Getting a Grip on Budgets Opens Doors for SLED Resellers
We’ve all heard about state budget cuts, local governments redistributing funds and schools pinching pennies. And it all may be true, but as an IT reseller, don’t worry. Technology is the sweet spot for spending. "The amount of money the government is going to spend continues to be at record levels," says Plantronics’ Director of Public Sector Sales, Jim Stevenson. "Technology is the one area that can improve productivity and make the dollars they have go further."
Research firm INPUT predicts that state and local government spending will surpass $33 billion in 2011. They go on to estimate that the education market will be a $56 billion opportunity by 2012. Plus, funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is still funneling through education along with other federally funded education programs such as E-Rate and Race to the Top, as well as infrastructure improvement funds for state governments trickling down from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Projects that drive greater efficiencies are what these clients are looking for. Director of Business Development for Avaya, Gavin Lee says, "These could be technology infrastructure efficiencies, consolidation or shared services projects. It’s all about improving productivity to do more with the people you have."
Instead of being the person your customers buy a printer from, ask them, "What is the real problem and what is the real outcome you are looking for?" advises HP’s Director of Americas Channel Marketing, Matt Smith.
Most experts agree that educators are looking at the virtual classroom as a way to not only give students a competitive edge in the global workplace, but also to stretch their dollars more effectively. On the other hand, CIOs and local municipality leaders are tasked with providing their constituents the services they demand and making sure they are getting their tax dollars worth.
Educating America
American students, now more than ever, need the tools to be more competitive globally. The 21st century student demands a 21st century virtual classroom. From the desktop to the data center, virtualization is helping to transform education for the digital age. "Schools are looking for an easier, more affordable and more reliable way to manage their desktop environments while still providing students and faculty with the ability to stay productive," says Senior Product Marketing Manager for VMware Courtney Burry. "By turning to desktop virtualization, schools can centrally and more securely manage a user’s data, applications and operating system in the data center and can enrich the learning environment for students by providing anytime access to school assignments and applications from any device."
Burry continues, "With budgets the way they are, this is the perfect time for education to look at virtualization. Not only can schools reduce capital outlays with desktop virtualization by repurposing existing PCs, but they can also reduce the ongoing operational costs associated with managing, patching and updating their PC environment—and this amounts to significant savings."
Many school districts have already made the transition and have found that this shift has created other challenges within the digital classroom. "It’s come down to form factor and portability," says Ergotron’s Senior Global Director for Education and Healthcare Industry, Steve Reinecke. "Some districts want to be really progressive, but run into problems with space concerns and power."
Ergotron addresses this need by making mobile teaching platforms, mobile computer labs and mobile power centers possible. "When a school invests in technology, a lot of times they can’t afford to be installing technology in every classroom," explains Reinecke. "Mobile teaching platforms–equipped with a projector, document camera and notebook—give more students better access to technology as they learn, while at the same time helping the school stay within budget."
With the digital classroom comes a question of security. Schools are tasked with providing security on two fronts. They have to manage the data and technology that includes things like student records, but they also have to be aware of students bringing something like malware into the education environment.
Keeping Constituents Happy
2011 is a pivotal year, especially for states with new governors, new CIOs and new initiatives. Many state and local governments also are considering significant changes to their IT governance models.
"The biggest topic everyone is going to be reading about will be the continued government budget cutbacks," says Plantronics’ Jim Stevenson. "The cuts they’re going to be making, however, are mainly in the areas of personnel and reducing real estate space and expense."
State and local governments realize that no matter what cuts are made, they must use technology to solve the problem of providing services to their citizens. Burry agrees, "A lot of state and local agencies are looking at desktop virtualization as a way to more effectively provision out these services 24/7."
"It’s all about IT as an enabler," says Cisco’s Director of the Public Sector Partner Organization, Dawn Duross. "Within the Cisco Smart Business Architecture for Government, we’ve put together network designs for three architectures: borderless networks, collaboration and data center, each of which makes it easy for partners to configure, deploy and manage networks."
There’s also a lot of interest in unified communications for its huge cost savings and large productivity gain. "No matter what level of government–from city to state—they are looking at some kind of unified communication platforms," says Stevenson. "The government is dispersing the workforce."
"With the great interest and push toward cloud-based services, communications services like IP telephony, unified communications and contact center are now viable options," explains Avaya’s Lee. "There’s a greater need for VARs to deliver the license, support devices, support gateways and so forth, as well as the need to put in place a high-performance and reliable data and wireless network."
It all comes down to total cost of ownership and doing more with less. "The opportunity is in flipping the conversation around solutions and activities that improve productivity and also fix the problems," adds HP’s Smith.
Stevenson quips, "I always tell people not to fear the government running out of money. When was the last time your taxes went down?"
It makes sense (and dollars). Find your sweet spot in this lucrative opportunity with some help from Tech Data’s TechEDG Team. Call our Business Development Representatives at 800-436-5353, ext. 80321, or send an e-mail to usbusdevgov@techdata.com.
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