With the rapid growth in IT spending over the past four years, the competitive landscape in the federal government market has intensified. As I have done for previous Top 100 issues, here are some of my observations about the federal IT market.
Cities from around the world are knocking on Philadelphia's door, wanting to know how the City of Brotherly Love launched a wireless network for businesses and citizens.
Conventional wisdom asserts that state and local government is a market of niches. Among the more obvious ones are technology niches (data vs. voice), political niches (red states vs. blue states), policy niches (pro-outsourcing vs. anti-outsourcing) and market niches based on government programs (food stamps vs. emergency response).
Systems integrators and IT companies that want to keep abreast of the latest trends and innovations in state and local contracting need look no further than midsize states.
Information technology outsourcing is a tough sell in the state and local government market. An arena defined largely by the contract structure, scope and transition of ownership, IT outsourcing can be sidetracked and curtailed by obstacles ranging from turf issues and security concerns to labor unions and public opinion.
Systems integrators and several states are watching to see whether Texas will succeed with a groundbreaking project that involves outsourcing human services and Medicaid eligibility determination.
If there is one characteristic of the state and local market that sets it apart from its federal counterpart, it's the absence of a healthy and sustainable market for mega deals. The lack of mega deals is the primary reason so many state and local systems integrators struggle to grow their sales.
Cars paying electronically as they zip through a toll booth might be just the tip of the iceberg of the many ways state and local governments can use radio frequency identification technology.
The Contracts and Risk Management Department of the Port of Tacoma, Wash., wants information management software for contracts, financial, program and document management. An RFP is expected in July.
The Montgomery County, Md., Office of Procurement wants to conduct a requirements study for enterprise resource planning. An RFP is expected in April. The requirements study will include evaluation, recommendation and possible implementation of an ERP system.
The Florida Department of Children and Families is seeking vendors to provide rapid application-development capabilities, data integration and Web-based applications for an alternate development environment. An RFP is expected in April.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission wants a vendor to provide hardware maintenance support for department-owned and managed equipment. The RFP is expected in the next few months.
The roster of players might be the same as last year's, but it isn't business as usual in the state and local government market. Many systems integrators, even those holding strong positions, are pushing into new lines of business as a way to enlarge their slice of the state and local pie.
Several state and local jurisdictions have established intelligence centers to fuse terrorist threat information from multiple sources and different levels of government.
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