SLED grants can make IT acquisition possible

April 15, 2024 by Leave a comment

Vendors can help navigate the grant process

As many as one-third of government agencies do not apply for grants to help finance their missions, even though that money is available to fund initiatives and bridge the funding gap in existing programs. A vendor that understands how to navigate the grant process can be of great help to a state or local government agency, pointing them in the direction of resources they may have overlooked.

Let’s look at how vendors can play an important part in the SLED grant-seeking process.

Biggest SLED grant hurdles: Complexity and awareness

A considerable percentage of eligible agencies don’t take advantage of grant opportunities. According to GrantStation, among government funding sources, state government application rates (74%) were higher than those of local government (71%) or the federal government (64%) at the end of 2023. That means as many as one-third of all agencies do not apply for grant funding. Meanwhile Instrumentl found that “there are currently more than 900 federal grant programs offered by 26 different grant-making agencies.”

Why aren’t government agencies taking advantage of these opportunities? Main reasons include lack of expertise, the process can be too complicated and lack of understanding of the associated costs to write a compelling grant proposal.

But complexity isn’t the only reason government agencies don’t apply for grants. Often it boils down to a lack of awareness. Agencies that have not historically included grant requests in their funding strategies might not even know of available opportunities.

Qualified vendors can provide opportunity information and assistance to agencies, so that they are better positioned to pursue them.

A trusted vendor can help an agency identify grants and the correct government points of contact who manage those grants. This can save time and provide additional business value.

Vendor-agency cooperation is fundamental to success

Awareness only goes so far. Agencies must have access to a knowledgeable grant writer and clear communication with their trusted vendors.

For some smaller local agencies, an administrative employee may be completing the application. They will have to rely on vendors to help answer technical requirements. On the other hand, grant writers with more experience may meet with vendors during the application process, so that both parties understand the requirements for answering grant application questions. Regardless, vendors and agencies that make a coordinated effort can prepare compelling grant responses.

Some local commissions offer grant resources to third-party writers. The Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission is starting the Ready LDD Grant Writing Bench program. This Virginia program will provide on-call grant writers and project management support to its member communities of Alleghany County, Botetourt County, Craig County, the City of Covington and the Town of Clifton Forge.

3 questions to consider before pursuing grant opportunities

To help your agency customers decide if they are ready to start a grant-seeking program, there are a few things they have to address upfront:

  • What is their appetite for grant solicitation? Not every agency will want to direct personnel and financial resources to a grant application process.
  • What is their timeline? Grant-seeking success means coordinating requests with adequate preparation time, including internal planning and forecasting when a grant may be used.
  • Are they willing to have a grants conversation with you? A collaborative agreement with vendors during the grant application process can save time and help create a persuasive response to grant applications.

There are amazing growth opportunities within grants. Consider working with the right vendors to help you navigate the complex process and start building your pipeline of grant opportunities.

This blog was adapted from a commentary originally published in Washington Technology. For the full original commentary, click here.

Chauncey Kehoe is SLED Program Director for immixGroup, the public sector business of Arrow Electronics. immixGroup delivers mission-driven results through innovative technology solutions for public sector IT. Visit www.immixgroup.com for more information.

Do you want to keep on top of federal procurement regulations? Subscribe to immixGroup’s Government Sales Insider blog now!

Filed under Market Intelligence, Marketing, Sales, SLED

“Whole-of-state” is the focus for 2024 SLED 2024 IT spending

February 12, 2024 by Leave a comment

Cybersecurity, AI and efficiency are top priorities

By Benjamin Harris, Market Intelligence Manager, immixGroup

The “whole-of-state” approach to budgeting and collaboration at the state, local and education (SLED) level is among the top drivers behind how technology investment is being directed during 2024.

Of the $138.9 billion budgeted across SLED for 2024, IT services makes up $59 billion. Software products represent $13 billion. By 2025 those numbers may increase to $61 billion for services and $14 billion for software products.

Here are the areas that will lead budget discussion this year for key players in the SLED market. This information was gleaned from an analysis of publicly available budget information from government agency websites, private, subscription-based organizations that track government spending, as well as other open-source material.

State-level highlights

California. California’s IT budget for 2024 is $13 billion. The state’s top IT investments include $198 million for modernization to its Employment Development Department, $126.6 million for COVID-19 response and $93 million for REAL ID. The IT strategic priority for California is delivery of easy-to-use, fast, dependable and secure public services.

New York. New York is committed to a “whole-of-state” approach to cybersecurity. The state’s $5.4 billion IT budget includes $391 million for centralized technology services, $50 million for data analytics and $30 million for technology financing. Priorities include digitizing services, enhancing its cyber posture and creating a “One ID” system for residents to access services across all agencies.

