Username
Password
	Remember Me
	» Lost your Password?

Archives page

Posts Tagged ‘government contracting’

GTSC & NCOA partner to launch GovCon Academy for Transitioning Veterans

NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS ASSOCIATION AND GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY & SERVICES COALITION
LAUNCH GOVCON ACADEMY
Organizations provide education and resources for Veterans interested in government contracting

Washington, D.C., July 25, 2017 — The Non-Commissioned Officers Association (NCOA), the foremost organization for non-commissioned officers in all branches of the military, and the Government Technology & Services Coalition (GTSC), the premier non-profit organization for companies in homeland and national security have launched GovCon Academy, a series of online and in-person courses on government contracting for transitioning Veterans.

“NCOA has been hosting Career Expos for our military for over 44 years and we have recently added the GovCon Academy to provide even more resources and opportunities for transitioning military. We launched the Academy at our Job Fair at Nellis Airforce Base during NCOA’s Annual Conference and Business Meeting last week and we are extremely excited about the potential for our members to have such exceptional resources available to them,” said Jon Ostrowski, Executive Director, NCOA. “I’m sure there are a lot of Vets who would like to help their Commands improve technologies for the field or innovate solutions to existing challenges.”

Courses range from “Is Government Contracting Right for You” to Ethics training, to Business Development, and Cyber Security. CEO of GTSC Kristina Tanasichuk will Chair the Academy and a number of Strategic Advisors from GTSC have joined the faculty, including: Earl Holland, CEO, Growth Strategy Consultants; Amy McDougal, CEO, CleaResources; and Jackie Santisteban, President, JBS Consulting. Devon Hewitt, CEO, Protorae Law will join as faculty for understanding the legal maze of contracting. The courses will provide a combination of in-person training as well as webinars and other web-based resources.

“We believe that Veterans are some of the best candidates to create mission driven contracting firms that understand government requirements and needs, and are committed to solving problems with true innovation,” said Kristina Tanasichuk, CEO of GTSC at the announcement. The Government Technology & Services Coalition represents nearly 140 companies that work in homeland and national security across the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, Justice, State, Treasury and the Intelligence Community.

The NCOA was established in 1960 to enhance and maintain the quality of life for noncommissioned and petty officers in all branches of the Armed Forces, Active Duty, National Guard, Reserves, Veterans (separated and retired), widows, and their families. NCOA is currently a leader in Veterans and Spouse Employment, a strong voice on Capitol Hill and in the Veterans Administration. The NCOA will be hosting 25 Career Expos across the continental U.S. and Europe in 2017. The goal of the Career Expo program is to connect America’s heroes and their dependents with profitable, meaningful employment.

For more information on NCOA’s GovCon Academy, go to http://ncoausa.org/career-center/ and for more information on GTSC, go to www.gtscoalition.com.

###

ABOUT GTSC

The Government Technology & Services Coalition (GTSC) is a nonprofit, non-partisan 501(c)(6) association of companies that work with government partners to achieve mission. Our vision is to provide an ethical, effective platform to leverage the private sector to bring the best homeland and national security ideas, technologies and innovations to the mission of securing our nation. GTSC’s mission is to provide exceptional advocacy, capacity building, partnership opportunities and marketing in the Federal security space for small and mid-sized companies and to support and assist our government partners achieve their critical missions with the highest integrity; best and most innovative technologies; and results-based, quality products and services to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to and recover from any terrorist attack or natural disaster. For more information on these mentors and the Government Technology & Services Coalition, please visit www.GTSCoalition.com or learn about our mid-tier initiative at www.GTSCMidTierSolution.com.

ABOUT NCOA

The Non Commissioned Officers Association is the premier organization representing the enlisted of our military since 1960, founded to enhance and maintain the quality of life for noncommissioned and petty officers. The voice of the Active Duty, National Guard, Reserves, Veterans (separated and retired), widows, and their families, NCOA leads efforts on Veterans and Spouse Employment, Capitol Hill, and at the Veterans Administration on behalf of our nearly 60,000 members. Learn more at www.NCOAUSA.org or www.ncoacareerexpos.org.

Joint Ventures in Federal Government Contracting 5/18

Recent changes to the small business contracting rules have made joint ventures even more palatable for government contractors. Join GTSC to discuss joint ventures with a number of leaders engaged in successful joint ventures, the professionals who create them, and practical do’s and don’ts for a successful partnership. Big Thanks to Protorae Law for hosting! REGISTER

Speakers:

Lisa Martin

CEO, Leap Frog Solutions, Inc.

