Cracking the Government Market

The U.S. public sector spends more than $100 billion on IT every year. Software vendors must have C-level commitment in order to gain leadership in this lucrative sector government market.

By Patrick Arnone, LGES

Why is it that software companies have so much trouble gaining leadership in the single largest vertical market in the U.S.?

The U.S. government market encompasses IT budgets for software, hardware, telecommunications and services that will exceed $100 billon this fiscal year. The figure roughly breaks down into $60 billion in federal spending and $40 million spent by state and local governments. And technology spending in these public sector markets is growing at a rate of more than five percent per year.

Unlocking the secrets of government market success takes homework – and seasoned, top-level leadership. But software vendors who devise the right corporate and field strategies, and execute them properly over time can expect to generate 15 to 20 percent of their North American revenue from government business.

Earlybird Registration Open for Software 2007

Software 2007, the industry’s largest vendor-neutral gathering will take place on May 8 and 9, 2007 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Join 2,000 software CEOs, VPs, investors and experts for two action-packed days of vision, best practices and unparalleled networking opportunities. Register now and qualify for the special “earlybird” rate of $1,495 which allows you to bring three additional colleagues at no extra charge. This offer expires soon!

Visit http://www.software2007.com to find out more and register.

You Call That a Platform?

Everyone from NetSuite to IBM has made a recent announcement about their “platform.” Erik Keller says vendors should beware. Claims of technical superiority and easy-and-cheap development sound eerily similar to claims about past platforms from former vendors. Read Erik’s analysis of platform proliferation in this week’s post to his SandHill.com Blog, The Software Critic.

The Science of Hiring Salespeople

Everyone knows that “A”-level salespeople will produce the best results for your company. But Stephen D’Angelo of Spring Lake Technologies cautions that “As” in one company can be “non-As” in another. Stephen describes tactics for finding the right salespeople and how to use predictive technology to improve sales in this week’s post to the SandHill.com Blog on Sales & Marketing.

More Earthshaking in the Land of Open Source

In the past month, Novell and Microsoft have linked up and Sun has delivered on Open Java. Guy Smith of Silicon Strategies Marketing takes a closer look at what is scary and what is exciting in these developments in this week’s post to the SandHill.com Blog on open source.

Publish Your Perspectives!

The SandHill.com Blog wants your opinions. Send your thoughts on the enterprise software industry to editor@sandhill.com and we’ll publish them in our blog.

“Black Friday” Fever

Software vendors catch the year-end buying bug and announce a slew of M&A deals; plus, Vista receives a lukewarm reception, angst over the Microsoft-Novell open source alliance continues and could SaaS spell the end of IT? Read these stories and more software news of the week in the SandHill.com news summary.

Don’t Miss: From Global Trend to Corporate Strategy

The rapid speed of global change can overwhelm even the most astute executives. New research shows that companies who recognize and align with emerging business trends realize the greatest growth and profits. Learn more about how to take advantage of global trends in this article from The McKinsey Quarterly.

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