Does It Pay To Specialize?
Absolutely. That was the message from public sector integrators at this past winter's IT ChannelVision - Government event, and it's a message that continues to play out some six months later.
Linwood Jolly, president and CEO of Comm-Group, an 8(a), veteran-owned solution provider based in Chevy Chase, Md., said in a CRN interview at ITCV that when it was first starting out, Comm-Group spent a lot of time trying to ferret out opportunities from the Small Business Administration, which had "good information, but they don't own the opportunities." These days, Jolly explained, Comm-Group focuses on the one or two Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) likely to bring it the biggest returns.
Specialization has also proven hugely lucrative for Cherokee Data Solutions, a Claremore, Okla.-based solution provider that specializes in education and tribal governments in the Cherokee Nation. CEO Pamela Huddleston-Bickford said business had grown 300 percent year-over-year this year, following 200 percent year-over-year growth the year before. Stimulus opportunities available for both markets were unexpected years earlier, she said, but you grow if you strike with them while the iron's hot.
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