Making predictions is easy. Getting them right is ... well, not so easy. Just ask the guys who predicted that the stock market would reach 36,000.But that doesn't mean you can't get a useful sense of directions and trends. For our annual look at the year ahead, the Washington Technology staff talked to experts in government and industry and found widespread agreement on several important issues.
Everyone's new year starts with a long list of resolutions and goals. For these government and industry executives, that list also includes challenges and problems that will have repercussions beyond their own companies or organizations. The government IT community will be marking closely their successes and failures.
The Department of Education is looking for research proposals from small businesses in the areas of consulting at the state and local level and development of educational products.
Beginning Jan. 1, small businesses will no longer need to register in both the Small Business Administration's Pro-Net, a database of small businesses, and the Central Contractor Registration, the government's database of all contractors.
Market valuations for publicly traded government IT companies rose an average of 17 percent over the last six months, according to Input Inc., a Reston, Va.-based IT market research firm.
Washington revolves around relationships. Knowing the right people and belonging to the right organizations are critical to getting business done. <b>Steve Charles</b>, executive vice president of immixGroup Inc., wants to join the Coalition for Government Procurement, a well-connected industry group representing companies that hold contract schedules with the General Services Administration. The coalition's close ties with GSA make it a key organization for schedule-holders such as immixGroup. But the coalition won't let immixGroup join, Charles said.
In October, the Agriculture Department issued a report on its competitive sourcing program, from which one could infer that competition at DoA is, indeed, DOA.
While Congress has not yet completed its appropriations work for fiscal 2004, one market research firm believes the upcoming year is going to be a strong one for information technology and technology-based services.
While Congress has not yet completed its appropriations work for fiscal 2004, one market research firm believes the upcoming year is going to be a strong one for information technology and technology-based services.
Enterprisewide solutions can optimize results and leverage available funding for federal agencies. But sometimes they also create potential for organizational conflicts of interest or related appearance issues.
It could take months for the GSA and the SBA to agree on how often small businesses selling to the federal government should recertify their size, a GSA official said today.
Doing business with the federal government is tough, especially for small businesses. So it is appropriate that there are special rules and procedures to help these businesses -- which often offer exceptional agility and innovation -- navigate the federal market.
As contractor and government teams prepare and evaluate proposals, we are reminded that federal agencies increasingly depend on contractors to fulfill their missions. But what can be done when the contract isn't going well, and the contractor and government teams find themselves in situations that aren't working?
Contractors can expect more opportunities for share-in-savings contracts under a new procurement rule proposed early this month by the General Services Administration.
<b>Washington Technology presents its Top 25 8(a) companies and Fast 50 rankings</b><br>In 1998, Preferred Systems Solutions Inc., President Robert Hisel Jr. sold all his commercial work to another firm and used the proceeds to focus on the government market. Colleagues questioned his wisdom. Today, he says, "They are asking me, 'How the hell do you get into this government stuff?' "
