Crossing The Gap

There's a theory about technology--from Geoffrey Moore's book Crossing the Chasm--that essentially says a gap exists between early adopters of a product and those in the mainstream (pragmatists, as he calls them). Of course, depending on the technology, the amount of time required to cross that gap seems to vary. That may be truer in the public sector than any other market.

Take Voice over IP (VoIP), biometrics and radio frequency identification (RFID), for example. Each has huge potential. So, how do VARs poise themselves to meet public-sector demand? Know the technology and the customer. Beyond that, each of the three technologies has characteristics that set the stage for what's to come.

The Next Big Wave For Voice Over IP: State And Local

VoIP has come a long way in the past five years--particularly in the federal space. Although agencies generally aren't ripping out their phone lines to replace them with VoIP networks, they are opting for the latter at the point of office or building relocation. And while VoIP networks don't generally extend beyond departments or agencies just yet, they probably will as the technology becomes even more widely adopted.

"VoIP matured from early and unproven, to neat and sexy, to a solution that solves real problems in government," says Bob Laclede, vice president and general manager of government and education at Ingram Micro.

It goes without saying that wider adoption of VoIP--in the public and private sectors--is the direct result of enhancements to the technology.

"The original VoIP appearance was when people were taking their voice at the router, packetizing it and putting it across their private data WAN--saving on long-distance phone calls," says Doug Bowlds, vice president at Vienna, Va.-based AAC, a government solution provider that sells VoIP technology. Of course, other forms of VoIP include IP telephony, which is more often associated with the LAN, and voice over the Internet, which is fairly new and arguably less mature. "The market is obviously going in that direction, and maybe someday the Internet will accommodate it," Bowlds says. "But because there's no control over those packets in a public domain, we don't recommend it to our customers right now."

That said, even with fairly wide adoption of VoIP by federal agencies, VARs who want in would be smart to look to state and local governments, and education, where the technology is just now starting to explode. In Fairfax, Va., for example, the whole city government will be linked through a single IP-telephony solution by the end of the summer. By attaching each government phone to two separate call-processing boxes, risk of lost phone service is virtually eliminated. And in Texas, residents dial 2-1-1 to receive immediate access to health and human services and referrals from the Texas I&R Network Area Information Center.

"We're seeing almost every city and state government look at this technology," Bowlds says.

The reasons, however, are a little different. While the federal government deploys VoIP generally to save on administrative costs and to benefit from the reliability of a distributed architecture, towns, cities, counties and states want to integrate the mobility aspect and blend voice with other data sources into a single application.

"This spans from pure IP--wired/wireless--to the cellphone and other types of applications," says Greg Akers, senior vice president of Cisco's Global Government Solutions Group. "It solves some of the typical [product data management] interoperability issues. By putting the IP core in place and providing voice over connectivity, whether from the legacy system or from the pure IP system, agencies and organizations can solve a lot of problems."

And that's really where the VAR comes in--not only offering up the technology, but going one step further with services that help transform processes and customize solutions. "We love going against our competitors in a school system," Bowlds says. "So often they're selling a phone, and we'll go against them with the same phone but with applications on top of them. VARs need to differentiate themselves by understanding the needs of the customer and offering applications that hit home. Otherwise, what's the point? There are cheaper phones out there that do nothing but provide phone calls."

Biometrics Solutions: From Physical To Logical Access

Adoption of biometrics may not be as widespread as VoIP, but it's getting there. Certainly in the public sector, the technology is gaining momentum-- thanks, in part, to legislation such as HIPAA, which has inspired specific verticals to get up and move, as well as consortiums and offices devoted to its potential, such as the Department of Defense Biometrics Management Office and Fusion Center. Furthermore, the transition under way may lead to a big ramp-up in new implementations.

Until now, biometric solutions primarily focused on physical access--identifying individuals through fingerprint or facial recognition, for example, to ensure proper authorization. It was a step beyond visual identification cards, which are easy to falsify or duplicate.

"We've seen a lot of implementations of biometrics for regulating physical access, particularly by the federal agencies and medical facilities that require a higher assurance level," says Jim Ward, president and CEO of Alexandria, Va.-based EyeIT.com.

What's happening now at the federal level--and revved to grow-- is adoption of biometrics for logical access, providing verification of an individual's credentials as he or she tries to get on a network or computer system, for example. "The first place we saw widespread use of logical-access solutions was in the medical and financial industries," Ward says. "In 2005, we've already seen a big increase in the consideration given to deploying such solutions in the federal government, with more organizations building business-case analyses for the use of biometrics for logical access."