Texas. Out of a $5.4 billion IT budget, Texas’ top IT investments include $323 million for IT oversight and program support, along with $270 million for data center and shared technology services, and $53 million to promote efficient security. Priorities include enhancing data management practices to bolster analytical decision making.

City-level highlights

District of Columbia. DC has a 2024 IT budget of $369 million, of which $17.5 million will go to updating its traffic ticket processing system, and $3.5 million to the P-20W data system to measure and use information on student college and career readiness and outcomes. DC’s IT strategic priorities include improving user-centric digital experiences, IT operations, and infrastructure and cybersecurity.

San Francisco. San Francisco’s strategic goals include prioritizing service accessibility, redesigning operations and introducing innovative services for government modernization. The city’s $291 million budget will earmark $26 million for major IT projects, $10 million to improve data access, and $6 million for security consulting and design services.

Philadelphia. Of $270 million in its IT budget, Philadelphia will invest $11 million in records digitization and storage, $8 million in upgrading cloud solutions and $8 million in data systems for essential services support. The city’s priorities include transforming recreation centers to broadband anchor institutions, updating fire department IT and developing citywide electric vehicle charging.

Chicago. The Second City’s $240 million IT budget includes $50 million for computer hardware, software, peripherals, cloud, and related maintenance and installation services. Chicago’s IT priorities include people-first digital services, securing cities and assets, and creating a data-driven city.

Education highlights

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. The University’s $523 million IT budget includes a 5 percent increase to base operating appropriations, plus one-time resources for infrastructure, technology, equipment and maintenance. Approximately $70 million will be directed at enhanced enterprise IT security and increased support for data visualization software.

University of California – Los Angeles. UCLA’s $422 million IT budget is focused on infrastructure solutions such as modernizing telephony services to eliminate costly hardware equipment. The university will also focus on application modernization to replace its aging mainframe-based financial aid system, among other modernization activities. 

Chicago Public Schools. With $169 million in its IT budget, the Chicago Public School system is directing $20 million to technology wiring, cabling, and voice network maintenance and support. Another $20 million is allocated to upgrading or replacing the existing ERP system, with $10 million for firewall replacement and related services.

It will be fascinating to watch whether SLED budgeting will match spending realities as we move through 2024. In the meantime, it’s clear that priorities at each level will mirror each other as SLED moves to a fully “whole-of-state” IT philosophy.

Benjamin Harris is the SLED market intelligence analyst for immixGroup, the public sector business of Arrow Electronics. immixGroup delivers mission-driven results through innovative technology solutions for public sector IT. Find out more about immixGroup’s SLED contract vehicles here.

Keep on top of federal procurement regulations. Subscribe to immixGroup’s Government Sales Insider blog here!

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Selling to SLED

October 17, 2023 by Leave a comment

Six basics to follow

By Chauncey Kehoe, Legal Shared Services Manager, immixGroup

Selling to state, local, and education (SLED) agencies is vastly different than selling to the federal market. SLED agencies act as individual entities with their own purchasing requirements and customer service needs.

The differences between SLED and federal sales start with registration requirements for doing business. In Texas, for example, registering with the state doesn’t mean you can sell to each local entity. You may also need to register with the locality’s registrar’s office or their e-procurement platform, as is the case for the city of El Paso.

After local registration, you’ll need to sign up for each bid notification system. Cities, counties, and individual schools may use their own respective notification platforms, so do your homework.

Also, it’s important to know each customer’s and prospect’s fiscal year. Does it begin in July, April, or October? Do they budget annually or biennially? This is important information for discussing and planning projects with your sales targets.

Take these six actions to position yourself for successful selling into the SLED market:

  • Secure your certifications. It’s essential to maintain your Secretary of State Tax Certification wherever you plan to do business. Many companies may be more focused on the sales cycle than on administrative compliance.
  • Maintain good standing where you’re selling. Some states, like Texas, have a comptroller website where you can monitor your company’s “report card” grade. You should aim for a grade of B or better. A low grade on customer service, for example, might hinder you from securing a future contract.
  • Know the procurement process. Does your customer submit procurement requests to a board or through legislation? That answer may depend on the size of the project. It’s up to you to know.
  • Have financing options. For larger projects, consider using a financing office that has worked at the state or local level. This will help ensure you have enough funds to fulfill the contract as you plan internal budgets.
  • Be accessible. Your SLED customers expect you to have excellent customer service and support, and to be available at a moment’s notice. That’s why many companies place offices in close proximity to their customers.
  • Stay current on cybersecurity requirements. Many state, local, and education entities are creating their own certification processes for security requirements. For example, Texas and Arizona have each adopted their own RAMP policies, based largely on FedRAMP and StateRAMP. Requirements vary by state, and even by entity within the same state.

