The Amtower B2G Market Report

The Amtower B2G Market Report
Volume 3, #35, September 13, 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: End of FY Advertising
3) Events
4) SmartPay Update: First Three Quarters of FY 2004 Reporting

AMTOWER OFF-CENTER OBSERVATIONS

My friend and former client, Greg Grosser, forwarded this article. Greg is an avid reader and student of the IT market in general, and a solid business development professional in the Federal arena. He also once referred to me as “not your typical consultant”. Hmmm.

Item form Greg: Verbatim from InfoWorld Web Site, August 05, 2004, reported by John Ribeiro, IDG News Service. http://www.infowrold.com/article/04/08/05/Hncodestolen_1.html

“Jolly Technologies, a division of U.S. company Jolly Inc., reported Wednesday that an insider stole portions of the source code and confidential design documents relating to one of its key products, at its research and development center in Mumbai, India. The company has as a result halted all development activities at the center.

Jolly Technologies is a vendor of labeling and card software for the printing industry. It set up its research and development facility in Mumbai less than three months ago, according to a press release from the parent company.

The company said in the release that according to a report obtained from its branch in India, a recently hired software engineer used her Yahoo Inc. e-mail account, which now allows 100MB of free storage space, to upload and ship the copied files out of the research facility. After detecting the theft, the company is trying to prevent the employee from further distributing the source code and other confidential information, the company said.

The vast majority of U.S.-based software companies require their employees to sign an employment agreement that prohibits them from carrying, or transferring in any way, the company's source code out of a development facility.

Though the Indian branch of Jolly Technologies requires employees to sign a similar employment agreement, the sluggish Indian legal system and the absence of intellectual property laws make it nearly impossible to enforce such agreements, the company said.”

Amtower comments on above item: Cultural and legal differences aside, the United States is not universally loved overseas. Outsourcing could create vulnerabilities that previously did not exist, especially in software and web-related security areas.

Not that I have an opinion.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY: END OF FY ADVERTISING

Some fast observations on what’s happening at the end of FY.

Item: Direct mail piece from Plantronics (Oversized double postcard): Headline “We’re ready for your end-of-year orders! Order today! IMPAC cards accepted!” First, I use a Plantronics headset and love it, but, it should read “end of FY”, not “end of year”. Second, IMPAC is gone, folks. SmartPay has been here for years! More on SmartPay below.

Item: PC Mall and CDWG have recently used Federal Computer Week to deliver their respective catalogs. This type of ride-along is a little expensive, but if you sell by catalog, you should try it, especially for delivery to military bases. I first recommended Government Executive as a catalog delivery vehicle over 10 years ago to a company that still does it.

Item: In the 9/1/04 Government Executive magazine, PeopleSoft (soon to be Oracle?) tipped in a 4-page advertising supplement with four case studies. Good venue, good writing, effective piece.

Item: In the 9/96/04 Government Computer News (GCN), the back page is a full-page Dell Ad. Dell uses the same product layout, then changes the headline depending on the industry segment. In this case, the headline reads: “IT solutions to become the Department of Productivity.” Then we have the solid, text/graphics with product, price, source and contracts.

Item: Same issue of GCN, on page 7 Fujitsu runs a generic (not industry specific) ad that could easily have been “government-ized”. But on page 37 of the same issue, Fujitsu runs a fully government-ized, including a corner devoted to their GSA channel partner, Westwood. Ad agencies with little or no B2G experience will make these mistakes, and I think they are costly.

Item: To illustrate this point we will use the ad on page 11 (same issue of GCN). An AT&T Wireless/Blackberry ad, the copy is not altered for the market, but the bottom quarter of the full page ad references the GSA contract and channel partners CDW-G and GTSI.

Item: Pages 14-15 of the same GCN, there is no doubt that the CDW-G ads are RED!

Item: Again in GCN, between page 16 and 17, CDW-G tipped in a mini catalog (12 pages for servers and storage). Easy to remove for those who want it, CDW-G effectively covered both GCN and Federal Computer Week for end-of FY.

Item: Same GCN, page 19, IBM has adopted the standard Dell format for the ThinkPad ad: Product graphic, price, source and contracts. IBM kept both products well under the $2,500 micropurchase threshold, but did not reference SmartPay.

Item: Page 20, the full page GTSI/Sun advertisement, again using the “I Rely on GTSI” theme. When this campaign was starting, I was informed it would evolve into a branding campaign. It hasn’t. But the most telling thing about the ad is the web address at the bottom: “visit online at TSI/com/Sun/Smart”. TSI is a manufacturer of precision measurement instruments. Do you think they meant to say “visit GTSI.com”? Ouch.

Amtower Comment on End-of-FY ads: Most of these ads are OK, but most could be better, and there is one simple way to make most of them better. All lower-end product ads should carry the SmartPay logo, and most of these don’t. Using the SmartPay logo in the ads reinforces the ease of buying products under $2,500, especially at the end of FY. And the SmartPay card, though designed for the micropurchase (under $2,500 purchase) is also used for purchases at a much higher level. Most ad agencies do not know or account for this (among many other things they do not know about the government market), and most of these agencies should not be used in this market.

Not that I have an opinion.

Dell, CDW-G (CDW-G does use the SmartPay on all catalogs, including the mini), Fujitsu, IBM, AT&T,
MPC, and GTSI should know better, as they all make lots of money on the SmartPay.

So here is my final observation: my favorite ad is the series recently started by Juniper Networks, using a Far Side-like cartoon (quarter page), which you feel compelled to read. Funny, very different, and certainly memorable. These are also posted at their web site, www.juniper.net/federal.

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, Richard Mackey on GSA, 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”. For those who use direct mail, especially catalogs, as a primary marketing tool, the third annual B2G Catalog Summit is a “must attend”. It is a one-day event filled with ideas you can take back to the office for immediate use. The event is in a hotel less than 10 minutes from O’Hare, and there will be limited seating (maximum of 75 attenders), so sign up now at www.FederalDirect.net/b2gsummit.html.

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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