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(Sign up for your free subscription at http://www.FederalDirect.net and if you like this, please pass this along to your colleagues. To unsubscribe, email me at amtower@erols.com). Past issues available at http://www.federaldirect.net/newsletterarchives.html)

1) Amtower Off-Center Observations: Starting off on the Right Foot
2) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: E-gregious Behavior
3) SmartPay 2003 Results for MicroPurchase, Fleet and Travel
4) One Minute Marketing Clinic: What to Look for in 2004
5) Upcoming Events

Amtower Off-Center Observations: Starting off on the Right Foot

The One Minute Marketing Clinic in this issue is the 2004 “what to watch for” from some of my friends. Though it may take more than a minute this week, it is time well spent.

I thought I could lay off events for a few weeks (see also The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, below), but I guess if there are fish in the barrel, or email in the in-box, you best stock up on ammo, or in my case, attitude. I fully anticipate getting another “I was extremely disappointed…” letter (it would be my third) from PostNewsweekTech, but what the heck, play to your strength. Besides, you can never get too many letters.

FOSE banner advertising at the Washington Technology site goes like this: (first banner) “Exhibit at FOSE” - (flash to second banner) “Influence millions” - (flash to third banner) “Each FOSE attender oversees an average budget of $3.24 million (Independent Survey, April 2003).”

FOSE claims they had 19,000 attenders in 2003. Okay Amtower, do the math. 19,000 times 3.24 million equals $61.5 billion. $61.5 BILLION - Is it just me, or does this seem a tad high?

The “Independent Survey” was conducted by whom – Miss Cleo of the Psychic Network? Maybe the auditors that did Tyco, or Enron?

Washington Technology also reports (from one of my favorite reporters, Patience Wait), that WorldCom has a free “call home” program for Iraq based troops running from 12/22 – 1/5. I heard that AT&T was going to do this, but only if they could slam (make all involved parties involuntary new AT&T customers) all participants. AT&T is the leader in slamming complaints with the FCC. I filed one myself, and won.

Happy New Year to all!


THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY: THE LAW OF E-GREGIOUS BEHAVIOR

We will start 2004 with a new installment of Amtower’s Law: I will call it the Law of E-gregious Behavior and it goes like this: email should be short, sweet, and simple. Convoluted and confusing will lead to poor results.

So the example de jour: Market Access strikes again! They are hosting a “Continuity of Government Operations” conference on January 13, and the notice came out December 26. When you are asking for a full day of time from anyone, more than 18 days notice is usually required.

Take notes – this is how NOT to promote events via the email (these are actual quotes from the Market Access email)

1) hide your web site: “Call 703-807-2027 for information on how to contact our web site.”

2) don't tell anyone who will really be speaking: “Confirmed and Invited Speakers Include…”

3) educate them everywhere: “To learn how to view updated conference information please call our conference information line at 703-807-2027.”

4) be inconsistent about the title: "Continuity of Government Operations – COOP" (top of email); “Continuity of Business Operations – COOP Planning: Homeland Defense Training Conference™” (bottom of the email).

If I wanted to really nit-pick, I would start on the grammar, starting with the use of subordinate clauses. But I will not do this, primarily because my grammar is not that good. But it is better than Market Access. Let us hope the “conference” content surpasses the expectations created by the email.

Not that I have an opinion.



SMARTPAY 2003 RESULTS FOR FLEET, TRAVEL AND MICROPURCHASE

Travel card: $6.26 billion; 1.832.384 cardholders; 3,764,366 transactions
Fleet card: $594 million; 384,330 cardholders; 21,123,699 transactions
MicroPurchase card: $16.4 billion; 326,850 cardholders; 26,494,400 transactions

Over $23 billion - not as much money as FOSE “influences”, but not too shabby!

ONE-MINUTE MARKETING CLINIC: WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN 2004

From Amtower:
Look for more nebulous offers from companies you have never heard of for events, publications, email programs and more. In most cases, these will be of minimal value at best. Remember the admonition of Laocoon, the chief priest of Troy: beware of Greeks bearing gifts. Check credentials for a couple things: length of time in government market, vitae of principals, BPA audit statement if a publication, and client references. Any company that will not provide references should be avoided. I anticipate even more nebulous, unfocused events vying for your time and money in 2004. Email me with any questions about these and I will give my honest opinion each time.

