The Amtower Report

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In this issue:
1) Amtower Off-Center Observations
2) The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Schedule 70 has 2,296 No Shows
3) Smart Pay Update
3) Events Worth Attending

AMTOWER OFF-CENTER OBSERVATIONS

Item: Check out the NSA events below. There may still be time and space to attend. With Defense spending going up, these are great events to find out what they need in the Defense intel community.

Item: The reference last week to Government VAR left ignored a good article on outsourcing at the state government level.

Item: Thanks for the kind feedback for our podcast/webcast interviews at www.GovernmentExpress.com  (click on GE Radio). There are more to come, and your feedback is always welcome.

Item: Local DC radio station all-news WTOP picked up a press release from Input regarding Schedule 70 (IT Schedule) shrinking in FY 2005 for the first time in several years. WTOP mistook this to mean that overall Federal spending on IT was down in FY 2005. This aired at the end of evening rush hour on February 8. It is not rare for media unfamiliar with our market to misinterpret press releases this way, or be intentionally misled by those with other agendas. A recent BusinessWeek.com article put the Federal IT budget at $250 billion per year. The article centered on an interview with a headhunter who pushed the concept that you need a DC-based employee to go after this business. Those of us in DC know the IT budget is not $250 billion, but if I was a self-serving headhunter, I might be interested in inflating the $. The point is simple: when speaking to the media, or creating a press release that might be picked up, be as clear as possible so those not familiar with our market do not misrepresent it.

Item: I am looking for reader feedback on media use outside the Washington, DC area. Does anyone use radio outside DC for their Federal campaigns? There are several cities with pretty high density of Federal employees – Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Denver, Seattle San Francisco, to mention a few.

Item: After 8 years, The Download column (Thursdays in the Washington Post) is coming to a close. Originally written by Shannon Henry, and picked up a year or so ago by Ellen McCarthy, it was one of the weekly highlights in the Washington Post business section. This was the only regular column in the Business section that I actually looked for, so I will miss it.

Not that I have an opinion.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY: SCHEDULE 70 HAS 2,296 NO SHOWS

In FY 2005 Schedule 70 had 5,535 vendors and accounted for $16.59 billion of the GSA total of $33.57 billion.

By far, Schedule 70 remains the largest and most competitve of the GSA Schedules.

However, Dell alone took almost $1.3 billion;
the top 10 took over 27%,
the top 50 took over 50%,
and the top 100 (1.75% of all Schedule 70 vendors)
took over 65% of that $16.59 billion.

The next 3,129 companies split 35%.

2,296 companies made $0 on Schedule 70 last year - almost 42%.

Since my first session of Government Marketing Best Practices in March, 2002, over 85 of the top 100 GSA Schedule vendors (all Schedules), and over 70 of the top Schedule 70 vendors have attended at least one session of this seminar. Many have attended multiple sessions. A few near the top have me on retainer.

If you want to know what separates the top tier from the rest, you need to ATTEND THIS SEMINAR.

An investment of $195 can start your migration to the top tier.

On March 23, 2006, from 9:00 AM until noon, Government Marketing Best Practices, version 6.0*  will be presented at Claret Hall, 6020 Daybreak Circle, in the River Hill Shopping Center in Clarksville, Maryland. This is near the intersection of Rt 108 and Rt 32 in Howard County, near the Montgomery County line. It is not far from Laurel, Columbia, Ellicott City, Silver Spring, Rockville, and is only 30 minutes from Baltimore. This seminar has visited 12 cities around the country on three tours and this is the first time this seminar has been offered in Maryland. Registration starts at 8:00 AM with a continental breakfast.

 * (the latest version, as the seminar is updated twice each year)

First quarter FY 2006 results are in for the SmartPay small purchase program. The results for the small purchase card from Oct-Dec 2005 are $4,367,556,019.50, about $120 million ahead of the same period last FY. There were 450,000 fewer transactions (just under 5.5 million so far this FY) and about 9,000 fewer cardholders. For the first time since November, 1997, there are fewer than 300,000 cardholders (298,667). Fewer transactions and fewer cardholders with more money spent does equate to a higher average per purchase, approaching $800 on average.

Beware of the schlock vendors, producing minimal value events, events that eat your money with no significant return! The events listed below are among those I think are worth your time, money and effort. Just because an event is not listed below does not imply it is not worth attending. If you want my opinion on a specific event or producer, call me. This topic is addressed more thoroughly in the members section at www.GovernmentMarketingBestPractices.com.

February 15, 2006 NSA/OPS 1 Building (Day 1), Fort Meade, Maryland In-Agency Event, www.fbcinc.com

February 22, 2006 NSA R&E Building (Day 1), Fort Meade, Maryland In-Agency Event, www.fbcinc.com

February 23,  GOVERNMENT MARKETING BEST PRACTICES – First Maryland Session EVER – Claret Hall, River Hill Shopping Center, – Clarksville, Maryland, 8:00AM – Noon. (session starts at 9:00) www.FederalDirect.net/gmbpfeb23.html

February 23, 2006 NSA R&E Building (Day 2), Fort Meade, Maryland In-Agency Event, www.fbcinc.com

Feb 23-24 EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT: Measure Results and Manage Performance, Cafritz Conference Center, George Washington University, Washington, DC. http://www.digitalgovernment.com/

February 28 - March 1, 2006 FAA IT/ISS Conference, Denver, Colorado www.fbcinc.com

March 7-9, 2006: FOSE www.FOSE.com 
This will be the thirtieth anniversary of FOSE.

March 22-23, EFFECTIVE IT PERFORMANCE: Keys to Successfully Managing Government Projects, Continental Ballroom, Cafritz Conference Center, George Washington University 800 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC (Foggy Bottom Metro Stop) www.digitalgovernment.com

April 18, FEDERAL CHANNELS, Denver www.fbcinc.com  If you have not been to a Federal Channels event and you are in the Denver area – attend this event!

APRIL 19, 2006, Tower Club, Vienna, VA. Amtower & Company presents the one and only Amy Africa and THE ULTIMATE B2B WEB SITE MAKEOVER. For those of you who do not know Ms Africa, she is perhaps the most sought after web consultant in the world, and we have sixty seats available for her first ONE DAY session focusing exclusively on maximizing the impact of B2B and B2G web sites.  www.FederalDirect.net/ultimatewebsitemakeover.html

April 20, 16th Annual OSDBU Procurement Conference, Upper Marlboro, MD http://www.fbcinc.com/event.asp?eventid=Q6UJ9A00AJ0N

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As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks
Mark Amtower

The Amtower Report is published by Amtower & Company, and is written for companies targeting the government marketplace. The opinions expressed are those of Mark Amtower unless otherwise noted. Contact us at Amtower & Company, PO Box 314, Highland, MD 20777-0314 (301-924-0058). This material is copyrighted and may not be duplicated, reprinted or otherwise replicated without written permission of the publisher. Email subscriptions are free by request: sign up at www.FederalDirect.net