I recently attended a Women in Technology (WIT) event entitled Managing Information, Mitigating Risk–An Enterprise Approach.  This event featured a panel discussion about information management and legal issues.  The watchword was “e-discovery” – the discovery of electronic information to be used in court.  

The panel discussed the importance of implementing company-wide policies for information management and encouraging businesses to create protocols to ensure that electronically stored information is easy to find.  This way, the company can feel confident that they are prepared to gather and distribute all the information that courts require in compliance audits or litigation cases. 

Though they can be expensive to set up, proper information management practices are extremely beneficial to companies, especially their legal, IT, management, and accounting departments.  Companies can save themselves time and money in the long-run (and stress!) with a well-implemented information management policy.  Make sure your company has one in place!

Last Thursday was the second annual Battle of the Government IT Bands, and what an event! Organized by 1105 Government Information Group, the event brought together five bands whose members worked for government agencies and contractors all in support of the metropolitan Washington D.C. chapter of the USO.

Musical styles ranged from Tacocat’s 80’s rock covers, to the Moogly Blues Band’s down home southern blues. One band, Outta Scope even played some of their own compositions, jamming out to tunes that recalled Steely Dan and the Grateful Dead (the name of the band is a nod to the band members who work for NASA, and they were introduced as “the band that put the rock in rocket science”.) And when DISA-Peering Act’s lead singer leapt off stage to dance with the crowd during their thrilling final song, the place went wild.

By the time The Groove, who were the last band of the night, got on stage it was easy to forget that these were government IT bands. The Groove’s cover of Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell packed the dance-floor, and they more than lived up to their billing as band that plays “the most memorable dance music from the 70s and 80s – wrapped around a performance like no other.”

With the last song played, the audience was given a few minutes to vote for their favorite bands, and it was clear that for some, this was an agonizing decision. The votes were counted and winners announced by Chris Dorobek, Editor in Chief of FCW, flanked by Amy Fisher, 1105 Government Information Group’s Director of Marketing and event organizer extraordinaire. To wild applause from the crowd, The Groove were presented with the winner’s trophy.

Overall, it was an incredible event – excellent music, a great crowd, and all for a good cause. (Plus, it was just further proof that our industry really does know how to let its hair down!) For those who weren’t able to make it this year, you were missed. But we look forward to seeing you at the Third annual Government IT Battle of the Bands next year!

Rock on!

For more information about the event, its sponsors, and the bands, visit: www.gitrockin.com

I just read about the grandmother who lived out the fantasies of many of us when dealing with poor customer service. In case you missed it the Hammerin’ Granny really took it out on Comcast.

What a way to find out about an unhappy customer! Would Comcast have benefited from a customer satisfaction survey? Maybe. Maybe not. It isn’t any secret that Comcast is historically renowned for being less than responsive to customer needs. The challenge for Comcast going forward, as it is for all of us, is knowing how to react to customer complaints and suggestions. Many first reactions involve getting defensive, citing specific policies you have in place, and trying to marginalize the complainer as just “a bad seed.” However, this doesn’t help alleviate the next complaint – or keep your company’s name off the front page and out of the blogosphere.  In fact, taking a defensive posture can often make you look far worse than if you are forthcoming about some of the challenges you’ve had in the past.

Some of the most important things you can do when trying to improve the quality of your customer satisfaction include: identifying short and long-term milestones for improvement, having clear strategies and institutional support, and holding people internally accountable. Does that mean linking salaries, or their jobs, to improving customer satisfaction? Not necessarily. But those working with customers need to know who is responsible for improvements (everyone thinks it is the other guy). They need to know that their efforts to improve customer satisfaction are appreciated. As someone once said, “It’s always better to be the hammer than the nail”. 

Last year several employees from Market Connections attended the Market Research Association’s annual conference in Washington DC.  One of the many interesting break-out sessions I attended was titled “Exploring General Privacy Issues”.  The presenter was from The Council for Marketing and Opinion Research (CMOR), a non-profit organization that works on behalf of the survey research industry. 

The presentation outlined a number of best practices for market research firms regarding telephone, email and online privacy issues.  The first thing the speaker did was ask how many people in the audience had a written privacy policy.  Less than a quarter raised their hands.  Only one or two people indicated having a designated privacy policy officer.  Over coffee I spoke with several others that attended the session and queried them about their policies.  All actually complied with privacy best practices but when it came to having something in writing and posted on their websites – that was a different story.

Following the seminars, I did some informal investigating on my own.  I googled the term “market research firm” and visited about 40 market research firms’ websites looking for companies’ privacy policy statements.  Usually the link can be found at the very bottom of the home page in fine print.  My informal investigation resulted in about five websites with their privacy policies posted.  Most were very simple. One was very elaborate and was pages and pages long.  I was surprised that not more of the firms had posted privacy policies, particularly among the larger firms.

So the next time you are shopping around for a provider for a market research project, make sure you check out their privacy policy.  If it is not posted, ask. Market Connections’ policy can be found on the bottom of our home page or by clicking here.

Last call to help benefit the USO!!  1105 Government Information Group is hosting GIT Rockin’, government IT’s second annual “battle of the bands”, this Thursday, October 18th at 7:00 p.m. 

This is a great opportunity for government and industry executives to network with peers, colleagues, and spouses.  Tickets are $20 and all proceeds will be donated to the USO-Metro.  For more details or to purchase tickets, go to www.GITRockin.com.

I would like to extend a personal invitation to you to attend the Sixth Annual Amtower Summit on Selling Products to the Government.  This year’s summit will feature presenters who are experts on all aspects of government marketing, including GSA schedules, market segments, list compilation, events, and web activity.  This is the BEST event for product vendors targeting the federal government, so don’t miss your chance to attend!

The event will take place on November 5th and 6th at the Hilton Baltimore BWI Airport and costs $395 per seat.  To register for the event, or for more information, click here.

For the past several years, Market Connections has conducted an annual survey of federal IT decision makers to gain insight into the top federal agencies.  In an effort to better serve the Market Connections community, we decided to gather all of our data from the past few studies to bring you a brand new series of snapshot marketing briefs for various federal agencies. 

Each agency will be reported on separately to give you the ability to focus only on those that interest you. There will be two marketing briefs for each agency: one on best-known IT companies and most valued vendor attributes by federal IT decision-makers and a second report on the most popular sources of IT information. These unique and affordable agency briefs are designed to help you better allocate your marketing dollars and impact your bottom line.   

The first two agencies that will be featured are the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation.  Be sure to visit www.marketconnectionsinc.com next week to order your copies and keep checking in over the next few months for additional agency reports!

I recently attended a Women in Technology (WIT) event with yet another fantastic speaker.  The topic of the evening was The State of Diversity in Corporate America: The New Rules of Breaking the Glass Ceiling.  A representative of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) explained how she sees the barrier to women in the technology industry as more of a glass door than a glass ceiling.  As women pass by the door to a career in technology, there is no keyhole, no door handle, and therefore no clearly visible access into the industry.  With little more than a glance inside the door, women either don’t know how to enter or don’t have a desire to enter. 

In many other professional industries, there seems to be less gender disparity in previously male-dominated terrain – so what makes the technology industry different?  Why do men still dominate such a fascinating and fast-growing field?  Leave us a comment and share your thoughts!