I look for an increase in spam, and embedded in that spam, cookies and spyware.

SmartBuy may gain some momentum in 2004. SmartBuy is the software licensing program that has shown some signs of life over the past year. Information in the interim guidelines can be viewed at www.cio.gov.

SBA also has new small business classification rules for computer product resellers. Washington Technology reported on December 29 that a new rule (takes effect 1/28/04) will reduce the requirement from 500 employees to 150 employees for a value-add reseller to qualify as a small business. The NAICS code is 541519. There was some controversy over this in 2003, as some larger companies were still claiming small business status. To determine if you business qualifies as “small” by Federal contracting standards, go to http://www.sba.gov/size/indextableofsize.html.

Will we witness the demise of larger trade shows and the growth of smaller venues? EGov, founded by Chuck Lockard and Izzy Feldman, is no more. Federal Computer Week, which bought the show a few years back, is continuing the eGov Institute, which produces other events, but has discontinued the bigger show.

Look for election year posturing from the otherwise unemployable running for office.
****
From Richard Mackey, www.CapitalReps.com:
GSA is set to pilot electronic mod approvals to speed GSA modification process and rapid updating to GSA Advantage, which typically is 30 to 60+ days old, hence the abysmal placement of online orders (less than .0025% of all 2003 GSA sales ($26.2 billion).

****
David Powell, of the Federal Business Council writes: “We've seen a trend towards more niche-specific events for government groups. The trend we're seeing is a move towards agency-hosted national conferences. Whether it is by location or by area of responsibility, agencies are hosting events to cover key technology policy and implementation issues for an audience of related personnel from across the agency. Without a doubt, these events provide an incredible opportunity to connect face-to-face with the right people. One key difference of these events is that they are planned 90 to 180 days in advance, so leave discretionery $ in the budget to cover these as they present themselves. FBC will produce over 40 of these agency-hosted conferences in 2004. This is in addition to the 150+ in-agency table-top events we already produce.”
****
From Jim Kerrigan, www.colmarcorporation.com
Jim Kerrigan, COLMAR Corporation, 703-444-8453

1. Some agencies are experiencing dramatic increases in IT funding, while most agencies move along at a fairly steady pace. In general, the agencies with the big increases are those which are frequently in the news, for one reason or another:
· IT funding at the Department of Homeland Security grows from $1.8 billion in FY 2002 to $4.0 billion in FY 2005.
· IT funding at the Federal Trade Commission rises from $8.5 million in FY 2002 to $24.5 million in FY 2005. This is due mainly to the "Do-not-call" list.
· IT funding at the Security & Exchange Commission rose from $62.7 million in FY 2002 to$162.4 million in FY 2003. It then backs off slightly in subsequent years. This extra funding will help the SEC prosecute growing corporate malfeasance.
· IT funding at the small Business Administration rises from $34.8 billion in FY 2002 to $59 billion in FY 2005. In this case the additional funding supports IT infrastructure and workforce transformation. Next year the SBA will be 50 years old, and some additional legislation is planned to strengthen SBA's mission.

2. As we point out on our web site this month, Congress is changing some rules in order to help protect American jobs. The Omnibus Budget Act, already passed by the House and expected to be passed by the Senate on or about January 20, provides an example. In particular, the following passage, from the Thomas/Voinovich amendment to Transportation/Treasury Appropriations, Section 647 (e), may concern some contractors:
"(e) An activity or function of an executive agency that is converted to contractor performance under Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76 may not be performed by the contractor at a location outside the United States except to the extent that such activity or function was previously performed by Federal Government Employees outside the United States."
We just love Congressional syntax. Anyway, this might concern system integrators or product companies who perform software development or help desk support from another English-speaking country. For example, Dell provides help desk support from both India and the Philippines. Regardless of whether the employees work directly for the contractor or for a native subcontractor, this would violate the law, possibly leading to big problems for the contractor. We provide more discussion about this legislation on our web site.
****
From Lisa Dezzutti, www.marketconnectinc.com
Lisa Dezzutti, President, Market Connections, Inc. Research You Can Act On 703-378-2025 x103

Customer Satisfaction Still Rules

Customer service will remain the most important factor and influencer in choosing a supplier of IT products and services for federal government IT professionals. As more and more astute federal marketers regularly measure how well they are meeting (and preferably exceeding) customer expectations, those companies who don't will be at a distinct disadvantage in the federal marketplace.

