It’s not every day the public service employees get to be the coolest kids on the block. Normally it’s the big banks, big oil, or big pharma. Not this week. At the US Public Sector CIO conference, held on Microsoft’s Redmond Campus, all hands were on deck to cater to our Federal, State, and Local Government, and Educational leaders.
Why? You ask.
Two Words: Stimulus Package.
We all know the story about the economy, and the end of 2008 into the beginning of 2009 had a lot of IT departments pulling up on the reins in fear that the next spending proposal they were going to submit might be their last. Well, in some areas of the economy, that might still be the case for a while, but in the Public Sector, everyone is obsessed with the latest economic recovery plan that has passed and are scrambling to find out when and where the money will trickle down.
I have to credit Microsoft, they are not pulling any punches in the preparation. This summit, which AvePoint sponsored and exhibited, was thoroughly stocked with sessions on how run IT in this economy and how to prepare for stimulus money. Also I would say the ratio to MSFT employees to attendees was easily 1:1. There was even a session for partners, hosted by Vince Menzioni USPS General Manager, Partner Strategy that addressed how partners could position their sales and marketing efforts to align with Microsoft’s strategy. This gave a decent over view of the industries that stand to benefit most from the stimulus package at the top of the list was Education, State and Local Gov, then Healthcare, Financial Revitalization, and Energy sector.
What is most compelling to me is the focus on Transparency and Collaboration in government and educational programs. The need for programs to assist with Knowledge Management, Tracking, Reporting. The mantra that is coming out of D.C. and has already trickled down is the openness and fairness that stimulus package recepients will need to abide by. These themes bode very well for Microsoft, and specifically SharePoint.
With the recent inclusion of PerformancePoint in the SharePoint license, not to mention the bulk of partner generated BI and efficiency tools, a large number of organizations are looking to invest in tools to assist with tracking investments and analyzing performance.
If there was one complaint, it would be that CIO’s don’t seem too compelled to speak with SharePoint infrastructure management companies, but hey, we already know it’s the admins that really get the thrill out of using our products, and the CIO’s have those admins and us to thank for keeping their phones from ringing off the hook with unhappy SharePoint users. As long as we know, that’s all that matters.
-Chris Foreman