It is hard sometimes not to get distracted by the numbers when you look at the list of contracts that market research firm Input Inc. compiled for our cover story.

I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the phrase billions of dollars. Even hundreds of millions makes me squeamish.

But the government game has evolved to the point that if you aren’t chasing the billions, you might as well take your ball and go home.

Our cover story highlights some of the most important government contracts that will be awarded in the next 18 months. Nearly all of them are follow-ups to existing contracts.

Associate Editor David Hubler focused on three contract opportunities in particular: the Air Force’s Network Centric Solutions (NetCents) 2, the Navy Marine Corps Intranet Next Generation Enterprise Network and the Homeland Security Department’s Information Technology Managed Services (ITMS). NetCents is a multiple-award contract that in its newest version will be divided into three parts: products, small-business services, and full-and-open services. The follow-on contracts for NMCI and ITMS will likely be single awards, as their predecessors were.

Those contracts reveal how and what the government is buying. NetCents symbolizes the continued role of task-order contracts, while ITMS is important because it shows that the government needs help modernizing its infrastructure.

NMCI is about infrastructure, too, but it is also a story of how EDS Corp. turned around a troubled contract. The competition’s attempts to unseat EDS will be among the more interesting stories of 2008 and 2009. Budgets are tight and new initiatives few, so the competition for work will only intensify.

Now is the time to step up and play ball.