GeoEye and DigitalGlobe: When Industry is Stuck Holding the Purse Strings
September 20, 2012
With many industry players making significant investments to support new contract wins, things can go awry when contracts are cut or scaled back due to budget cuts. For example, two years ago the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) awarded the EnhancedView contract to commercial imagery providers GeoEye and DigitalGlobe. The contract totaled a whopping seven billion dollars to provide a critical component of situational awareness for our country. This unprecedented contract was a pivotal moment in the commercial imagery sector where government and industry were fully aligned to help meet mission goals with the most innovative commercial solutions. Fast-forward to today and things have ... Read moreQ&A: John Chaconas, Director of Marketing, Monster Government Solutions Discusses Next-Gen Workforce Management
September 19, 2012
Monster Government Solutions is the premier provider of complete workforce solutions for government and education, and is a division of Monster.com. The company offers workforce management solutions from traditional recruiting and applicant tracking systems and online career/community sites to a client services team that comprises federal human resource subject matter experts, project managers, business analysts and industrial/organizational psychologists. We recently spoke with John Chaconas, Director of Marketing at Monster Government Solutions, who shared some insights into the new horizons of government workforce management. He also discussed with us the value of performing government customer satisfaction and awareness surveys. FedPulse: Tell us about Monster ... Read moreAgencies Can Amp Up Social Media Campaigns with Imagery and Infographics
September 18, 2012
Monica Mayk Parham, Marketing Director, Market Connections, Inc. Social media’s evolution has reached a new phase where visually appealing imagery has become the standard. This can be seen from the rise in popularity of sites Pinterest and Instagram to the integration of smart phone apps that cater to posting and sharing online content. As today’s socially engaged citizens are more influenced by visually appealing content, government agencies can benefit by increasing their use of infographics, imagery and videos — allowing their social media efforts be more impactful and engaging. Tomorrow, the Advanced Learning Institute (ALI) is kicking off its Social Media for Government ... Read moreMonday Morning News Kick Off: White House Says Sequestration is ‘Deeply Destructive;’ BAE and EADS Merger and Other Acquisitions; and Cloud Computing Not So Awesome?
September 17, 2012
Welcome to the Monday morning news kick off post from the FedPulse blog. The White House issues its sequestration report. The House of Representatives passes the Republicans’ sequestration bill. Big-time mergers and acquisitions are happening in the government contractor sector, with major personnel changes happening as well. It’s enough to make one’s head spin. Fortunately, we have provided all the actionable news you need to make sense of these challenging times. Happy Monday! White House Warns that Sequestration Would Be ‘Deeply Destructive’ On Friday, the White House issued its report on sequestration, which ‘would be deeply destructive to national security, domestic ... Read moreGaining a Clearer Picture of Government Big Data Opportunities
September 13, 2012
The complex nature of large amounts of data makes storage, capture, sharing, analysis and visualization a true challenge for many federal agencies trying to implement big data initiatives According to IBM, vast amounts of data come from everywhere: sensors used to gather climate information, posts to social media sites, photographs and images, videos, purchase transaction records, and cell phone GPS signals – you name it. Just as the name implies, big data is a challenge because of the endless amount of data available for analysis and deployment. Addressing a group of reporters touring the company’s new data center late last month, Facebook’s ... Read moreDifferentiation Through Thought Leadership in the Federal Market
September 12, 2012
Monica Mayk Parham, Marketing Director, Market Connections, Inc. Contractors have been strategically positioning their subject matter experts as thought leaders for decades. But these days, true thought leadership extends beyond traditional publicity to developing independent studies, white papers and online content that provides government customers with the insights they need to be successful. For contractors to remain competitive in these challenging budgetary times, they need to fully differentiate themselves by diving deeper into this arena. A number of contractors are already doing it right, and there is room for others to follow their lead: Lockheed Cyber Security Alliance: Lockheed Martin established its ... Read moreMapping a Customer’s Journey: An Exercise to Benefit Any Business Selling to Government
September 11, 2012
Sarah Wholey, Research Analyst, Market Connections, Inc. As the D.C. business community is dealing with many challenges these days, it is always good to keep all of your customer service capabilities as sharp as possible. With fewer dollars to chase, the competition is getting very stiff and contractors need to embrace new ideas for keeping government customers happy. I recently had the privilege of participating in an educational workshop hosted by GovLoop and Oracle called ‘Mapping the Customer Journey,’ which was designed to gain a deeper understanding of customer motivations for improving overall service. While much of the event was geared toward government ... Read moreMonday Morning News Kick Off: White House Misses Sequestration Deadline; BYOD and Security; Cloud Implementation Challenges; and Pentagon to Sell Drones Internationally
September 10, 2012
Welcome to the Monday morning news kick off post from the FedPulse blog. With the Presidential election less than two months away, sequestration is still top-of-mind for many – with BAE Systems hosting a “Stop Sequestration” rally and much more. As always, we have provided all the actionable news you need to manage the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead. Happy Monday! White House Misses Sequestration Deadline; DoD Will See 11 Percent Cut The Obama administration has missed a key deadline to submit a report on how it would implement $109 billion in across-the-board budget cuts scheduled to take effect Jan. 2. Democratic ... Read moreCan You Define Cloud Computing? Common Knowledge is Not So Common
September 7, 2012
The definition of ‘common knowledge’ is knowledge that is available to everyone. If something is common knowledge, then we automatically assume we are all working from the same playbook, right? It turns out common knowledge is not all that common. For example, you know what cloud computing is, right? Many of us working in the federal market assume the idea of cloud computing is simple to grasp. Many contractors are helping government agencies embrace more cloud-based solutions, so we’re eating, sleeping and breathing cloud computing. Or we will soon enough, with the government moving more in this direction. Here’s the shocker. A recent ... Read moreA Deep Dive on Seven Sequestration Survival Tips
September 6, 2012
Michael Tinsley, Founder and CEO of NeoSystems Corp., recently offered seven highly insightful tips in Washington Technology for contractors to better weather the sequestration storm. In these very uncertain times, it is ideal to gather insights from industry and government leaders because it may all really come down to survival. The political arena behind sequestration is very much in a holding pattern due to the Presidential election, and certainly the lobbying machine from the industry side is fully cranked up. But things are still very ‘grey’ right now when it comes to sequestration. Fortunately, Tinsley’s insights are spot on. And, we ... Read more