GTSC develops initiatives based on our federal partner’s needs.  Through constant communications with our members and partners, we develop activities, events, and campaigns based on the needs of our community.  Have an idea?  Need some help?  Contact us.

GTSC Days – Where Homeland Security Meets to Address Critical Mission Challenges
The Government Technology & Services Coalition has carefully developed a deep dive into the components and missions of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  Since 2011, beginning with our inaugural CBP Day, the model and concept has grown across the Department to offer government and private sector partners an opportunity to understand and tackle critical mission challenges together.  An intimate, relaxed environment encourages participants to speak frankly and participate in meaningful exchanges to advance innovation, security best practices, and understand the market dynamics that result in the best products and services being offered to solve the nation’s security needs.  We currently host days focused on the Department of Homeland Security: CBP, USCIS,

• Reverse Industry Days – One of the pioneering organizations in “Reverse Industry Days (RID),” GTSC works across DHS, Treasury, and GSA to assist design and execute RIDs.  The RID model, developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is an opportunity for private industry to provide insight to Contracting Officers on the processes and obligations of corporations.  Sessions cover issues like bid or no-bid decisions, protest, RFP response, among a host of other business decisions faced by companies working in federal procurement and acquisition.
• Industry Outreach – GTSC works with federal partners to perform industry outreach that reaches ALL size companies and brings innovators to the table.  From formal “industry days” to more strategic interactions, GTSC works to forage and find the best representation of the market for our federal partners.
• Private Sector Engagement – Often major procurement and acquisition decisions are made with limited input from industry.  GTSC works to change that and assure that the engagement is active, representative of all size companies, relevant, and specific to the task at hand.
• Hill Day – GTSC is not a lobbying organization, however, annually we invite CEOs to join us for a “Day on the Hill” to learn from legislators and share experiences and observations about the homeland security environment.  This critical day connects the policy and funding to the execution and provides our CEOs with a deeper understanding of how programs that fund their companies are developed and executed.

Procurement & Acquisition Workgroup
Chaired by Carolyn Muir, General Counsel & Senior Vice President, Contracts, Steampunk 
Across the homeland enterprise procurement divisions work to by what they need at the best price.  They also work to find innovation and new ways to solve old problems with less money.  The GTSC Procurement & Acquisition Workgroup is at the forefront of working with federal partners to find creative and new ways to help our partners not only find what they need — but find the best of breed.  The Workgroup also stays on top of policies and projects — like the RIDs — to assure that our membership is represented and is able to actively provide our perspective.

Business Development Exchanges

U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Chaired by Patty Todaro Bolin, CEO, ICS Advisory
GTSC members asked for the Coalition to develop a trusted environment to meet and develop potential teaming partners, make their business development efforts more efficient, and share information among peers.  Participants are required to attend each meeting, participate actively in the information exchange and contribute their leadership in subject matter areas.  If you are a member of GTSC and interested in participating in this forum, please email us.

The Lion’s Den: Supporting a Robust Mid-Market
Chaired by Lyndsey Hoe, Senior Director of Business Development, Dev Technology & Michelle Scheurman, Vice President, Strategic Programs, Dev Technology 
Mid-tier companies in the homeland and national security market face unique and difficult challenges. Once “no longer small” they are faced with a different level of competition and often find it difficult to compete against multi-million and multi-billion dollar companies. If not interested in exiting the market through acquisition or merger, the Coalition has devoted specific resources to generate new ideas and strategies to compete.

In 2015, the Lion’s Den launched an on-going campaign to bring attention to the middle market and to raise awareness of the value of these firms to the homeland and national security market.  Learn more here.

Mid-Tier Briefings with U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
GTSC’s Lion’s Den is currently working on a project with DHS to educate and raise awareness of the capabilities and strengths of mid-tier companies. The Lion’s den developed a 3-hour presentation for contracting officers to raise awareness and understanding of mid tier companies.  They are part of a larger GTSC effort to educate contracting officials on the business process, the impact of Federal actions on businesses and improve communication and success for both our Federal partners and our members.

Smashing the Box Events
Since GTSC’s inception, our members have been concerned about how our public sector partners find and reach new ideas and innovations.  With technology, threats, and ideas changing at the speed of light, those concerned about achieving the homeland and national security mission are concerned too.  So, GTSC members launched “Smashing the Box” events, a project grown out of our efforts to help the government more thoroughly perform market research and reach innovative new players.  These events seek to provide our government partners with a method and mechanism to forage for the latest cutting edge ideas to help us protect the nation.

Improving Federal Market Research
Chaired by Brian Nault, CEO, BlueWater Federal
As new entrants to the Federal market know, it is a daunting task.  Member of GTSC believe that the market research currently performed by Federal agencies is not sufficient to bring the best products and solutions to our Federal partners.  The Request for Information (RFI) process, while a “tool” to provide input, is not seen as dynamic enough to really develop ideas, requirements or inform on capabilities.  Additionally, smaller companies with great technologies have tremendous difficulty taking time away from pursuing business, in favor of responding to requests for information that may not result in a contract or opportunity.  To assist, GTSC members, under the leadership of Brian Nault, President of BlueWater Federal, has developed a series of conversations with procurement officials to discuss the challenges of market research, how we can improve it to achieve better results and more options for the government, and to assist small companies that have no current connection or avenue into the government to be “seen” by such market research.