That said, state and local interest in biometric technology is somewhat different--but also growing. While federal agencies investigate logical-access solutions as a means of securing networks and systems, state and local governments see the biggest potential for biometrics in identification solutions tailored to law enforcement and first-responders. A pilot program in Washington, D.C., for example, provides biometrically enabled identification cards for first-responders. They come to an accident site, show the ID card and are immediately authorized. Similarly, many state and local governments incorporate biometrics technology into mobile devices--a person gets pulled over without proper ID and a biometrics-enabled facial scanner is used to check state and federal watch lists.

Such differentiators may lead VARs to focus on particular segments or verticals; but more important is an understanding of the potential. Federal vs. state and local, health care vs. law enforcement or border control--the technology remains fundamentally the same. "In the medical industry, you see it more in a kiosk type of solution, with a more limited number of workstations and a lot of people that access them; that's in contrast to the Department of Defense, which tends to implement a lot of workstations, with one-to-one activity," Ward says. "But the software, hardware and business cases don't change. The use of biometrics technology as a high-assurance enabler is applicable across the board."

What VARs do need to be aware of are the additional enablers-- biometrics integrating with a personal ID number or smart card, for example.

"The main area that the integrator community needs to focus on is this notion that biometrics does not stand alone," says Frances Zelazny, director of corporate communications at Minnetonka, Minn.-based biometrics manufacturer Identix. "The technology needs to be incorporated into overall operations."

When states add facial-recognition technology to driver's licenses, for example, employees of the Department of Motor Vehicles need to know that they can no longer do profile photographs. "It's not just a matter of pumping in biometrics," Zelazny says. "There are a whole set of issues outside biometrics associated with data collection, the process of issuing IDs and cards, and how data is stored."

A Narrower Focus For RFID: Verticals

If VoIP crossed Moore's theoretical chasm, and biometrics has at least one foot on solid ground, RFID is still lagging somewhat behind. RFID actually emerged in the 1940s, when the U.S. military used the technology to distinguish friendly aircraft from enemy aircraft in WWII. Now, more than 60 years later, RFID is just starting to get a second glance.

"RFID still has about two years before it's reality for government," when tags will become more widely standardized and security concerns tempered, says Ingram Micro's Laclede. "For now, if a VAR gets in the middle of an RFID project, there are so many external questions. The end user is going to change functional requirements about 60 times, which for a small VAR can be disastrous."

For example, RFID tags on containers transported by the Army during wartime will provide an extended range of up to a mile to enhance supply-management capabilities; by comparison, tags used by the Navy for weapons management will have a range set for less than 6 inches to protect sensitive data. Similarly, different agencies may want more or less information provided at the back end. On prisoner wristbands, for example, RFID data may include only personal identification. For the aforementioned military containers, the data may describe content and condition; for weaponry, it may reveal everything from materials to capabilities and mission details.

Even with so many factors to consider, RFID technology--in government and commercial sectors alike--is primarily used for supply-chain management. That's likely where it will remain for a while.

"Today, it's really all about automating the supply chain," says Brian Lehmann, senior director of Global Government Solutions at Symbol Technologies. "In that sense, government uses RFID in the same way as the Wal-Marts of the world--but rather than retail, it's in defense-logistics management."

While not quite as prevalent just yet, next for RFID, after the supply chain, will likely be asset and fleet management--using sensors not only to enable processes, but to track items throughout their life cycle or day-to-day operation. "A town, city, state or county owns desks, laptops, handhelds, cellphones, monitors, keyboards; all usually with bar codes on them," Lehmann says. "The next generation of asset management will involve tagging those items, then waving a reader around a room."

To best meet RFID demand now and in the very near future, VARs need to act as go-betweens for manufacturers and independent software vendors--neither of which can succeed without the other--and then bring the full solution to the government.

"It's incredibly important for the VAR to be a part of the initiative," says Allyson Fryhoff, vice president of global strategic business development at Oracle. The company recently named 60 partners to its Sensor-Based Services Initiative, which provides training and technical support for integrating data from RFID readers and other sensors into Oracle's 10g enterprise software platform. "Just having RFID tags and readers in your environment does nothing unless you can turn that data into true information that can effect the business processes," Fryhoff says.

Unlike VoIP and biometrics, distinguishing factors associated with RFID could influence VARs to position themselves according to certain verticals.

"The future of RFID and sensor-based management is the ability to ask the right questions relative to daily operations," says Robert Waits, director of business development at Salt Lake City-based EnvironMax. The solution provider is a part of Oracle's Sensor-Based Services Initiative and the government's ChemSecure program--a program to automate the management of hazardous materials.

"If you don't look at the technology in a creative and customized way, you might as well stick with bar codes," Waits says. *