Federal Blogs Offer Excellent Insight into Agency Needs

We’ve all heard how important it is to listen to our prospects and clients and federal government clients are no different. The federal government continues to adopt the use of social network platforms and blogs allowing them to communicate more frequently with their constituents inside and out of government. Government contractors should pay close attention. Never before could so much be learned about an agency or department simply by listening to what they have to share.

Edward O'Hare

Edward O'Hare

For example, IT service providers can learn what the IT priorities are at the GSA by following the newly launched blog, ‘Great Government through Technology‘, started and managed by Edward O’Hare – Assistant Commissioner for GSA’s Integrated Technology Services (ITS) portfolio within the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS).

Another great one to follow is the HHS IT blog, Health IT Buzz, which is managed by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

There are hundreds of places to “listen” to government executives sharing their priorities and challenges on blogs, on Twitter, in social networks and forums. Help them accomplish their goals and conquer their challenges and you will succeed in reaching your goals.

BetterBuy press conference live Twitter feed

Live Twitter feed of BetterBuy press conference:

Follow the highlights of the press conference as they’re tweeted by the attendees. Links to be added later.

Better Buy Project: Better Buy is a joint project of the National Academy of Public Administration and the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council in conjunction with the General Services Administration. The Project is an experiment dedicated to the belief that there’s a lot of room for improvement in the way government buys products and services.

Pic by @kellyolson of @BetterBuyProj team members @marydavie, @ltrudeau, @estherburgess talking with @jmgovit of @fednewsradio at #elc09

Better Buy Project Team

GovDelivery Mentioned in WSJ

A couple of days ago GovDelivery announced that they had acquired GovLoop, a rapidly growing social network for government employees. (GovLoop acquired by GovDelivery) The social network should benefit from increased access to capital as it expands it’s user base.

It took eight years for GovDelivery  to reach the one billion email milestone and they reached that billion email milestone already in 2009 alone. That’s momentum! Read about that and the rest of this excerpt from a blog post on NY Times about GovDelivery:

Another under-the-radar company that could be poised to reap the whirlwind is St. Paul, Minn.-based GovDelivery Inc., which has been in stealth mode since 1999, and just last week closed a $2 million funding round from individual investors. GovDelivery has developed a communications platform that enables government agencies to provide information to citizens via email alerts, text bulletins and widgets.

The company, which has reached cash-flow breakeven, provides data services for the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Health Department, MediCare, federal transportation offices and other departments.

“This year has been by far the best year ever for us,” said Scott Burns, GovDelivery chief executive. “Since 2001, the government has sent two billion emails through GovDelivery. One billion of those have been sent in 2009 alone.”

Source: Big Government Means Big Business For Data-Sharing Start-Ups

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