Brian Nault

President, Blue Water Federal Solutions, Inc.

Devon Hewitt

CEO, Protorae Law PPLC

A Case Study on the Power of Partnership: How Federal Agencies Can Find Qualified Small Businesses, Faster

When the Government Technology and Services Coalition (GTSC) was formed a little over 5 years ago, one of our primary missions was to improve and assist our federal partners in performing their market research. We immediately formed a “Market Research” workgroup, chaired by Brian Nault, President of BlueWater Federal to identify how the government could find the best providers, and reach the largest number of competitors, possible to meet the demands of their mission at the best price and highest quality.

We met with procurement officials and contracting officers to discuss some of the challenges of “being noticed,” by federal agencies, particularly for small businesses. We conveyed the shortcomings of the “Requests for Information” from a small business’s perspective, described how the lack of response from some agencies to the information provided in an RFI hindered a robust response from industry, and explained how the value of responding often was not high enough given the need for companies to spend time staying afloat chasing real opportunities. All of these shortcomings held true for any size business.

We are still working on improving the RFI process but recently we were able to provide some tangible assistance to a partner in the government – and were successful in showing that with the proper partnership, the government can get better, and faster access to qualified providers.

It began with a call from GTSC member and GTSC Small Business Member of the Year 2016 Kathy Pherson, CEO of Pherson Associates, a Woman-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB), who was concerned that a partner agency found no Woman-Owned Small Businesses in a certain NAICs code. The member connected us with the agency and to their credit, they were very interested in hearing from us! GTSC put out a call for firms qualifying for the requirements. In less than 48 business hours we had amassed over 25 qualified WOSBs and submitted them to the agency.

With that, they altered their initial track structure for the intended procurement to reflect this market research.

Why am I writing about this? This is obviously an “ideal” scenario!

I wanted to provide a real life example of how our government partners can leverage their industry partners to find their most qualified providers and best solutions competitively. We encourage all of our government partners to consider:

Go to where the small businesses live. There are very few organizations that really represent small businesses in the federal market. Why? Simply because they do not have tremendous marketing dollars. Small companies look for the most resources for the least outlay of the capital they use to grow. Federal agencies should forge close ties with non-profits that work with, and actively represent small businesses.
Develop and Leverage relationships.Every market is a series of relationships – healthy markets are composed of those you trust and those you do not. That is why “industry relations” are so important to a vibrant federal market. Good relationships with industry allow an agency to reach and get assistance to find the small businesses they need. It also saves a tremendous amount of time and leg-work to try and find new communities around every procurement.

Be strategic. Different organizations are good at different things. The best federal industry liaisons, procurement officers, and leadership understand their market’s industry partners, who represents what, the organization’s mission, and the efficacy of the organization. Developing these relationships with industry allows them to understand how to best leverage existing resources and find active, engaged businesses.

Talk to your industry partners. We may finally be coming out of a period where many in the federal government were reluctant to talk to industry. The message we’ve been hearing more than ever – from nearly every component within the Department of Homeland Security – is that acquisition and procurement leaders are encouraging their staff to get out more and talk to, and learn from, industry. As a matter of fact, under the leadership of DHS CPO Soraya Correa the Department has undertaken “Reverse Industry Days” – devised by industry – to provide their contracting staff an opportunity to learn about industry and how it operates. GTSC’s Acquisition & Procurement Workgroup lead, Carolyn Muir from SE Solutions and a former contracting officer with the Navy has been instrumental in crafting and adding tremendous value to the topics and lessons provided in these “Master Classes” on government contracting.

We continue to applaud these changes to our procurement and acquisition process and look forward to continue leading both industry and government as we navigate a market environment moving faster than conventional procurement can handle.

Kristina Tanasichuk is CEO & Founder of the Government Technology & Services Coalition, a non-profit, non-partisan organization of small and imd-sized companies working in homeland and national security. She is also the president of InfraGardNCR, a public private partnership between the private sector and the FBI to share information to protect our nation’s critical infrastructure, and the president and founder of Women in Homeland Security.

Have YOU Joined GTSC’s Collaboration Group?