You must understand what each SLED entity requires for RAMP certification. Selling enterprise-level technology may mean checking with state, local and higher education agencies, to ensure your technology complies with specific RAMP programs.

As you can see, selling to the SLED market is not the same as selling to the federal market. SLED often has much more detailed requirements. To succeed and build your pipeline, you have to know the basics. These factors make a good jumping-off point.

Chauncey Kehoe is legal shared services manager for immixGroup, the public sector business of Arrow Electronics. immixGroup delivers mission-driven results through innovative technology solutions for public sector IT.

Visit http://www.immixGroup.com/ for more information.

Want to keep on top of federal procurement regulations? Subscribe to immixGroup’s Government Sales Insider blog now!

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Accelerate cloud sales to the SLED market | Uniform Guidance

May 18, 2023 by Leave a comment

Using a contract that was procured in accordance with Uniform Guidance, 2-C.F.R. Part 200, allows state and local (SLED) customers to bypass the traditonal request for proposals (RFP) process. The RFP process is often necessary to execute a deal; it is time consuming and labor intensive. The process can often be bypassed. 

immixGroup recently earned a publicly procured, competitively solicited contract award for Equalis Group Cloud Solutions contract with the Cooperative Council of Governments (CCOG). This contract allows IT suppliers and IT resellers to provide, through EC America, cloud products and services to public sector entities across the country through a legal and compliant exemption to the traditional RFP process. This contract was procured and awarded in accordance with the requirements of the Uniform Guidance.

It’s the perfect time to advise customers about the benefits of using this legal and compliant exemption

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Our top picks for best SLED events

December 8, 2022 by Leave a comment

By Jessica Wilhelm, SLED Contracts Specialist

Marketing budgets are always tight, and we never seem to have enough funding or time to be at every event. immixGroup attended 8 major SLED conferences in 2022 and we identified 3 major themes we wanted to share with you to help you plan and prioritize your 2023 conference selections.

Best value for your wallet

Beyond the Beltway, centrally located in Tysons Corner, is especially appealing to the D.C., Maryland and Virginia (DMV) SLED customer base.  It’s a must-attend conference for sales reps and market intelligence analysts. A booth presence is affordable, providing logo recognition and networking opportunities with DMV customers.

Texas DIR Information Security Forum is cost-friendly, offering great value for your dollars! The Platinum sponsorship includes a 10×20 booth and a speaking session. Besides being well-organized, the sessions are packed with relevant content and a lead list is provided at the close of the conference.

Most informational

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Follow the Fed – SLED money trail

December 1, 2022 by Leave a comment

By Lisa Kilgore, Contracts Specialist, State, Local and Education

Federal funding and SLED procurement do not exist in a vacuum; instead, they are intertwined and could be seen as two sides of the same coin. The connection between federal and state institutions is symbiotic, dating back to the founding of the nation. There are many instances of federal initiatives spurring growth at the most local level. The post-pandemic world has led to a shift in how our nation views federal initiatives and top-down funding. Understanding the connection between federal and SLED procurement is imperative for lasting success in the public procurement field.

Basics of our governance structure
Let’s bring it back to the fundamentals. Our nation operates under two sets of governance: an overarching federal government, and individual state governments. The separation between the two helps limits the consolidation of power; it allows individual states to do what is best for their citizens, to a degree, without needing federal approval. In the public procurement space, we often highlight the differences between SLED and Fed, dividing the two into distinct categories. It helps us to cater better to our customers. However, it may help to alter that thinking and look at the connections between the two.

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Four SLED contracts to build out your sales toolbox

September 8, 2022 by Leave a comment

By Jessica Wilhelm, SLED Contracts Specialist

If your company is selling IT products or services to the state, local and education (SLED) market, it is extremely important to maintain and expand the statewide contracts and cooperative agreements that form the foundation of procurement at this level.

Why build out this SLED contracts toolbox?  Simply put: Ease of use. Using a SLED contract vehicle with competitive pricing and negotiated terms and conditions equals a shorter procurement process for you!

If you’re new to the SLED space, you need to know that not all contracts are a one-size-fits-all solution. Here are a few types of SLED contracts that you should have in your toolbox. Three are SLED-specific; one allows SLED organizations to make use of federal vehicles. Here’s what you need to know.

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Big sales opportunities in lesser-known agencies: Decoding the Omnibus Bill

April 26, 2022 by Leave a comment

By Ryan Nelson, Market Intelligence Manager

The Omnibus Bill 2022 signed by the president about a month ago clocks in at nearly 2800 pages. It’s an annual free-for-all for vendors, with sales teams scouring the pages to compare appropriations to their product and service offerings.

