
gistration, …gement product pitches every year. Throw in Facebook and Twitter as sufficient competitive options. Now, add every civictech company that is trying to solve voter registration, online voting, and legislative management and you’ve got a full party. All of that doesn’t mean it’s not important work, it’s just on the very periphery of core workflows…
Historically, government technology has been dominated by large, established vendors. These incumbent companies were the first on the scene and established critical systems of record (SOR). Like enterprise businesses, most government agencies utilize both an ERP and a CRM. Unlike traditional enterprise businesses, GIS is a critical system of record in government. Governments, quite literally, only exist because of arbitrary defined spatial boundaries. Anything and everything government agencies do has a spatial component. If you accept that, it’s easy to understand how Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Tyler, and ESRI are so hard to upend in the govtech market. They provide fundamental and critical infrastructure.