Integrators see their role grow as convergence hits IT management

When we’ve talked about convergence in the past, we’ve mostly focused on the technology side of the equation.

But there is another convergence going on, according to analysis from the value-added distributor immixGroup, which held its annual Government Sales Summit on Thursday.

I sat through a presentation on the civilian budget that threw a spotlight on management convergence at government agencies, and how it is changing the way companies, particularly technology manufacturers, need to approach their customers.

Management convergence at many agencies is being driven by the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act, which is centralizing IT management under department and component agency CIOs, according to Chris Wiedemann and Tomas O’Keefe, analysts in the immixGroup market intelligence group.

So control of IT budgets is beginning to shift toward the CIO offices at many agencies. The process is not complete, so the degree of this shift varies from agency to agency, they said. But it has become essential for companies to get involved with the CIO offices earlier in the process as they market their technologies and solutions, Wiedemann and O’Keefe said.

Another driver of change in the market is the General Services Administration’s 18F group and the U.S. Digital Services teams that are being created at many agencies such as the Homeland Security Department, Veterans Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Defense Department.

The early success of the Digital Service has prompted the Obama administration to ask for more funding for them in the fiscal 2016 budget, they said.

But whether the funding comes through or not, the influence of 18F and the Digital Service is being felt as agencies are increasingly interested in the type of solutions these groups champion, namely open standards, interoperability and collaboration.

Wiedemann and O’Keefe said companies should emphasize how their solutions embody those attributes.

The immixGroup analysts also broke down spending trends at several large agencies and a consistent theme was the growing importance of large systems integrators.

As FITARA has pushed more centralization of IT management, the role of the SIs has grown as CIOs are relying on them for development work as well as for vetting commercial software products before they are deployed by the agencies.

Wiedemann and O’Keefe made a strong argument that technology vendors need to court the SIs as much as they court the government customer.

Below I have listed the top SIs and contracts at several of the agencies that Wiedemann and O’Keefe presented during their hour-plus briefing. So, for example, if you want to do more business at Health and Human Services, you need to target Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Accenture and others. The most commonly used contracts at HHS include CIO-SP3, the Virtual Data Center Prime contract, GSA Schedule 70 and Enterprise Systems Development full and open and small business contracts.

Staying with HHS for a moment, it’s important to note that most of its top contracts are its own vehicles, so that tells you something about their procurement culture.

HHS also has several large component agencies -- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each component has its own set of dominate contractors. For example, Accenture is a major player at CMS, thanks in large part to the Healthcare.gov contract.

The message is that you need to gather this kind of information on the specific agency you are targeting. Wiedemann and O’Keefe noted several times that partnership with the SIs and valued-added resellers can play a big part in a successful go to market strategy.

Here is the breakdown of the top agencies. All the dollars below are for fiscal 2015.

HHS

Top Contractors

• HP -- $326M
• Lockheed -- $260.5M
• GD -- $219.6M
• Northrop Grumman -- $184.2M
• United Health Group -- $181.6M
• Accenture -- $157.3M
• CSC -- $143.2M
• Wellpoint Inc. -- $112.2M
• Booz Allen -- $109.3M
• ICF International -- $97.2M

Top Contracts

• CIO-SP3 - $533.2M
• VDCP -- $500.3M
• Schedule 70 -- $476.1M
• ESD full and open -- $426.3M
• ESD small business -- $277.1M
• CIMS -- $214.2M
• ECS III -- $117.8M
• SEWP V -- $107.1M

HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT

Top Contractors

• CSC -- $584.7M
• IBM -- $230.2M
• Mythics -- $173.2M
• HP -- $148.5M
• Unisys -- $144.7M
• Dell -- $103.6M
• GD IT -- $102.7M
• SAIC -- $98.4M
• ESCGOV -- $96.4M
• Wildflower Intl. -- $56.5M

Top contracts

• Eagle – $543.1M
• Schedule 70 -- $326.9M
• FirstSource 2 -- $310.2M
• Eagle 2 -- $279.1M
• Eagle 2 SB -- $166.7M
• Alliant -- $129.6M

VETERANS AFFAIRS

Top contractors

• Lockheed Martin -- $321.9M
• Booz Allen -- $233.6M
• Accenture -- $194.5M
• MicroTech -- $180.6M
• AT&T -- $154.9M
• HP -- $116.3M
• Mitre -- $104.6M
• SRA -- $101.1M
• CACI -- $85.2M
• Four Points -- $82.6M

Top contracts

• T4 -- $1.4B
• Schedule 70 -- $418.2M
• SEWP IV -- $251.1M
• SEWP V -- $209.9M
• Networx -- $187.2M

TREASURY

Top contractors

• Deloitte -- $143.7M
• Northrop Grumman -- $112.9M
• Accenture -- $106.1M
• IBM -- $105.6M
• AT&T -- $84.2M
• ISCG -- $68.5M
• Booz Allen -- $65.8M
• Iron Bow -- $50.5M
• immixGroup -- $44.6M
• Verizon -- $41.1M

Top contracts

• TIPSS-4 – $559.2M
• Schedule 70 --$360.6M
• SEWP IV -- $93.4M
• SEWP V -- $68.7M
• Networx -- $60.7M
• Networx Universal -- $56M
• TIPSS 4 SB -- $38.2M
• CNX II -- $35.2M

TRANSPORTATION

Top contractors

• Lockheed Martin -- $358.5M
• Harris -- $293M
• Raytheon -- $218.2M
• Mitre -- $137.7M
• Engility -- $97.6M
• CDW -- $58.1M
• General Dynamics -- $56.4M
• CSC -- $52.9M
• SRA -- $52.3M
• Actionet -- $49.9M

Top contracts

• EFAST MOA -- $173M
• TMIS -- $103.2M
• ETASS -- $87.1M
• Schedule 70 -- $39.1M
• TIPS -- $38.2M
• FITSS II -- $22.4M
• ATRES -- $12.7M
• SE2020 -- $10.7M

JUSTICE

Top contractors

• CACI -- $153.8M
• Lockheed Martin -- $111.6M
• CDW -- $85.3M
• Deloitte - $74.8M
• General Dynamics -- $63.9M
• Rolling Bay -- $62.3M
• SRA -- $61.5M
• Altegrity -- $59.5M
• Mitre -- $56.7M
• Booz Allen – $53.9M

Top contracts

• Schedule 70 -- $425.2M
• Mega 4 ALS -- $204.3M
• Mobis -- $119.7M
• ITSSIV -- $118.1M
• SEWP IV -- $94.1M
• SEWP V – $77.1M

INTERIOR

Top contractors

• Tribalco -- $84M
• SRA -- $51.8M
• SGT -- $40.7M
• Accenture -- $34.8M
• IBM -- $25.4M
• SRI -- $24M
• CSC -- $20.3M
• American Systems -- $18M
• NCI -- $17.9M
• Northrop Grumman -- $17.9M

Top contracts

• Schedule 70 -- $159.8M
• SEWP V – $79.8M
• ITES 2S -- $37.8M
• CIO-SP3 -- $35.1M
• SEWP IV -- $34.1M
• STARS II -- $26.1M
• Alliant -- $24.9M
• TSSC, EROS -- $21M