The below blog was written by and published with permission by Steve O’Keeffe. Steve O’Keeffe is the founder of MeriTalk –www.meritalk.com – the government IT network. MeriTalk is an online community that hosts professional networking, thought leadership, and focused events to drive the government IT dialogue. A 20-year veteran of the government IT community, O’Keeffe has worked in government and industry. In addition to MeriTalk, he founded Telework Exchange, GovMark Council, and O’Keeffe & Company The definition of insanity. Assume the same behavior and expect a different outcome. So, we’re for change. That’s why we launched MeriTalk - and the Merit Awards on June 13. The Merit Awards aren't a CIO-stroking contest - aren’t black-tie soirees vulgar in an era of government austerity? We want to incent and recognize real change in IT's bottom line.

Since 1995 DLT Solutions has been Autodesk's GSA Schedule Partner providing products and services to the federal government. Combined with our understanding of the government procurement process, and Autodesk’s 3D design software, we were able to provide the public sector with the best in design and manufacturing software and digital content creation tools.

When your marketing department generates more than 38,000 leads annually, you had better make sure you have a dedicated customer relationship management (CRM) system in place to handle that kind of volume. At DLT, we ensure efficiency and accuracy for customers and vendor partners with our custom-made CRM solution, SMaRT. SMaRT was developed from scratch utilizing internal IT resources and is designed to house an extensive database of customer information including all historical communications, purchase orders and payment correspondence. And customized reporting features are synchronized with the SMaRT, allowing for greater analysis of customer purchasing cycles and order processing.

We didn’t slip and fall into our success over the past 20 years. We were propelled here by the hard work of our employees. As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, it’s important to pay homage to those employees who’ve helped us along the way. For more than half the time we’ve been serving the public sector, one employee in particular has been a standout. As DLT’s longest tenured employee, Deanna Lindquist joined our family in March of 1999.

The Federal IT market is saturated with events-based marketing programs – with weak value propositions for the government customer. So, how do you get Feds to show for a new show? More than just a show, how do you engage Federal IT decision makers around key issues to establish important relationships and qualify sales leads? DLT, and its partner Red Hat, wanted to develop an impactful, high-value, and high-credibility marketing program to cut through the clutter and engage Federal IT decision makers on an issue which is central to their mission in a time of fiscal austerity. That program was Red Hat’s “Federal IT on a Budget” Program.

In 1991 we set out to align ourselves with the most prominent IT software and hardware manufacturers in the world. The solutions offered by our best-in-class vendor partners would allow us to confidently support our public sector clients to the best of our ability while helping them achieve their agency missions. That objective took us to 2001 when DLT aligned ourselves with VERITAS, the market leader in data storage, through VERITAS’S GSA Agent Program. The GSA Agent Program was designed to give any authorized VERITAS reseller a vehicle for Federal Government business when no contract vehicle existed.

Symantec recently announced the acquisition of Clearwell Systems, making a move which came to no surprise to folks working in the Archive, E-discovery arena. However in this day and age of “smash and grab” acquisitions in the IT industry, it was nice to see a partnership come together that makes good sense, both business and technology wise!

The DLT Race for the Cup is a picture scavenger hunt which takes place in the Washington D.C. metro area. Six years ago the DLT Social Committee, an employee-led group that focuses on employee events and morale, started the event as a team building activity. However, this annual scavenger hunt has quickly become one of the most highly anticipated events of the year. Teams of about ten people pile into limos and party busses ready to have the time of their life. Their goal is simple: solve as many of the 20 clues as they could and be back to a dedicated meeting spot by nine o’clock that night. Each team is competing for a chance to have their name on the highly-regarded prize, the Race for the Cup trophy, nicknamed the Babar Cup. The clues range from forming a human pyramid to finding the “bacteria central” in a nearby mall. Each picture earned the team points as well as countless memories.

When Rick Marcotte came on board as President and CEO of DLT Solutions back in 2004, he set a goal for himself. To take DLT from a $300 million company, to a company generating $500 million in revenue, within five years. Through our own sales and marketing efforts, not only did Rick meet the goal, he did so one year early. It’s because of accomplishments like this Rick was named “Executive of the Year" by Everything Channel in 2009. The Award was presented at the VAR500 awards gala in New York City, which brings together North America's top information technology (IT) solution providers. The eighth annual 2008 VARBusiness Awards honored the 500 companies that earned a spot in the ranking and also singled out 16 solution providers for special recognition.

You can’t under stress the importance of having a good support system in place when you’re battling a potentially life-threatening illness. In 2008, the then Director of the Enterprise Platforms was diagnosed with testicular cancer. DLT employees along with The DLT Foundation knew it was important to let him know he wasn’t alone in his fight. We hosted an event where employees had the opportunity to shave their heads in solidarity with our coworker who had lost his hair during cancer treatment.