Often suppliers underestimate the importance of staying abreast with public sector news. Particularly when it comes to SME’s who are often time poor. Reading the news just falls by the wayside and it really shouldn’t.
The media gives suppliers an invaluable insight into what is important and current to their target audience. Remember your public sector prospects read those same outlets for as reason. Keeping on the pulse of your target audience through the press feeds into revenue generation. To name just a few examples:
- Content marketing – riding the wave of hot news to place your content and give it reach should be in your marketing toolkit
- Sales – your Sales staff should be familiar with the challenges of the public sector. Remember the best Sales Rep in this space is one that sells a solution not a product. Also, news sources are a great way of hunting for networking events!
- Pitches – you will be able to structure your pitch in a way that resonates with your potential client – now!
So, let’s get into the sources we love!
Computer Weekly
This one is an obvious one. If you are not already following them then you must have been in IT for only the last 5 minutes. Computer Weekly doesn’t only focus on public sector tech. They cover issues, challenges and trends facing today’s IT leaders – private sector and public sector alike. For your public sector sales you should focus on their “IT for government and public sector pages. “
Why we love it…
When it comes to Computer Weekly suppliers can rest assured that they are following a respected and well-read public sector news source. Their weekly digital magazine has over 200k subscribers and a lot of them are public sector. The RSS feed allows you to subscribe specifically to Public Sector IT news which is very helpful since they write about a lot of wide IT topics.
They cover both national and local public sector tech news. Although national sometimes seems to get a bit more limelight.
Think.Digital Partners
As well as running amazing events for the public sector and their suppliers (Think Cyber Security and Think Digital Identity), Think.Digital Partners offer great insights, interviews and reports from across the private and public sector. Inviting many thought leaders from the public sector digital market to provide their thoughts on digital transformation.
Why we love it…
They go a bit further than just relaying news – although they do a great job giving updates on the world of public sector tech. They also get interviews and articles from people in the know. It’s more of a platform for sharing experiences and ideas of digital transformation, which is handy for other companies (be it public or private sector) who are doing the same.
Public Technology
Another no brainer. Public Technology is a market leader when it comes to public sector tech news. They provide both daily news updates and more meaty insights such as analysis, features, comment, and interviews. Their focus is both national and local and often go beyond reporting just policy issues to cover technology programmes and public sector tech innovation in general.
Why we love it…
It does what it says on the tin. Public Technology’s focus is purely on the public sector. If the news is not relevant in the public sector tech space it won’t get featured.
Their content is easy to digest for any public sector servant not just digital and data professionals. Since procurement is likely to be done by procurement teams and not the delivery teams, this is certainly a positive.
Channel Web (CRN)
CRN provides business news and resources for the UK technology channel; IT distributors, resellers and VARs. As is the case with Computer Weekly, CRN doesn’t only focus on the public sector. But it has a very well edited and insightful Public Sector Section .
Why we love it…
If you are looking for framework news, then CRN is a great place to go. They are quite quick with breaking framework news that is of relevance to suppliers. For example, they were the first to publish G-Cloud 10 delays. They also often cover who is buying what in the public sector and which departments are looking for specific tech.
From a more personal standpoint we also like the story behind Inclusive media, owners of CRN. They started off in 1994 as a small start up and are now a global leader. Yet they retained their personal and friendly approach. Not bad at all!
The Register (El Reg to friends)
The Register is a tech news and opinion website founded in 1994 with more than nine million monthly unique browsers worldwide. Their focus in not only on public sector. For example, they are known for being the first to report the January 2018 major flaw in millions of Intel chips that resulted in a widespread Microsoft, Linux and Apple OS update.
Why we love it…
The Register certainly “bites the hand that feeds public sector IT” when it comes to the public sector. If you are looking to read sources that are uber critical of the government, El Reg is your best bet. We admire and support their push towards holding government to account. Particularly, when it comes to their commitment to more SME’s selling to public sector! We just sometimes wished it wasn’t all gloom and doom.
UK Authority (UKA)
UKA is another public sector only focused communication channel! You can rest assured that it is followed by public sector decision and policy makers from around the UK. With a community database of 38,083 public sector influencers from local government, central government, health, fire, police, housing, ancillary services and further education, they are one of the most prominent government news sources.
Why we love it…
We are big fans of transparency and UKA is very open with audience data. There is no doubt about the value they provide to public sector or suppliers who choose to engage with them.
If you are looking for public sector use cases UKA is a great place to go. They also run very successful events that are worth checking out. And, we love the UKALive videos, particularly those featuring the fearless and straight-talking Helen Olsen Bedford.
Government Computing
Government Computing is another news source that focuses solely on the public sector. Government Computing is part of GlobalData PLC which is always a plus. They bring the latest news, analysis and comment on information management in the public sector. As they say they: “put Whitehall’s deliberations into context, and track and detail the thinking of key ICT decision-makers within local authorities and NHS trusts.”
Why we love it…
Government Computing is always spot on. Including lots of insightful data and insights – which is no surprise given their link to GlobalData. It’s easy to break down the info by department too, which is useful if you want to keep up to date with your target markets.
Seems like a full package now: informative insight into public sector ICT and a smooth UX.
This list is by no means the only sources we admire. We could go on for a lot longer but alas a selection had to be made. Signing up for daily or weekly news is super easy, in case you want the hottest news straight into your inbox. Or if you are like us and prefer using an RSS feeder (we use Feedly), it is super easy to use.
Happy reading!