While vendors’ typical targets are big-name agencies, there’s a strong argument to be made to dig a bit deeper below the surface, to the smaller sub-agencies. Big opportunities are often buried in small agency funding, and it’s worth having a closer read of the bill to find out just where those opportunities exist.

After all, you may be unlocking an opportunity that might not be obvious at first read, and therefore may not be as competitive as the larger agency requirements. Put enough of these smaller opportunities together, however, and suddenly you find yourself dealing with enough prospects to keep a team busy for some time.

That said, here are four interesting opportunities you might want to consider as you develop your prospect list from the newly signed budget bill:

1) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Some $38,486,000 is to remain available until expended, for Animal Health Technical Services. Similarly, $4,251,000 is to remain available for information technology infrastructure. That means even agencies that are focused on the health of wildlife, domesticated animals and farmable plants are still a lucrative target for big data, data analytics and network infrastructure components.

2) Farm Service Agency. Necessary expenses for this comparatively low-profile agency actually top $1.1 billion. Information technology represents a significant part of this funding. With programs ranging from aerial photography to financial management information, there are quite a number of opportunities in this agency alone. Most notable is the Modernize and Innovate the Delivery of Agricultural Systems (MIDAS) program. MIDAS is a web-based modernization initiative to simplify, integrate, and automate the delivery of Farm Programs across the United States.

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Seven ways to improve your sales to state CIOs

April 13, 2022 by Leave a comment

By Ryan Nelson, Market Intelligence Manager

State and local legislatures are having a good year. Flush with cash from the federal funding, most states enacted budgets with an increase in spending and revenue for FY2022. According to a recent conference of market analysts and government leaders, states project general fund spending of $1.02 trillion, a 9.3% increase compared to 2021. The education outlook is a bit more cautious, showing a trend of delayed spending of federal funding in K-12 districts. Nonetheless, there is a projected additional $3.5 billion in e-rate funds for 2022 and 2023.

During the recent conference, Jim Weaver, Secretary for Information Technology/State CIO for North Carolina was interviewed about how vendors can better position themselves and present information to decision-makers. Here are some of his top tips:

Taking all of this into account, what do vendors planning to sell into the state and local market need to know? The sales approach to state and local decision-makers is different than the federal market, and vendors should be prepared to make adjustments to their approach, to ensure a better chance of success.

1. Understand the state’s strategic plan. Every state has a strategic plan. Before you engage, know how your products and services will help them achieve their particular goals. Do not ask what an agency’s “pain points” are, or “what keeps you up at night?” You’ll find yourself being redirected back to the strategic plan.

2. States are changing the way they consume info. A crisis is an opportunity to influence change, Weaver said, and that has been true with the pandemic. What’s important now are case studies and the applicability of the study to the particular agency being courted. Messaging has to be eye-catching and visionary, but still based on what’s being done at the strategic planning level. Also, Weaver emphasized being engaged in the procurement process; vendors who aren’t already engaged in the process will most likely not get a lot of traction.

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StateRAMP is here to stay. Are you ready?

March 3, 2022 by Leave a comment

By Ceren Öney, SLED Market Intelligence Manager

Formal adoption of StateRAMP into IT procurement policies is rapidly increasing. Last year, we encouraged vendors to put StateRAMP on their radar screens. Since then, nearly 200 government members representing 33 states have joined the membership.

For service providers selling into state, local, and education institutions, now is the time to ensure that your cloud security is compliant with StateRAMP requirements.

While StateRAMP itself may still be a few years from being a household word, that doesn’t mean that state and local governments have been sitting idly by. The move toward better monitoring and certification of state, local and education network security has been going on for years, with two states at the forefront.

Arizona and Texas introduce state-specific frameworks

In September 2021, Arizona CIO J.R. Sloan announced the state will “test-drive” StateRAMP over the next year. Sloan, StateRAMP President and founding board member, had previously introduced AZRamp, Arizona’s Risk and Authorization Management Program. Arizona’s move to test StateRAMP doesn’t come as a surprise and further solidifies Sloan’s confidence in the program.

Meanwhile, effective January 1, 2022, Texas mandates state agencies to only enter or renew contracts for cloud offerings compliant with the Texas Department of Information Resources’ (DIR) own security framework, TX-RAMP.

Rising ransomware attacks targeting state and local governments, schools and colleges increased the pressure to strengthen cybersecurity postures and protect against incursions by bad actors. Coupled with the shift to digital services due to COVID-19’s disruptions and federal funding available under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the American Rescue Plan Act, considerable emphasis is being placed on cyber security now more than ever.

Other states adopt the StateRAMP framework

For most states, like North Carolina and Georgia, creating a state-specific framework is too laborious and inefficient. Adopting the established StateRAMP framework makes the initial risk assessment, continuous monitoring and management more seamless and easier.

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