US Government Spending And The BT Agenda

Government agencies at federal, state, and local levels are expanding their technology management agendas beyond infrastructure management and internal operations (i.e., IT) to include greater investments centered on serving constituents — the business technology (BT) agenda. However, this spending is uneven and occurring at a slower rate than in the private sector. Forrester estimates that federal, state, and local agencies will spend $188 billion on technology goods and services and tech management staff during calendar year 2015; of that, $47 billion or 25% will be spent on the BT agenda. The federal government will be leading the way with BT purchases accounting for 26% of its tech spending versus 24% for state and local governments. Additional initiatives from the private sector to "package" government data into constituent-consumable applications will increase the reach and effectiveness of this spending. In the shift from IT to BT, the government will lag slightly behind the private sector, where 2015 BT purchases will be 28% of their tech budgets.