As we enter the final stretch of the federal fiscal year, IT vendors and resellers should prepare for a busy final quarter. Federal agencies are working against the clock to obligate FY25 funds—especially those made available only after Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) in March. At DLT, we’ve analyzed the landscape to help our vendors and partners navigate this critical period with precision.

We’re in the month of September, the busiest time of the year for those selling to the Federal government. When the dust has settled on Q4 of this federal fiscal year, our customers will have spent roughly $30 billion in “fall out money” on IT. That’s a term for funding agencies and offices will lose if they don’t allocate it by September 30. If an office, agency, or department leaves appropriated funds on the table, they’ll have a hard time justifying why they need the same or higher funding levels the following year, hence the year-end rush.

The federal government’s busiest buying season is upon us. Federal fiscal year-end (FFYE) is one of the most stressful times of the year for anyone in the government contracting community, including procurement officials and vendors, with approximately $100 billion spent in the mad rush before budgets expire. 

The DoD Cybersecurity Strategy https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/2018/09/19/department-of-defense-unveils-new-cyber-strategy/ stresses nine key points. With the end of FFYE looming, are you aligning your spending with these objectives?

The end of the federal fiscal year is a great time for public sector decision-makers to consider how their respective organizations can get a head start on supporting the Federal Data Strategy Action Plan. The current draft of the plan, which is scheduled to be finalized by September, contains several recommendations required to be completed within a 3-, 6- or 12-month timeframe.

The month of September marks the busiest buying season for the federal government. In the final month of fiscal year 2018, an astonishing $97 billion was spent on 509, 828 contracts. On average, this equates to $3.2 billion per day.

September is also getting busier and busier. Between 2015 and 2018 spending increased by 39%.

The old business adage runs, “Nothing happens until somebody sells something.” To which you might add this corollary: nothing good happens in the absence of strong requirements.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…as the song goes and that is also true of the U.S. Federal IT market right now. The month of September marks the end of the fiscal year and the beginning of the federal government’s annual spending frenzy. Federal agencies scramble to spend what’s left in their budgets, in fear that leaving excess funds will prompt Congress to send less in the following year. We call it “use it or lose it” spending, and it happens every year.

The days are getting shorter, and, as the end of September approaches, the window of opportunity for technology providers to capitalize on federal fiscal year-end sales opportunities is shrinking. September 30^th marks the end of the federal government’s fiscal year which means the run-up to month-end is a busy one as contractors vie for federal “use it or lose it” dollars.

Last month, we sat down with DLT Chief Technology Officer David Blankenhorn to get his insight on DLT's evolution to a government solutions aggregator.

Tell me a little bit about DLT’s movement to an aggregator model. Why is that important?