Mark HuYoung, Northwind Partners
WashingtonExec 2013 Government Contracting Outlook Series:
The new year brings big changes for the Federal IT industry, and WashingtonExec is back with its Government Contracting Industry Outlook Series.
We are giving local executives the opportunity to share their thoughts on where they see our industry headed this year and beyond. Leaders were asked a series of questions focused on cloud computing, healthcare IT, defense, mobility, and more.
Mark HuYoung is a Managing Partner at Northwind Partners and spoke to us last year about his predictions. He’s back this year on what he forecasts for 2013:
“While uncertainty still hangs around like a bad flu due to this potential mother of all sequesters, our clients still see great possibilities in 2013 positioning toward cyber, health, energy, and budget streamlining initiatives (i.e. fraud/waste/abuse detection, leveraging the cloud, etc.). We’ve spent much of 2012 helping get them in a great position for 2013.
On the M&A front, I see 2013 as another year of declining transformational activity defined by the same realities we experienced in 2012. Although there are a few areas in the defense sector (C4ISR, electro-optical systems, and sustainment & support) that have still been attractive, we are in for a tough couple of years there, after which, market opportunities should become better defined. Any M&A activity will likely be determined by the need for companies to push into adjacent spaces in order to decrease defense revenues as an overall portion of their portfolio. The strategic and financial buyers we partner with are diligently looking toward health, energy, and cyber as well as assets in the defense areas previously mentioned.
My suspicion is that we will see further IT budget cuts, but with agency CIOs working hard to cut costs, explore shared services, implement cloud and advanced analytics, boost mobilization and cyber, and streamline data centers, I believe there will continue to be opportunities to introduce agile, innovative technology that will help realize increased savings. As in all competitive markets and industries, there will be winners and losers!”
