Stimulus to generate $4.5B state and local tech spending

czmuda — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:49:12 GMT

William Welsh authored this article today in Washington Technology.

Contractors doing business with state and local governments should expect to see $4.5 billion worth of new information technology opportunities from the proposed economic stimulus package, according to Input Inc.

The projection is based on analysis of the House of Representatives’ version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Reston, Va.-based market research firm said Feb. 11.
“The broadband rollout represents the largest portion of the likely state and local technology investment in both [House and Senate] versions of the bill,” said Chris Dixon, Input’s manager of state and local analysis. Facilities modernization, mass transit and health IT also will drive technology spending, he said. Funding for these areas is included in both versions.
Improvements to physical infrastructure and mass transportation are likely to have key technology components, Dixon said. “Increased security and efficiency is the key in these areas, and both are technology-intensive outcomes,” he said.

Funding in both bills will drive significant improvements in health IT through initiatives aimed at improving the flow of electronic information at hospitals and clinics as well as large-scale Medicaid Management Information System projects. The two versions contain key funding differences, Input said. While the House version has substantial spending for education, law enforcement and unemployment insurance, the Senate version would trim spending in those areas, and instead allocate more dollars to broadband and health IT.

The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

czmuda — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:16:00 GMT

This blog posting written by Bob Gourley provides some insights into the changing landscape of government spending under President-Elect Obama.

A very hot topic among all technologists, from DC to Silicon Valley, is how the Obama election will change the technology landscape. There are five key megatrends in IT today, and we should analyze change in the context of each. These five megatrends in IT are:

Convergence and trend towards unified communications and user empowerment
Globalization and increasing internationalization of IT and demographic shifts
Increasing open development of software and hardware
Power, Cooling and Space (PCS) impacting data centers and every place computing is done
Increasing pace of technology development and probability of disruption

President-Elect Obama has long articulated a technology strategy on his website.

GovCon : President-Elect Obama Technology Strategy

Stimulus to generate $4.5B state and local tech spending

The Technology Implications of the Obama Win