Defense technology to grow despite Pentagon budget cuts
January 17, 2012 by cs
As the Defense Department slashes its budget by at least $487 billion in 10 years, technology investment is one of the few areas that will continue to grow, according to a new military strategy that President Obama and Pentagon officials released Thursday.
The increased spending will focus on cyberspace, intelligence systems, space and science research, according to the review.
President Obama told a Pentagon press briefing that Defense has to develop “smart, strategic priorities.” Specifically, he called for enhanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.
In his written introduction to the review, Obama said the new strategy will “ensure that our military is agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies.” He added this includes investments to ensure that the United States can prevail in all domains of military operations, including cyberspace.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said broad cuts in the new Defense budget, due for release in late January, do not apply to investments in technology, including unmanned systems, space capabilities and “particularly cyberspace capabilities.”
Defense budgeted $3.2 billion for cybersecurity in 2012. The Pentagon, Panetta said, must continue to invest “in new capabilities to maintain a decisive edge.”
He declined to provide specific funding figures for any military programs, deferring that action until release of the 2013 Defense budget. But, Panetta said, the strategy will drive the structure of the budget.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter said the new strategy envisions budget increases in “all aspects of cyber,” along with science and technology research. Defense cannot abandon that research, Carter said, as it would be akin to “eating our seed corn.”
Highlighting the importance of networks and space systems in the future, the strategy document said: “Modern armed forces cannot conduct high-temp, effective operations without reliable information and communication networks and assured access to cyberspace and space. Today space systems and their supporting infrastructure face a range of threats that may degrade, disrupt or destroy assets. Accordingly, DoD will continue to work with domestic and international allies and partners and invest in advanced capabilities to defend its networks, operational capability and resiliency in cyberspace and space.”
Trey Hodgkins, vice president of national security and procurement policy at TechAmerica, an industry trade group, said the new military strategy reflects an increasing awareness within Defense that technology, including information technology, sits at the core of multiple missions, and the Pentagon has to continue to beef up investments in this area.
Obama pointed out that the new military strategy shifts the Pentagon focus from Europe and the Mideast to the Asia-Pacifc region, including a beefed-up U.S. force presence in Australia that he announced in November 2011.
“As we end today’s wars, we will focus on a broader range of challenges and opportunities, including the security and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific [region],” Obama wrote in his introduction to the review. This shift includes dealing with the growth of the military power of China, which should be balanced by greater U.S. military presence in the region, the document said.
Hodgkins said this increased focus on the Asia-Pacific region will boost the importance of the U.S. Pacific Command headquartered in Honolulu and will require greater Defense network capacity in the region.
– by Bob Brewin – NextGov – 01/05/12 at http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20120105_8406.php?oref=rss?zone=NGtoday
Contractors to give GSA IT security plans
January 12, 2012 by cs
The General Services Administration will require vendors to provide information technology security plans detailing how they are meeting federal cyber regulations under a new rule published on Jan. 6, 2012.
GSA said that changes are will apply to IT contracts awarded after Jan. 6, 2012 and that contractors must submit their IT security plans within 30 days of the contract award.
The plan should detail the processes and procedures the contractor will follow for “appropriate security of IT resources… used under the contract.”
GSA said it will use this information to verify that IT data and systems are effectively secured from unauthorized users. GSA will also inspect prime contractors’ and subcontractors’ facilities and IT systems.
Both prime and subcontractors will submit written proof of IT security authorization six months after the award in order to verify the validity of their security plan. The required plans and proposals will be included in IT contract solicitations.
– by Katelyn Noland, ExecutiveGov, on Jan. 6, 2012 at http://www.executivegov.com/2012/01/contractors-to-give-gsa-it-security-plans/
Supply chain innovations conference scheduled for Feb. 22-23 in Savannah
January 7, 2012 by cs
The Center for Advance Logistics Management is pleased to host a two-day conference on Supply Chain Innovations on Feb. 22 and 23, 2012 in Savannah, GA. The conference is an outgrowth of on-going research and education efforts by Albany State University, partnered with Albany Technical College.
The conference will be held at the Marriott Savannah Riverfront. The conference theme is “Leveraging technology for security, resilience and optimization in Defense supply chains.”
Information technology is being leveraged to provide enormous competitive advantage in globally connected supply chains. Technology is a source of innovation and competitive advantage, but it also makes supply chains vulnerable to cyber threats.
