Despite continuing forecasts of doom and gloom, Federal spending on information technology continues to rise. The agencies' numbers may be adjusted somewhat because of the Democratic takeover of Congress. However, this will likely be minor for the rest of the Bush Administration. Civilian departments and independent civilian agencies show a bigger increase than Defense, where spending is relatively flat.

Over the entire five-year forecast, among Defense agencies the Defense Security Service grows fastest (a CAGR of 34.3%). It is recovering from the loss of background investigations to OPM.  Oddly enough, among civilian departments, Commerce is growing fastest at 7.3%. This arises primarily from the upcoming Census. Finally, among independent civilian agencies, IT funding at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is growing the fastest, at 13.3%. It is interesting to note that NASA IT funding is flat at an annual growth rate of 0.2%.

TAFFIS: FEDERAL FORECAST SERVICE
COLMAR Corporation tracks federal IT spending at more than 80 agencies, in the same detail as shown above, along with available information on funded initiatives. Each year, COLMAR publishes a new forecast. Then, in subsequent months, COLMAR updates this forecast for subscription clients, based on changes in funding, Congressional interest, and procurement schedules. These monthly updates also provide summaries of various policy shifts that directly affect the federal IT market. The updates are provided in both hard copy and e-mail form.

VENDOR MARKET SHARES
As part of our custom research offerings, COLMAR Corporation provides estimates on vendor market shares for various types of equipment, software, and IT services. We develop these estimates from numerous public sources, including our comprehensive library of agency plans and budgets. As an example, click on market share to see our estimates of PC and workstation penetration at ten large federal agencies. View Chart

TECHNOLOGY PENETRATION
As part of our custom research offerings, COLMAR Corporation provides estimates on the use of a specific technology among federal agencies. Again, we develop these estimates from numerous public sources, including our comprehensive library of agency plans and budgets. For example, COLMAR recently analyzed the penetration of ERP technology among government agencies.

AGENCY ANALYSIS
As part of our custom research offerings, COLMAR Corporation provides detailed custom research on the use of technology among specific federal agencies. Again, we develop these estimates from numerous public sources, including our comprehensive library of agency plans and budgets. Examples of this research are available upon request.