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The Amtower B2G Market Report Volume 4, #18, May 2, 2005 This newsletter is only sent to those who request it. Sign up for your free subscription at http://www.FederalDirect.net and if you like this newsletter, please pass it along to your colleagues. To unsubscribe, see directions below. The newsletter is posted each Monday at www.FederalDirect.net, and the latest "Off-Center Observations" is on the home page. All back issues available at http://www.federaldirect.net/newsletterarchives.html) AMTOWER OFF-CENTER OBSERVATIONS Item: It is an intriguing and positive sign that the Information Technology Association of America, Professional Services Council, Contract Services Association, and the Coalition for Government Procurement have formed a coalition (One GSA Coalition) to jointly express the industry point of view regarding the planned reorganization of GSA. The question I would like addressed during the process is not whether FSS can handle multiple contracts, but whether it is doing a good job on the GSA Schedule. Too often I hear horror stories from vendors regarding the length of time it takes for simple contract additions, or about the use-ability of GSA Advantage. At various forums over the past year or so FSS officials have claimed to addressed this issue of Schedule changes, but I keep hearing these stories… Item: JupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation, recently reported that the number of online adults who prefer the Internet as their main source of news has grown over 35% in the last four years, at the expense of television and newspapers. Currently, over 26% of online adults prefer the Internet for national and international news, compared to 19% in 2001.This would apply more for those of us who need business news, as there is so little on our market in traditional media outlets. It also reflects a trend noted in the annual Market Connections study of IT buying habits, regarding the web as a primary source of information on companies, products and services. Item: There is a renewed effort to on the part of contractors to stake out the high ground in national security. Anteon has started a campaign that involves space, PR and radio. And have you heard the CACI radio ads? The spots end with the tag line: Ever Vigilant. This reminds me of when Dan Rather ended the newscast with Courage, but considering the Iraq prison scandal and the recently released report what came to my mind was Ever Vigilante. Item: Radio spots on WFED include the Monster Government sponsoring the spot highlighting the Chief Human Capital Officers. What is amusing about this ad is the commercial portion emphasizes the Monster capability of handling all the resumes and job postings. The first time I heard the ad was the day after I read in one of the trade publications that Monster crashed because of the volume of resumes and job postings. Item: An article in the Washington Post this week highlighted the post-election drop in ratings for partisan political talk shows. Especially hard hit was WMAL, 630 AM. Personally I would like to see a talk show germane to our business community – The Business of Government. Interviews with groups like the above-mentioned One GSA Coalition, contracting officers, thought leaders in government and industry, major systems integrators, and the like would be germane to tens of thousands in the DC area. In Washington, this is our business and a huge part of the community and economy, and a show like this should be well received if it were well done. Not that I have an opinion.
Feedback from the Customer Service article last week has been overwhelmingly. There are too many software (and other) download and alleged customer service (offshore with really bad accents) to share, but here are some highlights. Bill McGoldrick wrote: I had the same issue with the Norton Internet Security and the only way to fix it was to disable the Parental Controls. Then it works! Johnny Wilkinson said: Your customer service nightmares are more and more common to me as well. Despite all the technology, it's amazing to me how much more respect (and $$$) I give to companies to who actually answer the phone on the initial ring. The worker utilization reports will look bad to those who brave this approach, but the customer loyalty is immeasurable long term. Finally this from Steve Worthington: I read with interest and painful recall of my own similar experience in upgrading my antivirus software about 2 months ago. The details and scenario were uncannily the exact same - except my experience was with McAfee. I was satisfied with my McAfee antivirus software's performance until I went to upgrade to the latest version. I could have paid a small fee to continue to get the updates on my older version of McAfee. Instead, being a homeowner user of IT and not sophisticated in the technology, I thought I would "do it right" and pay more and buy the upgrade. My computer, internet and email all were working just fine; but, I felt that I was taking a future risk if I did not do the upgrade. I'll