Q: How is GEIA helping its member companies work with the government in support of the Department of Homeland Security?

We have three different initiatives going. One is the market forecast activity. We have a discrete team on Homeland Security that is looking at the budget for Homeland Security, the business opportunities, the programs. The team is going out and interviewing people in the government. We feel that it helps both government and industry because it assists our industry people in understanding the government requirements in Homeland Security and allows them to be better geared up to meet those requirements.

Second, we have a board-level task force on Homeland Security, which is a somewhat more senior group, and they’re in the process of working with the Homeland Security department to help with their enterprise architecture, looking particularly at the IT piece of their business. What they need to do to integrate the various agencies that are coming together to form the Homeland Security department, and thinking through what common standards for communication, for information technology, would look like.

And third, we’re sponsoring a senior-level forum June 17 here in the Washington area where we’re going to get people from the Homeland Security department and other agencies to come and sit on panels. We’ll have four panel discussions in the course of a day-long program. There will be a lot of dialogue between government and industry at the event.

Q: How are some of your member companies working on the Homeland Security initiative?

Some of the major companies have programs that have been aimed at Homeland Security since well before 9/11. And some of those programs are probably going to be beefed up in terms of funding. Other companies are really just scrambling to understand what this means to them. They’re attending as many forums as they can; things that we sponsor, things that other organizations are sponsoring; to try to understand where this environment is headed.

There’s not much money yet that’s hit the street, which is the distressing aspect of it. There is this feeding frenzy of both federal suppliers and people who want to become federal suppliers, thinking there’s all this money available. And it’s just not trickling out to the wider part of the industry, with the exception of a few major programs, and some of the major companies have seen existing programs increased. You’re just not seeing a lot of practical effect in terms of spending right now.

Q: Do you think that is going to change?

Oh it will. It’s just that with government money, they ramp up and spend on the front end very slowly, and then it becomes a sizeable amount of investment, and eventually it’ll taper off slowly. Federal dollars spend out very slowly.

Q: What is your advice for companies that would like to work with the Department of Homeland Security?

If they know the business, it’s just like marketing to any other agency. They’ll have to just get in there and meet the players and understand the structure. On the front end, that is a pretty big task, because even if you’ve done business with some of the 22 agencies that are going to now be this new department, their priorities are going to change based on the need for common approaches. They’re not just going to allow 22 different solutions to any problem anymore. They’re going to be looking for a consolidated approach to managing IT systems, security systems, etcetera. The other challenge is that these folks are very busy right now creating the new department, and they are beset on all sides with marketing people from hundreds of companies seeking to get time on their schedules.

Q: Can your organization help these companies who want to work with the Department of Homeland Security?

Absolutely. What our forecast process does is that we set up interviews across the government, Capitol Hill, Wall Street, anywhere where there is knowledge of this marketplace. And we send in two- and three-person teams from our industry companies to interview these people. We then take the results of those interviews and put a forecast out every fall. The benefit of that process is that it gives face time for our industry folks with these key customers, and it allows them to ask them questions, and get information from them long before our forecast is available in the fall. They’re getting a constant flow of information back to their companies from that process.