Advanced supply chains recognize and manage risk, and build security and resilience while they optimize performance.
IT underpins all of the elements of supply chain management. Sharing of information across processes in the supply chain affect everything from materials extraction and sourcing through manufacturing, transportation, distribution, finance, payments, security and customer relations.
The Department of Defense relies heavily on private-sector infrastructure for its supply chains.
While supply chains move materials through normal distribution channels (air, sea and land-based shipping), supply chain information travels on the Internet. Today we know that security and resiliency in information and communications infrastructures is insufficient, resulting in serious vulnerabilities for supply chains.
The risks and vulnerabilities in an improperly managed supply chain, from counterfeit equipment to malware to other avenues of attack, are real and growing. The Defense Department, through efforts such as the Trusted Foundry program and use of standards like Common Criteria (ISO/IEC 15408) is working to reduce its supply chain vulnerability footprint. This is not a small problem. Some have recommended government measures that mandate significant consequences for having inadequate cyber protections and requirements for reporting breaches and penetrations.
DoD programs that are mission critical or essential to national security or national defense have stepped up the requirements for compliance with DoD directives and Public Law requiring trusted components in the most important defense systems.
Agencies and departments are developing policies to keep a more watchful eye on vendors, partners, and others in their cyber supply chains and adopt best practices for mitigating risks across their systems and processes to protect your system against backdoor access or other deliberate mischief.
Complete confeence information, including registration details, may be found at http://www.afei.org/events/2A08/Pages/default.aspx.
Is small business ready for DHS’ $3B FirstSource II?
November 4, 2011 by cs
Homeland Security Department officials unveiled the details of their new seven-year, $3 billion FirstSource II contract.
The FirstSource II draft Request for Proposals was released Oct. 31. The final RFP is expected no later than December 31, officials said.
FirstSource I, a $2 billion contract launched in 2007, is expiring and its replacement will concentrate on commodity purchasing through value-added resellers, William Thoreen, director of the Acquisition Division in the Office of Procurement Operations, told 600 small business owners Tuesday at the Ronald Reagan Building.
“We really believe FirstSource II is going to become a very important piece of our portfolio both for IT and strategic sourcing,” he said.
Under FirstSource I, DHS has bought commodities through value-added resellers, including the purchase of computers, desktops, laptops, network cards, routers through small businesses, Thoreen said.
“The scope of the commodities we buy under it is very broad because we need a lot of different IT commodities,” Thoreen said, and added that FirstSource II will also include VAR purchases of new IT commodities.
“We have learned an incredible amount from that [initial] award and we are going to incorporate a lot of changes in FirstSource II that makes sense for us and we hope makes sense for you,” he said.
For one, “FirstSource II targets specific [small-business] categories that will help our program managers meet their individual goals,” Thoreen said.
FirstSource II “is going to be different. It will provide opportunities for small businesses to partner up for us. The most important thing is that it succeeds in fulfilling our mission needs. We’re not just contracting for contracting sake; there are mission needs and they need to be primary,” Thoreen said.
DHS CIO Richard Spires summed up the dilemma of most of his peers in government. “I’ve got more things coming at me than ever, more demands,” he said. “And I’m going to have less dollars – a pretty classic problem, right? – we’re feeling the squeeze right now.”
Spires said the new contract would address four DHS priorities: infrastructure rationalization, overall IT improvement, elimination of duplication and balancing the CIO workforce, which has grown to 260 employees during the past few years, to meet the new realities.
“We’ve got to make significant changes, particularly in our infrastructure and the commodity IT arena to be able to offer at least the same level of service – and I would hope more service – to my customer base,” he said.
“Data center consolidation, really looking hard and driving true cloud-based services both in the private cloud, out of our own enterprise data centers, as well as in the public services are certainly a couple of things that we’re doing that are very visible,” Spires said.
Spires added that he wants to leverage DHS’ great buying power as exemplified by FirstSource II “to bring components together in ways that we never have before across a lot of functions within DHS.”
As a result of discussions with the Small Business Administration and others, “we’re going to be able to use all five of the small business categories in which we have set-aside authority,” said Kevin Boshears, director of the DHS Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization.
“To our knowledge, this is the first time this has been done in the federal contracting arena,” he added.
