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With clear mandates for data sharing and tracking of complex requirements, it would make sense for Teradata, with its legendary data warehousing capabilities, to be everywhere in the federal government. But that assumption is wrong.
In fact, except for a few installations in the Air Force, Navy and the U.S. Postal Service, the company is most notable by its absence.
Thats something that Leslee Gault—who took over as president and CEO of NCR Government Systems, Teradata Division, in November—plans to change.
First on the agenda is the DHS (Department of Homeland Security), a natural home for Teradatas active data warehousing and predictive modeling capabilities.
Gault has already started to refocus her groups efforts on entering the government market.
“Were marketing to the DHS,” Gault said in an interview Tuesday.
The first thing Gault had to do, however, was reorganize her company so it could better respond to its customers.
That meant setting up separate teams for civilian agencies, the Defense Department, intelligence agencies and other potential customers.
“Weve done a really good job of growing over the last three years,” Gault said. “I want to get out and be strategic.”
Gault also said she wants to make better use of existing efforts.
“We have some great implementations for the Air Force,” she said. “I want to leverage these elsewhere in DoD.”
But the big prize these days is in security, especially at Homeland Security.
That agency, however, is frequently hamstrung by its own budget.
“When that agency was formed, they really didnt get any new money,” Gault explained. “Each of the 22 agencies retained their own budget. Its not until 2006 that well see DHS stand up with their own procurements.”
In addition to marketing to the federal government on its own, Gault wants to develop relationships with other companies that sell to the federal government.
“Were putting together a focused effort to form relationships with major systems integrators,” Gault said.
Lou Agosta, a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, said part of the reason for Teradatas lack of penetration is due to foot-dragging on the part of the government.
“The government has been a lagging adopter of technology,” Agosta said.
He said he thinks recent attempts by the Homeland Security department and other agencies to catch up with more modern IT hold a lot of promise for Teradatas products.