Dell/IBM lose ground to rivals in the federal computer market

Dell and International Business Machines, the leaders in the U.S. government’s biggest purchasing program for computer products and services, lost ground to rivals as agencies tightened spending and set up their own contracts.
Sales through the General Services Administration’s Schedule 70 contracts were $16.03 billion in fiscal 2010, declining 4.7 percent from $16.8 billion in 2007, according to data compiled from company-reported information collected by the GSA.
The contracts cover software supplies and support equipment. Sales under the contracting scheme fell 3.4 percent since 2009 for Dell and 23 percent for IBM, which remained the top companies with combined sales of $1.39 billion. Among the biggest 2010 gainers were McLean-based Science Applications International Corp. and Computer Sciences Corp. of Falls Church, with combined orders of $667.9 million in 2010. Their sales rose 17 percent and 14 percent respectively from 2009.
“Federal, state, and local governments are facing budgetary restraints which impact their spending and in turn our revenue,” Patricia Waddell, GSA’s deputy director of Schedule 70 business programs, said in an Aug. 25 e-mail. “Agencies are creating their own acquisition vehicles and supplementing their needs internally, rather than reaching out to GSA.”
from: washingtonpost.com