Much as governments try to reduce spending, costs still continue to creep up, and Information Strategies Group Inc, Vienna, Virginia reckons that the US government spent $11,800m on information technology and services last year, a 1.6% increase over 1990. Of the $11,800m, a ridiculous $7,500m, 64.1% was bought by the defence agencies, leaving just $4,200m for civilian agencies. Within the Washington DC metropolitan area, the top suppliers were IBM Corp with $564m; Bull HN Information Systems Inc with $409m; Electronic Data Systems Corp, $272m; Unisys Corp at $204m; and Computer Sciences Corp with $170m. The next five in descending order were AT&T Co, Contel Corp, Black & Decker Co, Wang Laboratories Inc and Martin Marietta Corp, with between $127m and $73m. For the US as a whole, the top 10 federal computer systems and services suppliers were IBM with $666m; Unisys with $609m; Electronic Data Systems with $571m; AT&T Co with $482m; Bull HN with $437m; Computer Sciences, $356m; GTE Corp, $277m; ITT Corp, $256m; Loral Corp, $250m, and Raytheon Co, $238m. Integrated Strategies reckons that the federal government, particularly the Department of Defense, will continue to increase its computer expenditure over the next several years, despite defence budget cuts – serious budget limitations often cause agencies to rely more heavily on computers than in the past.
