In a world where the industry standard is always changing and methods for these changes are conjointly working together, one can’t help but feel like they’re always falling behind the curve. Welcome to the world of Information Technology (IT), where changes typically come in 12 to 15 month increments and the last 10 years has been one of the greatest technology booms in the last century. Over the last decade, IT businesses and users have seen innovations of all sorts of technologies such as the iPod, new Operating Systems, and massive changes in IT management. For example, as Microsoft Windows ends support for Windows XP this April, organizations will find themselves migrating and attempting to the stay ahead of IT to continue their business operations. At this point, you may be asking “How can I stay ahead of all these IT changes and learn about what challenges all these different technologies can solve?” In a World Where IT is Always Changing, How Can we Keep Up? The answer arrived with a benchmark idea called information exchange. Information exchange is loosely defined as “a bidirectional information transfer” in related topics such as telecommunications, computer science (IT) and other communication systems. You can find this exchange and sharing of ideas occurs between IT leaders at conferences and events around the world. This avenue of communication allows IT specialists to return to their coworkers and peers with greater knowledge of the leading IT innovations and transformations. Every year, new IT discoveries are released with new models and advancements for the future. IT specialists gather and attend conferences to share their insights and learn about the ever-changing advancements that require their understanding to stay ahead. These idea exchanging events continue to improve and provide vast benefits to attendees, but not just to simply discuss new technological advancements, but to reach the core of IT and how to enable IT in the most effective manner. A focus area that is becoming more prominent to the IT and business industries today is the emergence of IT Service and Asset Management (ITSM/ITAM). A very valuable event that addresses this core component of IT is the BMC Exchange. This event gathers in various locations around the world to encourage and promote information exchange and idea sharing with leading IT organizations and leaders. The next upcoming BMC Exchange is the BMC DC Exchange being held in the greater Washington, D.C. area. Attending the BMC DC Exchange on February 20th at the Ritz Carlton Pentagon City will be a great resource for learning about how ITSM and ITAM are changing the surface of the IT world. Among the many distinguished speakers there, James Staten from Forrester Research will be discussing the transformations of IT in his keynote. Attendees will also connect with IT leaders and share IT ideas to learn how properly enabling IT can provide the best means for effective business growth.

When assessing the IT competency of organizations, many executives tend to believe their IT sectors are meeting their organizational objectives. The majority of executives believe that simply possessing an IT service is the key to reaching those objectives. This misconception could not be further from the truth, as a study found that less than half of the respondents rate their IT management processes as “excellent” or “good.”

Every year, organizations assess their inefficiencies and find outstanding problems from the previous year as well as determine where there is room for improvement in the next year. As 2013 has recently passed, many organizations have reviewed their previous glitches and find that their IT Service Management (ITSM) processes need to be improved.

If you are an IT government contractor – this is for you! Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) are required to be FedRAMP certified by June 2014. Current deployments of cloud-based services in use by Federal agencies must be compliant with FedRAMP guidelines by June 2014. Commercial providers that offered cloud-based services to the Federal government or in the acquisition process prior to June 5, 2012, must have a FedRAMP P-ATO. Government agencies have to move one system to a cloud provider within 12 months of project start, and two more systems within 18 months of launch, by the end of 2015.

Expiring government contracts are a great way for government contractors to compete for government business. These are viable opportunities that are currently being funded. When reviewing an expiring contract, make sure to review and understand six specific contract areas:

1. Request for Proposals (RFPs) are a cog in the government procurement process. A company will write proposals in response to Federal solicitations. While successful proposals are expensive in terms of time, money, and stress on the staff, losing bids as a result of lack of knowledge in proposal writing is much worse. 2. In order to be successful, don’t waste your time bidding on each and every contract that seems appealable. Instead, focus only on projects that you have a good chance of winning. Don’t bid on a contract unless you have researched the proper agency and have developed a proven track record for the product and/or service your organization is offering in the proposal. 3. Hiring an experienced proposal manager can help to achieve a smooth writing process. The proposal manager’s role is to keep the proposal on track and assist the individual’s with completing the assigned sections. While smaller companies can simply designate an individual this responsibility, upper level management must fully support the internal or external proposal manager and provide adequate support to complete the process. 4. In terms of Federal contracting, proposal writing is one of the most important aspects of your business. Your sales team must work in a collaborative effort with the proposal writing team from the very beginning. This will produce an efficient and effective proposal writing process. 5. A technical writer is important when responding to proposals, especially if internal resources are limited for your company. Adding a technical writer to your proposal team will generate a more professional and successful proposal. 6. Good technical writers are one of your most important assets in winning government business. The technical section is typically one of the higher weighted sections. 7. As their title suggests, the proposal manager is more focused on the managerial aspects of the document. That is, the proposal manager organizes and develops the various parts of the document that need to be written. In addition, they often develop an outline and assign particular writing assignments for the team. They also establish deadlines and assist the technical experts assigned to the task. 8. Many companies make the common mistake of beginning the writing process before they have spent sufficient time planning and outlining the proposal and internal process. Outlining is the most essential part to winning a proposal and it should be a continuing effort. 9. Your proposal should be succinct, while still explaining in no uncertain terms your company’s capabilities. That is, don’t provide more than the government asked for in their specified criteria, while still providing improvements to the request. 10. Reviewing the proposal thoroughly is a necessary step in the submission process. Provide ample time for the final review and production in the process. If this step is missed, all the resources required to write the proposal will be wasted. View the 10 successful proposal writing steps every government contractor should know in this infograph,"Top 10 Proposal Tips."