As a result, FirstSource II will have clear set-aside awards to 8(a), HUBzone, Service Disabled Veteran-Owned, Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned, and general small business.
But Boshears urged all small businesses “to be aware of the individual aspects of these [five] programs. There are common themes that run through all five of them, but there are individual details that may be germane to [only] one of the individual five categories.”
“So be certain that you are comfortable with the rules and all that has been asked of you to participate in any of the five categories,” he added.
Addressing the issue of teaming, Boshears said although teaming has always been a successful part of DHS contracts and because First Source II is all for small business, “we want each participant to be absolutely clear about which firm is serving as the prime contractor in both the pre-award phase and the post-award phase.”
He said that’s important for proposal preparation, for meeting all the requirements of the small business program and for transparency.
To answer “the question I get the very most – how many awards are you going to make?’ Boshears said the proper answer is “competition determines the final number.”
But a scan of previous DHS-wide multiple award contracts, including Eagle I, have averaged 27 to 28 small business prime contracts, he added.
“That doesn’t give you the absolute final number,” he said, “but it does give you kind of an idea of what we’ve done on previous projects.”
About the Author: David Hubler is senior editor of Washington Technology. Published Nov. 3, 2011 at http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/11/03/dhs-firstsource-ii.aspx.
IT Schedule 70 to get new director
September 22, 2011 by cs
Kay Ely is coming aboard as the new director of the General Services Administration’s largest Multiple Award Schedule, IT Schedule 70, according to a tweet Sept. 14.
“Two big pieces of news in the @GSA_ITS world—welcoming Kevin Youel-Page as the ITS Deputy AC & Kay Ely as the Director of Schedule 70,” tweeted Mary Davie, assistant commissioner for the Federal Acquisition Service’s Integrated Technology Service at GSA.
Ely starts Sept. 25.
Ely is the chief learning officer at the Office of Personnel Management and had been deputy associate director for contracting for facilities and administrative services there.
Davie chose Kevin Youel Page as her deputy, making the announcement to staff Sept. 13. He too will start Sept. 25.
Schedule 70 is one of GSA’s most lucrative schedules. In 2010, IT Schedule 70 had $16 billion in federal sales.
First quarter sales for fiscal 2011 indicate that 2011 may surpass fiscal 2010′s sales, according to EZGSA, a consulting firm that specializes in GSA Schedules contracts. The IT schedule had $4.7 billion in sales in the first quarter of 2011, and $4.5 billion during the same period in 2010, a 7 percent increase.
Here’s Davie’s announcement.
Colleagues,
It’s a big week in ITS! I’m pleased to announce the selection of Kay Ely as the Director of the IT Schedule 70 Program. Kay is a current Senior Executive at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) where she most recently served as the Chief Learning Officer. She has an extensive background in federal IT acquisition, including both policy and operations, through both private and public sector positions. At OPM, Kay also served as the Deputy Associate Director for Contracting, Facilities and Administrative Services and was the Procurement Executive leading the information technology branch. She served as a Senior Principal at Acquisition Solutions where she led the federal civilian acquisition consulting practice. She also served as the Associate Administrator for Acquisition Implementation at the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and as the Director of Acquisition Resources Services at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Kay’s well-rounded experience in IT acquisition and leadership positions across government give her a unique perspective that will add tremendous value to GSA and to the ITS leadership team. Kay will be joining ITS on September 25.
Mary
– by Matthew Weigelt of Washington Technology on Sept. 15, 2011 at http://washingtontechnology.com/blogs/circuit/2011/09/kay-ely-gsa-opm-schedule-70.aspx?s=wtdaily_190911.
Contractor cuts among proposals sent to super committee
September 21, 2011 by cs
Three recommendations that target contractors are on a list of proposals sent to the deficit super committee from the GOP side of the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management.
Sen. Ron Johnson, (R-Wis.), collected the recommendations from a variety of sources and has submitted them to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. Known as the super committee, it is charged with finding between $1.2 trillion and $1.5 trillion in savings over 10 years. They have to report their recommendations by Nov. 23 and the President must sign the bill by Jan. 15 or automatic cuts kick in.
On Johnson’s list is cutting the contractor workforce by 15 percent, which he says would save $233 billion over 10 years. Eighty percent of the more than $100 billion spent with contractors each year is for services. Johnson is advocating that agencies be required to provide an annual headcount of the number of employees working on federal contracts. His document credits the suggestion to a report by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) called “Back in Black: A deficit reduction plan,” released in July.
