Technology vendors will find large, immediate opportunities in government marketplaces!
by Mary Scott Nabers, CEO of Strategic Partnerships, Inc.
Governmental entities are becoming data sleuths!! With millions of records being generated, stored, accessed and data mined daily, the potential for government contracting is huge. Technology vendors and service providers will find the public sector marketplace competitive and sometimes bureaucratic…but definitely worth the effort - because opportunities to capture new business are abundant.
At a time when government budgets are thin, expectations are at an all time high…and being exceeded each month. Information is precious and every government jurisdiction is being stretched to provide more comprehensive data, immediate access and real time reporting.
Think about it – marriage licenses, driving records, crime statistics, insurance reports, tax records, regulatory data and court documents…the list goes on! What’s a government agency to do?
Government cannot maneuver quickly enough to meet federal mandates or keep constituents happy without help from outside partners. Public entities also cannot bring on more full-time employees because of budget constraints and hiring freezes. Contracting opportunities can be found everywhere.
The federal government is aggressively advocating electronic medical records which will result in full-time employment for many firms. Hospitals, clinics, nonprofit organizations and other health care providers are rushing their transition to electronic data and will spend millions in the next year to meet federal compliance. There is no doubt about this trend in spite of the controversy over privacy. As a reward for electronic medical compliance and for proof that the process is working as it should, federal funding is available to reimburse technology spending.
The stimulus legislation, which put almost $1 trillion into the economy, mandated transparent information portals related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act spending. This action created hundreds of contracting opportunities throughout every state. Soon, the new health care act will mandate state and national insurance systems that will require all types of information and data collection.
State police agencies throughout the United States are building fusion centers to centralize crime data. The Department of Homeland Security supports this and also wants criminal information collected in national repositories. Local law enforcement organizations also are rushing to create regional data repositories to share crime data.
Court systems are on overload in an effort to make access to information simpler. County and municipal courts are leading the way in most states, but other government jurisdictions are scrambling to do the same. Cameras, toll tag readers, insurance verification systems…the opportunities are huge at the city and county levels of government.
Taxpayers are clamoring for online government access 24/7. State agencies are complying. Citizens want to pay fines, purchase licenses, report taxes and submit reports conveniently from home. Old government legacy systems were never designed for what is required today. Even states that have had government portals for years are now being forced to upgrade and expand their capabilities.
Information gathering, sharing and mining…no easy task…but public officials are attempting to do it all. Here’s a tip…look for problems and mandates related to information and data in any part of the country and immediate opportunities can be found.
Some of the hottest and most common procurements throughout the country include:
- Business intelligence software, dashboards and reporting systems;
- Document storage and contract management systems;
- Image archive services;
- Electronic medical records conversions;
- Criminal incident records management systems; and
- Network security systems.
Security is a huge concern - as it should be - and millions are being paid to consultants, advisors and system experts. Money is also flowing for professional services, contingency planning and subject matter experts. The marketplace is ripe for all types of technology firms and professionals who sell to government in the United States. Shying away from government should not be an option for this industry segment.
Mary Scott Nabers is president and CEO of Strategic Partnerships, Inc., a 15-year-old procurement consulting and procurement research firm headquartered in Austin, Texas.
