U.S. CTO: Team Up For Federal Technology Deals

Lorentz offered the advice at a Wednesday press conference here at the American Electronics Association headquarters. Sponsored by AeA, the event aims to "bridge the gap" between Silicon Valley and the U.S. government, which plans to spend about $58 billion on IT solutions this year.

"The small firms learn from bigger firms and create partnerships [to work with the federal government]," Lorentz said. "If you want to play in a market, you replicate the most effective competitor."

Key to playing in the federal market is understanding the customer, he told CRN in an interview.

"It doesn't make any difference how dysfunctional the government is. We all know it needs improvement, but it's still the customer. The companies out here really need to understand the federal government, and we want to work very closely with them to help them understand what that means," Lorentz said.

Areas of opportunities include knowledge management and collaboration solutions as well as individual technology components such as content management and security, he said.

At the conference, Lorentz said President Bush's management agenda calls for a more efficient, citizen-oriented federal government and expanded online government services to help achieve those goals. The E-Government Act, signed into law in December, codified the role of his office in overseeing the initiative.

Plans under way include SmartBuy, an effort to leverage the U.S. government's buying power to reduce software licensing costs, and the creation of a reliable assessment for emerging technologies.

IT companies can help the government by making sure federal IT buyers are aware of leading-edge solutions and by developing security approaches that are integrated into applications, Lorentz said.

"Security is not something we just overlay," he said. "It needs to be considered in every component that we deploy."

IT companies also can help by providing solutions, not just hardware or software, he added.

Also at the event was Greg Baroni, president of the global public sector at Unisys, who said the Blue Bell, Pa.-based systems integrator is working with dozens of partners to help build an IT infrastructure for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. Unisys, which won a multiyear task order for the project, welcomes more partners, he said.

"This is about securing our nation's transportation system. If you have technologies or services that can help us forge the frontier here, we're looking for them," Baroni said.

He and others at the press conference stressed that small companies shouldn't feel that federal opportunities are just for big technology players.

"This government is quite serious about new entrants," said William Archey, AeA president and CEO. "You don't have to be on the all-star list to get in."

James Kane, president and CEO of Federal Sources Inc. (FSI), a market-intelligence firm focused on the IT government space, said Lorentz's office is looking at technology as an investment.

"It's a corporate mind-set and a better match for companies here that historically haven't competed in the federal space," he said.

FSI forecasts that the U.S. government will spend $62.5 billion next year on IT and $64.4 billion in 2005. Information security will make up 8 percent of the total IT budget next year, up from about 5 percent in prior years, Kane said.

"It's a large, growing market," he said of the overall federal IT market. "The barriers to entry are manageable."

Topping the IT solutions in demand by the federal market are applications software and security, he said.

In an interview with CRN, Kane said success stories in the commercial sector can help smaller solution providers new to the federal sector win business in the space. Partnerships and alliances with companies already competing the government market are important, he said.