The place to start is GSA’s own web pages. You need some basic information before you start into trying to determine market size. First you need to learn which GSA Schedule contract you are interested in pursuing. Start your research at the GSA E-Library www.gsaelibrary.gsa.gov. There is a link there on the right to the GSA Schedules listing. This is a list of all of the GSA schedules and what they cover. Or you can enter a search term representing the products or services you wish to research and let the search engine suggest schedules.

After selecting the GSA Schedule you need to determine the GSA Special Item Number or SIN that covers the specific products or services. For example, if I wanted to check the market for access control systems that are on entryways, I would find that they are Schedule 84, SIN 246 35 1 or 246 35 2 depending on whether they were proximity or other type systems. If I wanted to find out who already had those types of contracts, I could click on the SIN links and see the list of contract holders. I could also click on any of those contract holders and see what they offered and at what prices.

With this information the next step is to go to the GSA Schedule Sales Query (SSQ) tool to begin the market size research – https://ssq.gsa.gov/. Select “Create Report” and proceed to the report selection page. The SSQ report generator allows you to quickly select a preformatted report of the GSA Schedule sales. GSA offers eleven report formats. Some of the reports will instruct you to select a Schedule number, a Fiscal Year, a Contract number, or a Company name that you found from your search of the E-Library. The report formats are:

Selecting a report sample helps determine if that report will provide the information you require.

SSQ presents sales figures as reported to GSA by contractors. The reports are generated as quarterly reports for the current year and the past five fiscal years. The sales data reported are updated as contractors’ reports are received 30 days after the end of the quarter, but the data may not be up to date as it relies on the self-reporting of the contractors. The data is also only provided at the schedule, contractor and /or SIN level. This does not give you information about the market for a specific product, only a product type. However, GSA does provide the most accurate information available as to the GSA Schedule contract marketplace and it’s free. Happy hunting!

Things to Do Now:

• Research the GSA Schedule marketplace for your products or services.
• Determine if the market is sufficient for the investment into a GSA Schedule contract.
• Subscribe to GovContracts to receive notices of federal opportunities (http://search.govcontractsmagazine.com/contracts/fbosearch.cfm)
• To expand the government’s ability to access your products without worrying about the market size you can get your items on a GSA Schedule contract.
• Locate partners now such as Technical Communities who will act for you in the market.
• Make sure they have full access to the products or services that are in demand for the government markets.

If you are either selling IT to the federal government or work on a federal IT program, this might cause a moment of insecurity. But not to worry – too much – says Brian Haney, a senior vice president at market research firm Input Inc.

Of the president’s $3.7 trillion 2012 budget proposal, Haney pointed out, only $1.2 trillion represents the discretionary budget, accounts from which IT funds are normally drawn.

And nearly two-thirds of that budget – or $720 billion – will be excluded from the freeze because it funds programs at the Defense and Homeland Security departments and other agencies considered essential to national security.

That leaves $398 billion in non-essential, non-security related spending – a third of the discretionary budget – that would be subjected to a freeze. “It’s important to keep that in perspective,” Haney told the reseller crowd.

Despite the slow-down, federal IT spending to commercial contractors is expected to grow about 5 percent annually, according to Input, which sizes the 2010 federal IT market at about $86 billion.

By 2015, that would rise to about $110 billion in IT products and services contracted out to commercial suppliers. The growth will be due in part to demand for contractors rising slightly faster than overall IT spending,  Haney noted.

Joseph McCrone, Ingram Micro’s area vice president for government, education and VAR sales, said that, despite the modest forecast, the federal IT market remains robust, especially for channel suppliers.

Full article by Paul McCloskey, Washington Technology

The Cooperative Purchasing Program gives state and local government
entities access to purchase information technology products and services,
as well as law enforcement, security, first responder, and marine craft
equipment, alarm and signal systems, and special purpose clothing.

Cooperative Purchasing Program Features
• A centralized IT and telecommunications source
• A total solution for law enforcement and security
• Leveraged buying power of federal government
• Negotiated Fair and Reasonable Pricing
• Direct contractor and customer relationship
• Voluntary for both GSA contractor and state and local customer
• Online contractor search and purchasing capabilities
• Lower administrative costs
• Ability to find interoperable products to meet Homeland
Security needs
• Best value
- Warranty
- Expedited delivery
- Commercial terms and conditions
• Ability to establish strategic Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs)
• Ability to use BPAs that are already established via SmartBUY BPAs
The SmartBUY BPAs are as follows:
- Document and Record Management
- Data At Rest (DAR)
- Situational Awareness and Incident Response (SAIR) –
Cybersecurity Tool

A small sampling of some of the products and services include:
Schedule 70 and Consolidated Schedule: IT Products and Services
• IT equipment, software and maintenance
• IT professional services
• Wireless and electronic commerce services
• Access Certificates for Electronic Services (ACES) Program
• Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Shared Service Provider
(SSP) Program
• HSPD-12 product and service components
• IT training
• Leasing and daily/short term IT equipment rental
• Cloud Computing services
• Virtualization services
• IPv6 services
• Cybersecurity services

Schedule 84: Law Enforcement, Security, Facilities Management, Fire,
Rescue, Clothing, Marine Craft and Emergency/Disaster Response
• Law enforcement and security equipment
• Firefighting and rescue equipment, urban and wildland
• Marine craft and equipment
• Alarm and signal systems
• Special purpose clothing

Read More

The report is one of the clearest indications yet that the Obama administration’s stimulus spending, which established the Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs to help providers adopt and achieve meaningful use of EHRs, has spurred hospital spending on health IT modernization — a measure that will transform and improve the quality of patient care for decades to come.

According to the findings of the 22nd annual HIMSS leadership survey, which interviewed 326 IT executives representing nearly 700 hospitals, 68% of respondents indicated that they were going to make additional investments to position their organization to qualify for incentives as a result of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, enacted as part of the ARRA. This represents an increase from the 59% of respondents who reported this was the case in the 2010 study.

Full article by Nicole Lewis, InformationWeek

See the list by Washington Technology