Emerging Small Business Group
Chaired by Earl Holland, CEO, Growth Strategy Consultants
The Emerging Small Business Group (ESB) was formed to provide dedicated programming and resources for Emerging Small Businesses (businesses with revenue <$2.5M). The group focuses on engaging emerging small business owners, understanding the numerous challenges of starting/growing a small business in the Federal space and marshaling GTSC’s vast resources of peers, owners, mentors, subject matter experts and online virtual tools to provide our members the knowledge and techniques needed to meet the challenges of growing a business.  The workshops cover small business loans, marketing, teaming, partnerships, growth strategy among the many other issues confronted by a new firm in the Federal contracting space. 

 Small Business Workshop for Federal Contracting Officers 
Initiated by ideas and suggestions to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Procurement Office, Coalition members have also developed a workshop for Federal contracting officers that describes the process and challenges to small companies in the Federal homeland and national security market (a complement to our workshop on the Mid-Tier process). The workshop, taught by GTSC members, seeks to help procurement officials understand how small businesses work, how they make decisions and execute their work. With a better understanding, GTSC’s members believe we have an opportunity to fix some of the problems and improve the contracting process for these officials while continuing to constantly infusing our mission objectives with innovation and cost savings.

The Mentor Forum
GTSC was founded by several large companies that believed in collaboration and cooperation to achieve the best solutions for the Federal government.  Recently, the Mentors have continued this belief by creating a Mentor Forum  to bring the innovation, ideas and agility of small business to the experience, infrastructure and resources of large companies, in addition to sharing the best practices of the private sector with our Federal partners.

Policy Development
The Coalition’s Steering Committee has developed a policy platform on behalf of our members. A set of principles that guides the Coalition, the policy platform outlines the major issues the Coalition is addressing. Members of the Steering Committee are also developing mechanisms and vehicles to highlight “gaming” in contracting practices, develop case studies of successful contract set-asides, and highlight the innovation of small and medium companies. View the GTSC’s Platform here.

Cyber Security
Strategy Development
While policymakers grapple over required budget cuts, significant resources are still directed toward protecting the nation’s digital infrastructure. Working with our Strategic Advisors — some of the best and most experienced minds in the cyber community — the Coalition is hosting a series of strategy meetings to develop a comprehensive cyber plan for our members. The project will identify how small and mid-sized companies can contribute to the cyber defenses of the nation, assist members in identifying their best opportunities and outline a strategy for the most effective use of member resources to achieve our nation’s cyber security mission.

Input to Federal Initiatives
Several agencies are developing standards, rules and possible regulations to assure that the supply chain is secure.  GTSC believes that the input and representation of ALL size contractors is critical to the process and will contribute to tighter security across the supply chain.  Every contractor to the Federal government is a potential vulnerability if their infrastructure is not secure.  GTSC has developed a cadre of members who are working on responses to efforts to include cyber security requirements in acquisition.  Current activities include:  GSA-DOD rules on cyber resilience in Federal acquisition, Request from GSA on Alliant and Alliant Small Business contract holders on proposed cyber plans in future contracts and the National Institute of Standards (NIST) cyber security framework, on-going work on business opportunities for small companies.

Carrying the Small & Mid-Sized Company Message
The Coalition’s mission is to trumpet and represent the interests of innovative companies bringing security solutions to the DHS, DOD, intel community, DOJ, DOS and others. The Coalition meets regularly with our partners in the agencies to discuss the unique challenges and opportunities for small and mid-sized companies given the numerous challenges to thriving in the government market. Additionally, the GTSC seeks to show through case studies and real-world examples that the purported “risks” of working with these companies are overblown and inaccurate.  Through papers, newsletters, meetings and other activities, the Coalition seeks to educate decision makers and be a constant reminder and voice for the contributions and quality brought to the government by these companies.

Homeland Security Job Board
In 2019, GTSC launched a job board through our Homeland Security Today platform.  The site offers public and private sector employers to post jobs free, and for job seekers, posting and searching is also free.  A bi-weekly newsletter is also available to our readers for free.  Learn more and sign up here.

Thought Leadership
Talking about thought leadership is easier than doing it. In the fall of 2017, GTSC purchased the magazine and media platform Homeland Security Today, www.HSToday.us to provide a platform for leadership from the public and private sector to discuss the program and policy issues confronting the nation in homeland security.  Reaching over 23,000 per week, the platform has surged to over $1 million users in 2019 and attracted some of the greatest minds in homeland.  View the Editorial Board here. Sign up for the free newsletters on border security and immigration, counterterrorism, USCG/maritime security, government contracting, cybersecurity, emergency management and first responder issues here.

Opportunity Tracking
Throughout the Federal government there are numerous opportunities for the security community. From the DOE smart grid to new opportunities within DHS components, security solutions are necessary for both IT and physical applications. Members can track solicitations and receive overviews of major Federal projects and initiatives with security components through events and interaction with many of the best minds in homeland and national security.

Check back often to see our new activities and initiatives. And, if you have an idea or suggestion for an issue you believe is important to our community, contact our CEO at [email protected]