The Amtower B2G Market Report

The Amtower B2G Market Report
Volume 3, #34, September 7, 2004

(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)

In this issue…
1) Amtower Off-Center Observations
2) The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: In defense of Input
3) Events
4) SmartPay Update: First Three Quarters of FY 2004 Reporting
5) One-Minute Marketing Clinic: End of FY Tactics

AMTOWER OFF-CENTER OBSERVATIONS

Item: For those who use direct mail, especially catalogs, as a primary marketing tool, the third annual B2G Catalog Summit, November 11 (DoubleTree O’Hare, Chicago) is a “must attend”. It is a one-day event filled with ideas you can take back to the office for immediate use. Among the presenters are web diva Amy Africa, database guru Bill Singleton, and GSA Schedule expert Richard Mackey. These are people I have worked with for years, and they are easily among the best at what they do. Mark (Big D) Del Franco of Catalog Age will lead a town-hall meeting on what’s working in B2G catalogs, and I will present my B2G “Best Practices”. The event is in a hotel less than 10 minutes from the airport. There will be limited seating (maximum of 75 attenders), so sign up now at www.FederalDirect.net/b2gsummit.html.

Reflection: In early 1984, I was interviewed for the Circulation Director job at Government Computer News. The interview was conducted by Peter Zuckerman and Israel (yes, Izzy) Feldman. I took the job. Yes, I had a job. Among the (1984) key employees at GCN was Jeff Erlichman. And yes, Dave Blumgart was there, too. At that time, the United States Professional Development Institute (USPDI) was a sister organization to GCN. USPDI provided various technical seminars and conferences in the early days of personal computers, before office suites occurred, when Microsoft was small, when Lotus and Borland were real, IBM dominated PCs and Dell wasn’t even there! Well, folks, USPDI is back, with Izzy, Peter and Jeff. And while I have made light of many event producers coming into the market, I would not do that here. This team represents a significant bandwidth, and a track record that truly helped define this market. And me – I left in 1985 to start Amtower & Company, helped by Izzy, Peter and Jeff. www.uspdi.org

Item: Last week I attributed “A billion here, a billion there. Pretty soon it starts to add up to some real money” to Barry Goldwater. Glen Wheless, CEO of VRCO (www.vrco.com), correctly points out that this is an original Everett Dirksen. VRCO occupies a neat space in the understanding of complex information, using interactive 3D platforms to create visual representations. Phil Kiviat (of Guerra, Kiviat & Flycik, www.govspecialists.com) and Paul Schindel of Symon (www.symon.com) also picked up this mis-appropriation.

Item: CDW received the APEX Award of Publication Excellence (APEX) for a New Magazine for Fed Tech, a publication CDW launched earlier this year for Federal managers. The APEX honors B2B publications. Kudos to editor Lee Copeland and her staff, and the entire CDWG group that supported her with ideas and contacts. Like the Booz Allen Strategy and Business magazine (truly a great business journal), Fed Tech is a thought journal for the federal IT community. Its presence is a welcome addition.

Not all companies have the resources to produce a legitimate business magazine, but every company can add thought pieces to their web site. It takes some hard work, including some real thoughts to share, but the result is worth it. Value-add content remains a major differentiator for web site.

Not that I have an opinion.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY: IN DEFENSE OF INPUT

When I ran the BIA email slamming Input last week, I should have prefaced it by saying never rely on one source when doing contracts. Here is a good clarification from another reader (one who checks in with me regularly), with my thanks:

“That doesn't seem fair to dump blame on Input, if that's what you are doing. Shame on anyone who relies on Input as their source for procurement documents while the procurement is underway. That isn't really the function of Input - and while this is a bit of a misstep, BIA should not have changed their strategy because of it, or even acknowledged its existence. Could it be that BIA needed an excuse to push the deal to next year? Did someone spend all their $$$?

I would compare Input to the Washington Post, and BIA to the Redskins. I read the Post and get good sports info. The Post reports on past and upcoming sporting events, and offers it all in a "one stop" reading
experience. The Redskins hold games and issue tickets. Now, lets say I hold tickets for an upcoming Skins game. Then the Washington Post lists the wrong start time and failed to mention certain parking regulations. If I miss the game based on this, that's my fault - I should first look at my ticket for the time, and if I didn't have a ticket (I wasn't on the bidders list) then I should take a long look at my chances of getting in at all.

The Post occasionally makes typos and omits info, but that doesn't mean the Skins should move or cancel games. Input is good at what they do, but being the PRIMARY source for documents from an active solicitation isn't what they do.

I'm most surprised that BIA did what they did. In a round-about way, this is a feather in Input's cap.

Not that I have an opinion...always interesting reading, Mark.”

EVENTS

FBI ITEC 2004, September 21-22, 2004, Wyndham Palace Resort & Spa/Events Center, Lake Buena Vista, FL www.fbcinc.com

Knowledge Management Boot Camp- An Effective KM Environment: Making It Happen
Sept. 27-28Cafritz Conference Center, GW University, Washington, DC (Foggy Bottom Metro Stop) www.digitalgovernment.com

Citizen Services: How to Develop and Integrated Approach to Service Citizens Better
October 12-13 Cafritz Conference Center, GW University, Washington, DC (Foggy Bottom Metro Stop) www.digitalgovernment.com

Federal Information Assurance Conference (FIAC) 2004, October 26-28. 2004, University of Maryland University College Inn and Conference Center, Adelphi, MD Keynote is Karen Evans, Administrator of the Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology (IT) www.fbcinc.com/fiac

THIRD ANNUAL B2G CATALOG SUMMIT, Doubletree O’Hare (Chicago), November 11, 2004
www.FederalDirect.net. Our speakers include web diva Amy Africa on the latest web innovations, Mark Del Franco of Catalog Age leading a town hall style session with three catalog veterans, and Bill Singleton of Singleton Marketing on profitably mining your data. I will be doing the keynote and the wrap-up session, which will provide catalog “best B2G practices”.

2 NSA events coming up in early December, on site at NSA. www.fbcinc.com

INTELCON National Intelligence Conference and Exposition, February 8-10, 2005 Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Alexandria, VA www.fbcinc.com

SMARTPAY UPDATE: FIRST THREE QUARTERS OF FY 2004

Sales figures for the small purchase card through June, 2004 are here. With the first three-quarters in, total sales are $12.154 billion, with 19,348,868 transactions. The transaction level is about the same as last year. There are 312 543 cardholders, about 12,000 fewer than the same time last year. remain flat for the balance If we stay at approximately 10% growth, it will be around $17.5 billion. Note this is a different total than last week.

ONE MINUTE MARKETING CLINIC: END OF FY TACTICS

Item: On September 2, InFocus sent out an email with the subject line “InFocus GSA Update”, highlighting its Schedule changes and the addition of some projectors. Good timing for the release. As an inducement to act, I would have included an end-of-FY spot reduction.

Item: GovConnection got its GSA Schedule back in August, and has been doing a fair amount of DC area radio, highlighting the “new” Schedule. It is playing catch-up, and the radio spots will help in DC. What they do in the non-DC buying venues, especially the other 26 major Federal hub cities, will be critical to how they fare not for this FY, but for 2005.

Item: PC Mall inserted its catalog into the latest Federal Computer Week, ensuring delivery to the 80,000+ subscribers. For those who have attended Government Marketing Best Practices, you know that I endorse piggybacking, especially to guarantee delivery to military bases.

**

As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks
Mark Amtower


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