keep my story short and just say that I bought the upgrade – which took about half an hour to do the deal. Then, it took about an hour to do the online upgrade install. After installing, not only was I not able to get my email, my entire system went bonkers and then froze up. I tried all the online "help" items in the menu like the fellow in the email below did. Finally in frustration, I went to "paid:" tech support which took me to a lady in India working out of her home. She must have been tending to her kids at the same time because I could hear them crying in the background and someone talking. She took me through a number of steps on my computer - only to get to the end - 1/2 hour later to find out that my computer - being an older Gateway model - could not be supported by the latest McAfee version. She said she would email me a patch which never came. Here I was at 11:00 at night with a computer that no longer worked, over 3 hours of frustrating time spent and wasted and $60 spent for the McAfee upgrade which was not compatible with my computer. I ended up finding a local fellow who did home computer repairs who came out and corrected everything for me including re-installing my old version of McAfee. I paid $150 for this person's services to undo the damage done by trying to install the McAfee upgrade; I paid $60 for the upgrade; and, a few weeks later I got my phone bill which had a charge of $130 for the overseas call to the tech support help line in India. I would like to register a complaint to McAfee but there is no one to call and I am reluctant to try to register my complaint by email. My purpose in relating this story is to say that the experience the person below had with Norton is not unique to Norton. The exact same business practice is being utilized by McAfee as well. I went through exactly the same scenario as he did - step-by-step - including being connected to planet X (in this case - India). I am afraid that this is symptomatic of the industry - not unique to a particular manufacturer.
Beware of the schlock vendors, producing “black hole” events, events that eat your money with no significant return! EVENTS LISTED BELOW ARE WORTH ATTENDING: May 5, Government Marketing Best Practices, Denver, 7:30-11:30 AM, http://www.federaldirect.net/bestpractices2005.html May 12th, HAS THE TIME COME? INFORMATION SHARING AND THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY, ITAA, 11:00 a.m.- 1:30 PM (with lunch) at the Ritz Carlton Tysons Corner; $150 for non-ITAA members, $125 for ITAA members. Features Liz Sampson (Deputy Director for Community Interoperability and Information Sharing, CIA), Bill Dawson (Deputy Intelligence Community CIO, Intelligence Community), Gordon Lederman (Counsel, Special Bipartisan Staff, Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee), Robert Myhill (Professional Staff Member, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence), Sam Visner (Natl Security and Intelligence Expert, Consultant to President's Commission on Intelligence Capabilities of the US): register at http://www.itaa.org/ May 16, 2005 Federal IT Marketing Report Breakfast Executive Briefing, 7:30- 9:00 AM, Tower Club, Vienna, VA $45 in advance; $55.00 on-site; reservations strongly recommended; fee includes breakfast. Register online at www.marketconnectinc.com/events or contact Jamie Faulkner, 703-378-2025, jamief@marketconnectinc.com May 23-24: Small Business Procurement Conference, Oklahoma City, http://www.fbcinc.com/wvo2005/ May 25-26: GovSec, Washington DC Convention Center, National Trade Productions, www.GovSecInfo.com June 7-8, 2005 Incident Management: Is Your Agency Ready? Continental Ballroom, Cafritz Conference Center George Washington University 800 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC (Foggy Bottom Metro Stop) www.digitalgovernment.comJune 7-9: FedFleet, Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center Nashville, TN; conference, workshops, training opportunities. If you are involved directly or indirectly in planes, boats or automobiles, this is the place to be. Online registration is available for attendees and exhibitors at www.fedfleet.org or you can register by phone at 1-800-315-4333. June 13-14, 2005 (Exhibits June 13) Creating Electronic Records Management (ERM) within Enterprise Content Management Systems (ECMS), Cafritz Conference Center, 800 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC (Foggy Bottom Metro Stop) www.digitalgovernment.com
As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome. Thanks The Amtower B2G Market Report is published by Amtower & Company, and is written for companies targeting the government marketplace. The opinions expressed are those of Mark Amtower unless otherwise noted. Contact us at Amtower & Company, PO Box 314, Highland, MD 20777-0314 (301-924-0058). This material is copyrighted and may not be duplicated, reprinted or otherwise replicated without written permission of the publisher. Email subscriptions are free by request: sign up at www.FederalDirect.net |
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