A second recommendation that would impact business opportunities for contractor is Johnson’s proposal, also pulled from Coburn’s report, that federal IT management be reformed and that the government close data centers. Technology allows more work to be done by fewer computers and data centers, so closures would increase efficiency and create savings.
Johnson pegged the savings at $200 billion over 10 years.
A third recommendation could create more opportunities for contractors. Johnson is recommending that the government expand its use of public-private partnerships for infrastructure projects. He says the savings could be $180 billion over 10 years.
The government should use more partnerships for highway, rail, port, airport and other projects, he noted. The government could improve project management and take advantage of private sector incentives and efficiencies, Johnson wrote.
The recommendations are part of a House report, “Sitting on Our Assets: Federal Government’s Misuse of Taxpayer-owned Assets,” that comes out in October. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) also has proposed the policy as well.
About the Author: Nick Wakeman is the editor-in-chief of Washington Technology. Published Sept. 16, 2011 at http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/09/16/supercommittee-contractor-recommendations.aspx?s=wtdaily_190911.
How Sept. 11 changed government contracting forever
September 9, 2011 by cs
When terrorists hijacked four planes to use them as weapons and killed thousands of innocent people in the process, a chain reaction started that quickly swept across the country.
Today we live with many of those changes, from heightened security checkpoints at airports to more requirements to get a driver’s license.
Government contractors saw their market changed overnight, with a rush of government spending on new security priorities, creating an abundance of business opportunities.
Ten years later, contractors still feel the impact, including the types of business opportunities available, the role of the financial markets and the relationship between contractors and government agencies.
But other changes have been at work as well. Some are counteractions to the reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks. Others would have happened anyway.
Either way, contractors have been in a near-constant state of evolution over the past decade. That condition is likely to extend well into the next decade.
A need for speed
The biggest game-changer was the sudden awareness of the security vulnerabilities that threatened the United States and the need to address those vulnerabilities.
“We weren’t naive anymore,” said Tony Jimenez, founder and CEO of MicroTech LLC.
Before the attacks, terrorism was thought of as something that happened somewhere else.
“What Sept. 11 brought home was that we were vulnerable,” said Cyril Draffin, vice president of homeland security at Northrop Grumman Corp.
The government reaction was to rapidly start addressing security issues, which meant the allocation of funds and the awarding of contracts. First, there was the creation of the Transportation Security Administration and then the Homeland Security Department.
Other agencies such as the Justice and State departments increased their spending on security. More money also began flowing to state and local governments in the form of grants.
The heightened security concerns also led the United States to launch the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and supporting those efforts also helped fuel an explosion of spending with government contractors.
In fiscal 2000, the contractors on Washington Technology’s Top 100 rankings had an aggregate of $26.8 billion in prime contracts. In fiscal 2010, the number had climbed to $132 billion. Much of that growth was driven by the need to support warfighters and to support intelligence and homeland security initiatives.
“The clock speed of contracts and task orders increased significantly,” said Paul Leslie, CEO of Dovel Technologies. “With 9/11, money moved very quickly, and companies had to adjust and modify their business development efforts and response times.”
The government wholly embraced the use of indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts because agencies could move quickly to address a need. That trend has become a fact of life in the government market as these large task-order contracts have become the vehicle of choice for buying services and products.
“The increased use of IDIQ contracts and the quicker turnaround of those activities has changed how we do contracting,” said David Zolet, president of business development for Computer Sciences Corp.’s North American public-sector business.
Security concerns also changed how contractors and customers interacted.
“You used to be able to move on and off military facilities,” Jimenez said. “The only place they seemed to check your ID was the PX.”
The current lockdown state of many government agencies, military and otherwise, creates challenges for contractors. “It limits the ability to market your company,” Jimenez added.
There was also less need for security clearances pre-Sept. 11.
“But a lot of the changes are good because it separates the wheat from the chaff and you have to be a much more professional organization today,” he said.
Wall Street wakes up
As the market exploded in terms of spending, companies grew rapidly and, unlike the 1990s and the dot-com era, Wall Street began to notice the government market’s growth potential, said Jerry Grossman, a managing director with the investment bank Houlihan Lokey.
“You had this migration of interest to the government,” he said.
