You've probably realized by now that I'm a big proponent of having an overview.  It's good to know where the other "guy" stands.  You might even have some experience with that yourself if, for example, you were able to get together with another procurement department to buy a larger volume of a commodity for a lower price.

INPUT helps companies obtain government business.  One of the ways they do this is by studying trends and observing the paths state governments take.  The latter, in particular, is the focus of one of their reports for 2008.

For ease of reference INPUT classifies these into a dozen different sectors, ranging from community development and education to social services and transportation.  I can't cover it all in this newsletter, but I'll pick out those which struck me to be the most interesting.

Some of the new initiatives are not at all surprising.  For the past two years the community development thrust has been technological in nature - improving broadband connectivity, in particular.  This year, following the mortgage and housing crisis, the focus is on trying to soften the resultant blow.

The focus in education is on technology, although not necessarily in the way we'd expect.  The states have recognized that the amount of technology children are exposed to and learn to use outside of schools often vastly outstrips that which is available in schools.  The focus on improved classroom technology is in primary and secondary education.  In higher education the thrust is in communication infrastructure, especially for emergency and alerting systems.  Again, this is hardly surprising given the tragedies that have visited, and have been narrowly avoided at, several schools in the recent past.

Government services have shown that the trend towards going green is going strong.  It's a good opportunity for environmentally friendly businesses and an ongoing challenge for procurement departments to find these businesses.  Perhaps the biggest change some states will see is the unification of various IT related offices under one umbrella, such as the Governor's Office of Information Technology proposed in Colorado.

Concerns regarding Homeland Security remain contentious.  On this topic the main concern for states remains illegal immigration.  Since the steps the federal government has taken hasn't satisfied them, most states this year are taking their own steps to combat the problem.  Given that it's an election year, it's safe to assume that the federal government isn't very interested in making any moves that could upset minorities.

If general government services are continuing to go green it's to be expected that preserving the environment is also high on the list of things to do.  As usual, first and foremost is water and energy conservation.  However, with an economic slowdown predicted this may mean more in the way of rethinking rather than adopting and implementing new technology.

 

Sincerely,