Nurturing Resources

Feds find a new way to do business

The '90s brought competition to private enterprise with a vengeance that was not unexpected. But a surprise came when competition was introduced to the federal government.

Where once red tape was king and change was tentative at best, the customer is now being put first, and service is the name of the game. Even in the public sector customers now have choices.

A revolution in the federal government to change the way it does business is influencing how agencies meet the challenge of a changing and often confusing environment. As part of the president's initiative to reinvent government, federal agencies are required to develop customer service strategies that are equal to the best in business.

The Sunbelt Region of the General Services Administration's Technical Services Division (GSA-TSD) realized it could no longer depend on a captive market to buy its products and services. It was possible that companies once considered to be customers might now compete for the same new business opportunities as this federal agency. Taking its cue from private enterprise, GSA-TSD is developing a new way to do business built on customer-focused marketing strategies.

Roz Fullerton, director of the TSD Federal Telecommunications Service, envisions the agency becoming more market-driven and customer responsive. Her goal is to position GSA-TSD Sunbelt Region as the provider for choice for information technology products and services for federal government organizations.

To meet her goal, marketing consultants were hired to create the agency's first strategic marketing plan. An essential concern centered on the agency's ability to combat competition while ensuring that customers received the highest quality products and services from GSA-TSD at its traditional cost-effective rates.

A back-to-basics marketing approach was taken. The process began with talking to current and prospective customers. An image study was conducted to answer questions that haunt most businesses: What do customers and prospects want? Is the agency meeting customers' needs? Who is considered to be the agency's competition?

The next order of business was to develop a strategic marketing program. Using the research as the foundation, integrated customer-focused tactics were created. A vital strategy centered on building partnerships. GSA-TSD felt it was important to create affiliations with several large, private contractors. Partnerships traditionally have been used in private business to foster long-term relationships, and now government agencies are finding success with such agreements.

Building partnerships for GSA-TSD Sunbelt Region is more than an innovative approach to solving the problems involving quality, cost, and customer service. Partnering creates a working relationship in which the agency and contractor assume responsibility for the successful outcome of a project.

Partnering establishes a formal structure on what begins as relationship-building. It then takes the business relationship concept to the next logical level: fostering a team environment where open, ongoing communication is the core of the process. Creating an environment in which partners understand and appreciate each other's goals lends itself to joint decision making and informal problem solving.

GSA-TSD's marketing plan encourages its partners to participate in several strategies. Partners may be included in new business development presentations and trade show promotions as well as customer satisfaction evaluations.

Gina Hammond, vice president of DynCorp., one of GSA-TSD Sunbelt Region's partners, hopes to add a new dimension to the partnership by sharing knowledge of what it takes to run a profitable business. Vice President Gore, in streamlining government, wants to see businesslike organizations in the federal government. This means really understanding such concepts as overhead, incentive plans, and customer service.

Acknowledged for its innovative approach to providing information technology solutions, GSA-TSD's Sunbelt Region is using that same creativity to find a new way to do business. The focus is on producing quality products and services. The goal is to have project costs be on or below budget. The result is that the customer comes first. Not a bad way of doing business-in a public or private world.

June 23, 1997, Volume 31, Number 13

© Bloomberg Marketing 1997 Reprinted with permission from American Marketing Association