And the market lived up to its potential, with spending on IT services between 2002 and 2006 growing at 10 to 15 percent a year. The earnings of many public and private government contractors during that time were growing at 20 to 25 percent a year.
“The third leg of the equation was that the government was outsourcing more,” Grossman said. “Companies really saw their growth rates get turbo-charged.”
Wall Street’s interest sparked the initial public offerings of a slew of companies such as ManTech International, SI International SRA International, Veridian Corp., Anteon International, MTC Technologies, Sciences Applications International Corp., ICF International, NCI Inc. and DigitalNet.
The window on IPOs came to a close for the most part by 2006 as the market cooled and growth rates returned to more traditional levels.
But Grossman doesn’t expect Wall Street to walk away from those as budget cuts hit the government. “Sept. 11 planted in people’s minds — the public, the taxpayers, investors — the continuing importance of defense, national security, intelligence and homeland security,” he said.
Strategy shifts
For some companies the rapid growth in the market created a management dilemma: how to balance the pursuit of short-term business opportunities with more sustainable business.
SAIC won a contract to install and integrate the communications, electronics and other command and control equipment on mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles known as MRAPs. The military needed a lot of them and needed them fast in Iraq and Afghanistan. The program delivered thousands of vehicles and was up and running in less than a year. But as the wars wind down, those kinds of projects won’t continue.
“That’s an example of a near-term opportunity but not something that is sustainable,” said Deborah James, executive vice president for communications and government affairs for SAIC. She ran the program, based out of Charleston, S.C., for the company. “But I certainly hope and believe that the speed and agility we gained will stay with us.”
At the same time it is critical that companies focus on more sustainable business areas, particularly in light of the current budget and economic environment. For example, cybersecurity is an area James and other executives consider a sustainable market.
“I don’t care what business you are in, cyber is important to you,” she said.
While threats to people and property remain real, cyber threats have increased in their frequency and ferocity in recent years.
In today’s current budget environment, which some executives said the boom in homeland security spending caused, cybersecurity is seen as an areas that will continue to be funded.
“Cyber would have evolved even without Sept. 11,” Draffin said. “But it is a reminder that people want to do us harm on our own territory.”
A lasting legacy
The aftermath of the terrorist attacks ushered in a new relationship between contractors and government agencies.
“We had this massive growth the first four or five years after Sept. 11, but that’s just the numbers,” said Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, an industry group, and a Washington Technology columnist.
“What has so dramatically changed in the last decade is that the government’s highest-priority missions require sophisticated technology and related skills, and that’s where the government really struggles to compete for people,” he added.
The government doesn’t have the resources to hire enough people with the high-end technology skills in areas such as cybersecurity, counterterrorism and data analytics to meet the needs of the government mission.
People with those skills can command a salary more than twice what the government can pay. “It’s not greed by contractors; it is what the commercial market dictates,” he said.
It doesn’t mean the government can’t hire any of these people, but it can’t hire enough, so the question is more of balance, Soloway said.
“How that mission-critical work is performed by the government has changed permanently,” he said. “Sept. 11 really kicked that off, and that’s the biggest fundamental change to the market of the last decade. And there is no indication that it is going to change over the next decade.”
About the Author: Nick Wakeman is the editor-in-chief of Washington Technology. Published 9/7/2011 at http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/08/29/cover-sept-11-legacy.aspx?s=wtdaily_080911
Small businesses share in SEWP sales
September 1, 2011 by cs
The portion of sales going to small businesses in NASA’s Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) IV reached 42 percent last year, an increase of 7 percent from the previous year, according to SEWP IV officials. SEWP is a governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC), providing advanced information technology products and related services at fixed prices.
NASA looks to prioritize technology spending
September 1, 2011 by cs
Scarce resources are the new reality at NASA, which sought feedback from the National Research Council to inform the tough investment decisions it will soon face. “The necessary technological developments have become less clear, and more effort is thus required to evaluate the best path for a forward-leaning technology program,” write authors of a NRC interim report [1] published Aug. 30 and commissioned by NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist.
Gaps in technology roadmaps and little consideration for the commercial space sector highlight problems that further complicate program decision making, finds the report.
“NASA has now entered a transitional stage, moving from the past era in which desirable technological goals were evident to all, to one in which careful choices among many conflicting alternatives must be made,” the researchers say.
