein, formerly vice presidentof U.S. federal sales,who leads the new group as PublicSector Organization vice president.Patrick Finn has succeeded Klein as vicepresident of the federal group withinthe newly enlarged organization.Under the previous arrangement,state, local, education and publiclyfunded health care services werespread across several business lines,Klein said. The realignment, whichwas on the drawing boardfor two years, is an attemptto blend Cisco's various systemsand solutions that were previouslyseparate and broaden its offerings.For example, within Cisco's UnitedStates, Canada and Japan businessdivision, separate groups includedenterprise customers, commercial customersfor smaller clients, and the federalbusiness sector. In addition, there was a servicesreseller business, which included AT&TInc., Verizon Inc. and QwestCommunications Inc. "State, local, educationand publicly funded health care was mixed inthe enterprise" and "commercial groups," hesaid.And as the company integrated its voice,text, video, mobility and security offerings,"we saw a lot of benefit to the customerby being better coordinated from anorganizational perspective," Kleinadded.Last year, in anticipation of the newstructure, Cisco created a "gov-ed" unitthat brought together employees whoworked with clients in federal governmentand education. They eventuallywere transferred into the new PublicSector Organization, along with thestate, local, and publicly funded healthcare employees to serve clients in thosemarkets."So we have sales and engineers andmanagers who have already worked inthat environment, but now we havethem all under one umbrella," Kleinsaid, although no one has had to move to anew location.When fully staffed, the public-sector groupwill increase to about 1,500 employees ?including a sales force, engineers and various managers. They will all help in solutions creationand development, finance and legalissues, reseller channels, and marketing, Kleinsaid. "It's a very big organization. We will havepeople all over the country"Cisco has also formed a shared-servicesorganization that will extend solutions acrossthe public sector, Klein said. For example, thecompany has developed a force protectionsolution that includes technology from severalsystems providers.The solution was designed for the DefenseDepartment to protect military bases fromintrusions and attacks, he said, but it couldalso be applicable for college campuses."We're talking to Virginia Tech exactly abouthow that could help them avoid [a repetitionof] the problems they had last year," Kleinsaid, referring to the April 2007 shootingdeaths of 32 students and faculty members bya lone gunman.The realignment also has other benefitsbecause it mirrors what some of Cisco's partnershave done, Klein added. "A lot of thepartner community has already organizedaround a public-sector go-to-market"arrangement, he said, citing as examplesNorthrop Grumman Corp., Apptis Inc. andGTSI Corp.Klein said Cisco's public-sector structure isa good model for companies with federalclients that are looking to expand theirbusiness."The way you go to market in state and localand education is very similar to how you go tomarket in federal. You have to understandcontracts, you have to understand the [requestfor proposals] process, you haveto understand teaming agreements," hesaid, because states and localities often havepurchasing arrangements similar to theGeneral Services Administration schedulecontracts. "You have to just become expert intheir regulations."What Cisco is doing makes good sense becausethe federal, state and local markets are closelylinked, said Warren Suss, president of SussConsulting Inc., a strategic planning and federalmarket research firm in Jenkintown, Pa."In some direct ways, the federal governmentestablishes networks and establishes the standardsthat the state and local entities need tofollow."Suss said the federal government is going tobecome an important test bed for solutionsthat will also be adopted by state, local andcommercial entities. "Processes like capturemanagement, proposals and the tracking ofopportunities, and opportunity pipelines andreview boards, that kind of discipline is verytransferable from the federal," he added.Capture management involves the integrationof corporate activities to win governmentcontracts."The thing you have to watch out for is takinga one-size-fits-all approach and using acookie cutter template that's developed for thefederal to try to apply to all state and localrequirements. That won't work," Suss said."Having a public-sector focus rather thansegmenting the public sector into its variousdimensions is something that we're seeingmore of," said David McClure, managing vicepresident at Gartner government."This is an era in public-sector IT whereclients are looking for shared services, for consolidation,for enterprisewide solutions," hesaid. "I think that's what's driving a lot of it."McClure cited as an example OracleCorp., which he said has decided to combineits federal, state and local government, highereducation, and K-12 education sectors into apublic-sector client base. Gartner has alsodone somewhat the same thing, he added."We're actually looking at higher ed, healthcare and government from a commonresearch perspective," he said. "That's verymuch in line with what we see Cisco doing."But if you bring the sectors together, thequestion becomes have you lost some of thecloseness to your customer base, McCluresaid."I don't think so. What this does, quite honestly,can strengthen your market presenceand your client understanding because youcan leverage your solutions across these public-sector entities."Klein said he doesn't expect to receive anycustomer feedback until at least the end of thefirst quarter or possibly six months."The whole idea is to get closer to customers,to be more domain experts for ourcustomer set and to provide solutions that areeither going to help them save money orimprove their capability."