The trend in measuring customer satisfaction is moving away from an annual survey to either a monthly or quarterly measurement program. This is particularly true for government contractors who want to identify any possible issues on major contracts – and position themselves well for contract re-competes.

Regular customer satisfaction measurement allows for early identification and resolution of issues before clients become too disgruntled and switch suppliers. It also provides opportunities to identify successes and testimonials that can be leveraged for additional revenue in other accounts.
****
Mark Zelinger of Z Associates writes:
At Zelinger Associates, we saw several trends in 2003 that we believe are likely to continue into 2004:

Civilian agencies, given the impetus of Enterprise Architectures, began focusing on solutions rather than point products and stovepipe remedies. More to the point, the Enterprise Architecture process helped focus Agency management back to what the Agency is tasked with delivering by Congress. Point products continued to be purchased, but the integrators given the responsibility for delivering complete answers were also given unprecedented control over the content and distribution of the components that went into their solutions. Integrators and technology staffing companies were kept incredibly busy by the growing demands of civilian agencies for technical and programmatic help and management.

As 2003 comes to an end, budgets remain a challenge for many Civilian agencies whose funding status remains unresolved, while Homeland Security still struggles with defining and funding strategic initiatives. Airport security is enhanced through much more stringent physical bag- and people-checking, but the back-end airport wide-area-network remains on the drawing board.

DoD agencies focused on the two wars in 2003 and today are going through a fascinating evolution on how they field and implement systems for Tactical, Strategic, and morale, welfare and recreation (MWR) use. The value of better inter-branch communications has become self-evident: the Networked Soldier and Network-Centric Warfare gained momentum and followers in 2003. Programs such as Blue Force Tracking and technologies such as broadband IP-based VSAT, IP-based Voice and Instant Messaging, all with functional encryption systems, have dramatically enhanced the capabilities of the military to win convincing engagements while minimizing loss of American life and enemy civilian lives.

The old saying is that the world is a small place. What we learned in 2003 is that we didn't know just how small it truly is. Each nation is connected in ways that Americans had given little thought to. The seeming rise of terrorism, natural disasters, war, corruption, poverty and the scourge of diseases like AIDS and "Mad Cow" gave 2003 a "crisis du jour" feeling. Driven by the ever-expanding role that the United States is playing in each one of these crises, all agencies are now exploring ways to deliver services around the world - either through physically contributing manpower or funding in times of foreign disasters - or through enhanced location-independent services such as the web.

Certain agencies already have worldwide missions: the military, the State Department, Customs, Immigration, etc. To them, the requirement for "reachback" to the United States is nothing new. But by the end of 2004 nearly every agency will have worldwide plans for reachback to the United States. We're not sure yet whether this is a hope or an expectation, but now that the bills are coming due for INMARSAT service, we believe it will finally be relegated to handle missions for which it was designed and is best suited: one- or two-m an deployments and sporadic use.

2004 comes in with great promise: an expanding, healthier e conomy; conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan that could be settling down and an expanded awareness of the United States' place in the world. The 2004 technology world will continue producing wonderful new innovations: faster everything; cheaper 2nd generation products; faster wires and glass; longer-distance and faster wireless; bigger and higher resolution displays; smaller denser chips; more mobile information devices; more interesting industrial design; location-independent networking and more musical, more recordable, higher resolution, more Internet computing that is at the same time more distributed and more centralized. Smarter directories, dumber PCs, dedicated speech engines, mainframes and tapes will continue to thrive and grow, and lastly, (the networking industry hopes) a real reason to adopt IPv6.

Everything just mentioned will come true in 2004. Well, OK, except that part about IPv6.
****
One more from Amtower:
Not that it has anything to do with the Federal market, but the European Common market will dissolve because Germany and France do not believe THEY have to follow the same rules as the other countries.
And this is a surprise to whom?


Upcoming Events

The 2004 Spring Government Marketing Best Practices Road Show will be visiting Chicago, Denver, San Jose and San Antonio in April. Stay tuned for dates and locations.

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