A later report will provide more specific feedback on NASA’s technology roadmaps and recommendations for OCT. The overall structure of NASA’s individual technology roadmaps is fine, says NRC, but the committee proposed some changes in the technology areas’ breakdown structures.
The most significant changes suggested by NRC are in area 4–Robotics, TeleRobotics and Autonomous Systems–which include broad changes in the lowest level of the breakdown structure (the “level 3″ technologies). The level 3 technology changes greatly affect the rest of the roadmap and so “the 04 roadmap would have to be largely rewritten,” conclude authors.
The report also finds NASA roadmaps fail to consider the needs of the commercial space sector or opportunities for partnership. Authors suggest NASA could include commercial space at the second level of the structure in some roadmaps.
NASA generally agrees with the interim report and “is pleased that the committee will conclude its work in time for NASA to use the NRC findings as guidance for its FY 2012 space technology investment decisions,” said [2] NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun in a statement.
The final study on NASA’s technology roadmaps will be issued in early 2012, says the report, and will provide specific guidance on how NASA OCT’s technology development program can prioritize projects “in the face of scarce resources.”
For more:
- download [1] the report
- see [3] more on NASA technology roadmaps
- see [2] NASA’s response to the report
– Written by M. Bernhart – Fierce Government IT - Sept. 1 2011 – at http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/nasa-looks-prioritize-technology-spending/2011-09-01?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
How one small business found its niche and doubled in size
August 15, 2011 by cs
Nearly doubling your revenue in one year is remarkable in itself. That 5 AM Solutions Inc. did it in an uncertain economy and with less government contracting dollars is one of the reasons the Reston, Va.-based company holds the No. 41 spot on this year’s Washington Technology Fast 50 list.
Between 2009 and 2010, 5 AM’s revenue rocketed from $7.2 million to $13.9 million, and its compounded annual growth rate over the past five years is 140.29 percent.
“We bring some really unique talent to the field where there’s a lot of opportunity,” said Brent Gendleman, president and CEO of 5 AM. The company develops software for life science and health professionals, and health information technology is a burgeoning field.
“I think our brand of transparent process and high-quality folks and team players has some resonance,” he added. “There’s just a huge opportunity for our government clients to take advantage.”
Good workers are great, but only if there’s work for them to do. Contract wins that put the company in the thick of two of the country’s biggest health IT initiatives have ensured that the 5 AM team stays busy. Since July 2006, the company has been handling software engineering for the National Cancer Institute’s caArray open-source Web-based array data management system, under a $9.25 million contract. The system helps translational cancer research by acquiring, disseminating and aggregating information that can be shared via the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid.
In April, 5AM won a $5.1 million contract to provide software engineering for the National Health Information Network’s CONNECT open-source software, which enables secure electronic health data exchange among health care providers, insurers, government agencies and consumer services.
With those customers and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Office of the Surgeon General established, Gendleman said he is setting his sights on the Veterans Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
“We are hopeful that some of the things that we have learned at the other agencies can be applied there to a very important and direct population that we would love to get engaged with directly,” he said of VA.
Some of those lessons include being transparent to establish trust. “That trust is between not just two individuals but between the company and the client that they’re serving. There’s a partnership – and it really is a partnership – that they’re trying to achieve,” Gendleman said.
Knowing when to quit is also crucial. “You want to fail as quickly as possible,” he added. “The longer you wait, the more expensive it gets and who wants that? Nobody. It’s not everybody’s instinct but failing as fast as possible is absolutely the most important thing to do. When you’re talking about medicine, you want to know if something’s not working now so you can try something different and don’t hurt someone. On the science side, it’s the same thing.”
Besides adding to its workload, 5 AM plans to add to its employee roster. The company, which has lost only three workers in the past four years, started with two employees in 2003, now has 48 and aims for 70 employees by next summer. Most of the hires will be in the engineering department.
Going forward, federal budget concerns will be the company’s main challenge, Gendleman said.
“People are very reluctant to say ‘Let’s do this initiative or that initiative’ when they don’t know if they’re going to get the funding or not,” he said.
But even that could be an opportunity, Gendleman added. “Sometimes the cuts really do allow for people to take a breath and reevaluate and reprioritize, and sometimes you’re in the plus part of that.”
About the Author: Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer to Washington Technology. Published Aug. 11, 2011 at http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/08/01/fast-50-5am-solutions.aspx?s=wtdaily_120811.