Federal Government Industry Scouting Report
Executive Summary
The U.S. Government is one of the top 3 U.S. technology spending industries with its current annual budget of approximately $160 billion. This IT budget is spent among the varying federal branches of government and their agencies, with the Department of Defense having the highest percentage of the technology budget. The figure also includes state and local government IT spending. Despite virtually unanimous recognition by department and agency directors that the entire federal government’s IT initiatives need to be modernized and enhanced, government technology initiatives often fall short due to arduous implementation processes and incredibly high security standards. The four Federal IT improvement focus areas include: Efficiency, Modernization, Security, and Innovation.
2008-2010 have been especially challenging for the Government. 2008 saw great economic turbulence resulting from the mass default of sub-prime loans, the subsequent credit crisis that lead the U.S. into a recession, and economic instability worldwide. Throughout the economic crisis, a new administration and Congress was elected. This brought a new agenda and different policy priorities from those of the previous administration. The Federal Government is working to not only recover from the current crisis, but to improve overall operations and to expand services the Federal Government provides. These initiatives include approximately $100 billion in one-time IT grants for Federal, State, and Local Government programs through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) passed in February 2009.
The U.S. Government is one of the top 3 U.S. technology spending industries with its current annual budget of approximately $160 billion. This IT budget is spent among the varying federal branches of government and their agencies, with the Department of Defense having the highest percentage of the technology budget. The figure also includes state and local government IT spending. Despite virtually unanimous recognition by department and agency directors that the entire federal government’s IT initiatives need to be modernized and enhanced, government technology initiatives often fall short due to arduous implementation processes and incredibly high security standards. The four Federal IT improvement focus areas include: Efficiency, Modernization, Security, and Innovation.
2008-2010 have been especially challenging for the Government. 2008 saw great economic turbulence resulting from the mass default of sub-prime loans, the subsequent credit crisis that lead the U.S. into a recession, and economic instability worldwide. Throughout the economic crisis, a new administration and Congress was elected. This brought a new agenda and different policy priorities from those of the previous administration. The Federal Government is working to not only recover from the current crisis, but to improve overall operations and to expand services the Federal Government provides. These initiatives include approximately $100 billion in one-time IT grants for Federal, State, and Local Government programs through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) passed in February 2009.
The Federal Government Industry Scouting Report is a resource for executive and sales professionals in the technology and services industries. This Scouting Report is designed to:
- Segment the market into key types of target customers, and provide a brief overview of the differences between the segments
- Identify the right titles to approach within your target
- Make you smarter about your customer’s business so that you are comfortable with a business conversation
- Help you position your product or service to address the precise pain of your customer
- Provide you a conversation starter to help secure a meeting
- Give you the typical technology landscape within the industry so that you can come better prepared to the meeting
