ChannelTrends: Government Sector Remains Strong for IT

Despite the news highlighting how much debt the federal, state and local governments have racked up, the outlook for solution providers that support this sector is still promising. While the politicians debate budget priorities, a great opportunity exists for savvy channel partners who can address a myriad of issues facing municipalities, regional agencies and other public sector groups. The technology needs for government organizations don’t differ much from business customers, although the procurement and contract processes are a bit more complicated. Budgets are getting tighter for most organizations these days, but the work continues to pile up and greater efficiencies are needed to get it all done. The government opportunity for solution providers is greater than ever, and this week’s news clearly emphasizes that point.

Study Shows Efficiency Is Key Government IT Driver

How do cities, states and the federal government deal with the ever escalating threat of computer security attacks, the need to create greater workforce efficiencies, and replacement of outdated systems – all on smaller budgets? Solution providers play a significant role in meeting that challenge, but they have to be prepared to offer the required systems and services cost-effectively.

According to CompTIA’s Second Annual Government IT Purchase Plans study, the top factor motivating federal, state and municipal procurement in the next 12 months is the need for more efficiency and reduced long-term costs. Sixty percent of respondent s identified this as an “influential” or “very influential” factor, so VARs should put this at the top of their list of considerations. That doesn’t mean you have to lead with price or leasing when building sales proposals, but should demonstrate the 3, 5 or 10-year costs and savings from your recommended solutions.

More than half of respondents (54 percent) also indicated mandate or regulation compliance is a key factor in their IT spending. With substantial focus on everything government workers and agencies do these days, officials want systems in place to help ensure their team is following the rules. This is especially important when it comes to backup and disaster recovery and content management, with VARs that can help them “dot the i’s and cross the t’s” especially valuable to their organizations.

Other procurement factors include responding to the needs of citizens and staff (53 percent), modernizing aging systems (47 percent) and employee training for their IT staff and end users (44 percent). Government agencies have a variety of other needs, each offering an opportunity for VARs and MSPs.

According to Amy Carrado, director of market research for CompTIA, “Technology providers should consider providing training sessions as a value-add when government organizations purchase a product, or offering mini-tutorials to employees at agencies where there is potential for purchases in the near future.” Those training priorities include computer maintenance, help desk and tech support, security, disaster recovery and backup, networking, project management, business intelligence and data management and analysis.

Overcome Government Cloud Concerns

One of the hottest technology categories today is the cloud, and government agencies are no exception. That statement comes with a caveat; some federal, state and local governments are reluctant to use public clouds but favor private or hybrid clouds for their data needs. While that may limit some offerings from Google or Rackspace, it creates an opening for more comprehensive value added services from solution providers and vendors.

Quest Software released a study this week which gauged the perceptions of virtualization and cloud computing among federal, state and local, government workers and higher education IT management professionals. In this survey, 36.1 percent of respondents indicate that a hybrid cloud model will best meet their organization’s needs in five years, while 28.2 percent suggest a private cloud model is better.

One key difference between the survey groups is that federal workers prefer private clouds more than the other groups (37 percent compared to 23.6 percent for state and local, and 18.1 percent for higher education respondents). Only 7.3 percent indicated that the public cloud would best meet their needs, presenting a potential roadblock when a VAR attempts to include that option in a proposal or long-term project.

A tip to the wise: query the decision makers for their cloud perceptions prior to designing solution options. If their perception on public cloud is highly negative, start your presentations with private or hybrid models. Each of these options actually create greater value add capabilities for VARs, with server and software needs in addition to a number of support services. While the public cloud may be less costly for your government clients, if they feel more comfortable with the other options it can be a win-win situation. Cloud is here, it’s just a matter of deciding which model works best for which market.

Brian Sherman is founder of Tech Success Communications, specializing in editorial content and consulting for the IT channel. His previous roles include chief editor at Business Solutions magazine and industry alliances director with Autotask. Contact Brian at Bsherman@techsuccesscommunications.com.