The Amtower B2G Market Report

The Amtower B2G Market Report
Volume 3, #42, November 1, 2004

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)

In this issue…
1) Amtower Off-Center Observations
2) The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: Top 100 Lists
3) Events Worth Attending
4) One Minute Marketing Clinic: Events

AMTOWER OFF-CENTER OBSERVATIONS

Item: VOTE! And let’s pray there is no need for litigation after the voting.

Item: As you might imagine, I am not in dire need of ego support. Even so, it is quite flattering that I had a by-line story on the cover of Direct magazine (www.directmag.com) and was quoted in Catalog Age (www.catalogagemag.com) on the front page story during the same week.

Item: Last call for the B2G Catalog Summit. Anyone using direct marketing (manufacturers using the channel, publications and events especially) should be attending this event. See “Events” below.

Item: Feedback continues for Off-White 24 (http://www.federaldirect.com/offwhite24.html). More than one suggestion has come in to have a marketing roundtable with senior marketing people discussing the number of events, producers, value, and the like. I am discussing the possibility of this with a few advisors. Stay tuned.

Item: We will be selecting the cities for the spring tour of Government Marketing Best Practices soon, so if you have a preference, please register your vote at www.FederalDirect.net.

Item: Government Computer News will be producing four new events in 2005.

Item: Customer service issue: Flying out to Chicago on United recently I was amazed at the quality of the in air announcers, the person who asks you to pay attention to the safety information and the like. United’s announcer seemed as though she were enunciating each syllable to pass an elocution exercise. The presentation pretty much guaranteed a somnambulistic response from the passengers. My usual carrier, Southwest, would have a quasi stand-up comic delivering a routine that would be both informative and entertaining, guaranteeing people would pay attention. This doesn’t have anything to do with you? I went to Chicago to visit CDW/CDW-G. Walking around their sales floor you often feel the same enthusiasm from CDW telesales personnel that you get from Southwest. When you stop and listen to the calls, they are conversations, not simply sales calls.

Are your reps United or Southwest? Put your best voice forward.

Not that I have an opinion.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY: TOP 100 LISTS

CMP puts out a couple of good magazines, CRN and VAR Business. These magazines provide valuable information on the IT channel. Previously, I have had high hopes for Government VAR, the CMP quarterly insert into VAR Business, but it keeps losing credibility for me.

In the issue that just came out, they have their first Top 100 Federal integrators list. Without going into too much detail (GSTI 7th?) I read it twice, looking for the data source reference. I could not find one.

Then I went to my preferred source for this information, Washington Technology, and did a match of the lists. This is what VAR Business should have done, as they seem seriously off the mark. Washington Technology uses Federal Sources for data. Government Executive magazine, which does a top contractor issue each year, uses Eagle Eye. My personal choices for budget data are Eagle Eye (www.eagleeyeinc.com) and Colmar Corporation (www.colmarcorporation.com). Eagle Eye has great historical contract data and Colmar looks ahead 36 months, based on agency filings.

Perhaps VAR Business uses a Ouija board, some of the more adjectival press releases from VARs, or perhaps a random shuffle approach? Whatever they are using, they are not helping themselves or their readers.

EVENTS WORTH ATTENDING

Beware of the schlock vendors, producing “black hole” events, events that eat your money with no significant return! If you want Government Marketing Best Practices in your city in the spring of 2005, vote at www.FederalDirect.net. Voting so far has Vienna (Virginia) leading, and Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia and Atlanta tied for second.

November 11, THIRD ANNUAL B2G CATALOG SUMMIT, Rosemont Doubletree O’Hare (Chicago).
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.

December 8-9, 2004, Web Content Management Clinic, George Washington University, Washington, DC (Foggy Bottom Metro Stop) www.digitalgovernment.com

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

ONE MINUTE MARKETING CLINIC: EVENTS

I got some grief for promoting the Input event a week or so back. The letter speaks for itself:

“Fresh out of INPUT's FedFocus 2005, I was doing some catch-up email reading and couldn't help but respond to your recommendation of this event...my only response is: You Need To Get Out More!

Mark, this was one of the worst events of this nature that I have ever been too. In actuality it should have been called INPUT's Fed-out-of-FOCUS. Me and a mostly brain-dead crowd sat thru a gauntlet of speakers that obviously utilized rehashed internal policy presentations and had not been given any direction on what the audience wanted. The day began with a very confusing and befuddled presentation by Dr. Margaret Meyers, Principal Director, Office of the Deputy Assistant Sec of Def, Deputy CIO. Great title but totally inappropriate presentation for the audience. Payton was next and gave a broad ranging presentation of market cap numbers. I can't see how it benefited anyone, though he did have one slide on civilian agency Fed Enterprise Architecture budgets that was interesting--but INPUT did not provide copies of his slides!!!

The rest of the day just got worse, Census Bureau people self-congratulating themselves for the great job they have done, DHS Acting IT directors demonstrating that DHS is still completely befuddled, and condescending Policy Advisors from Justice who spoke for 30 minutes about absolutely nothing of value. The only redeeming (and even entertaining) element was a panel led by Anne Armstrong on the future of GWACs. She had some very good questions and really didn't have to do too much poking and prodding of Karl Reichert (GSA) or Dee Lee to get their often opposing views. “

“I noted that there was a reporter there from GCN who asked a few early questions of Payton and others, to which the speakers knew not the answers. He left immediately after gobbling down his lunch, not waiting for the key note speaker from PSC to discuss the impact the Elections will have on our marketplace….I said my farewell shortly after a DHS Program Manager with the longest title I have ever heard (Program Manager for Consolidated Enforcement Environment and Assistant Unit Chief for Executive Information with the Office of Investigations, Department of Homeland Security) put a slide, that ironically stated: ‘Our vision...Do simple tasks faster, do more complex tasks better’".

Perhaps I should get out more, duly noted.

**

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

Thanks
Mark Amtower

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


Site maintained by Dragonfly Design