GTSC is executing our member collaboration network — an online resource for you to communicate with other members of GTSC, collaborate within your Business Development Exchanges, and have direct, real-time access to the latest information, opportunities, and colleagues.

Often, I’m presented with opportunities and I have no fast way of getting out to you except by sending an email to the entire membership. This collaboration site allows me to post those opportunities or questions to all of you, and allows you to do the same. Similar to a listserv, you will be able to post opportunities, teaming requests, staffing challenges, and questions to the group. More valuable than a listserv, the collaboration site allows members to form work groups, opportunity groups, jointly edit and work on documents, whatever will help your business forward its goals by collaborating with others in GTSC.

What does this mean to me?

We have sent invitations for GTSC members to join our collaboration site and set up a profile. GTSC will be pushing more and more of our real-time communications through this tool. As soon as you have a profile, we can invite you to your specialty group (GTSC BDEs, Lion’s Den, Innovation workgroup) and start communicating.

WHY are you doing this to us, Kristina? Another network??

I know, I know. Another thing. But we have to do it, frankly, to be more efficient. This tool cleans up your inbox, helps you focus on the opportunities we’re working on, and gives you all a platform to leverage the Coalition better. The key of course is for you to start using it actively so that we work as a cohesive machine.

So….let’s get busy!! Check your inbox (and your junk mail) for the invite from group site. If you have not received an invite, please let me know and we’ll figure out the problem.

THANK YOU all for your patience while we implement this exciting new function — once up and running I assure you that it will become your “go to” spot for tracking and partnering.

As always, do not hesitate to reach out with any questions!!

Kristina

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS: Capacity Building Day 2016

Request for Presentations: GTSC Capacity Building Day 2016

The Government Technology & Services Coalition (GTSC) will host a Capacity Building Session in early August to help small and mid-tier contractors understand insurance, benefits, compliance, accounting, staffing, legal and contractor specific requirements in homeland and national security (like developing SCIFs, security clearances, etc.) they must understand to have the internal capacity to grow.

We invite vendors to submit a discussion or workshop related to these topics for consideration to speak at this ½ day session. We are looking for substantive presentations that will:

Educate companies on current requirements
Inform companies of upcoming or recent changes to requirements
Identify trends in buying, trends that impact companies and how companies are positioning to address these trends
Share new and innovative approaches to the topic
“Sales pitches” will not be accepted
Apply as speaker or workshop – for speakers (15-30 minute presentations); for workshops, (1-1.5 hours)

Submissions will be accepted until midnight, June 30, 2016.

Please submit:

NAME

COMPANY

TELEPHONE NUMBER

WEBSITE

TITLE OF PRESENTATION

PRESENTATION OR WORKSHOP?

HOW LONG IS YOUR PRESENTATION?

OBJECTIVE OF PRESENTATION/WORKSHOP

TOP 3 LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR ATTENDEES

BRIEF 4 SENTENCE DESCRIPTION OF SESSION

BIO(S), PHOTOS FOR EACH SPEAKER

SUBMIT TO: Kalyna White, GTSC at [email protected] by June 30, 2016.

GTSC Chair Michael Jackson discusses GTSC’s role in GOVCON

Why join GTSC? Here, Michael Jackson, former Deputy Secretary for both the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Transportation discusses why the Government Technology & Services Coalition’s network is so critical to the success of a small or mid-tier government contracting company. His experience both inside and outside of the government informs of how GTSC can take your business to the next level through the right partners, information, and impact.

GTSC Lion’s Den Launches Mid-Tier Initiative

The Lion’s Den, a group of mid-tier companies in the Government Technology & Services Coalition, today launched a campaign to educate the federal contracting community on the value of “mid-tier” or “other than small” companies. “The road for a mid-tier is rough,” said Kristina Tanasichuk, CEO & Founder of GTSC, “small businesses excel, perform, and grow, only to be stymied by their success.”

“The federal government has made a tremendous commitment to small business – setting aside numerous contracts to support their launch and growth. Assuring that these competent, successful businesses continue to provide great service to their government clients leverages this investment and reaps the return of more mature companies,” said Beth Fleshman, Vice President, Alion and Chair of the Lion’s Den.

GTSC’s Lion’s Den, comprised of companies between $15 million and $1 billion in revenue, focuses on policies and activities to support the growth of companies that have grown out of, or are about to grow out of, their North American Industry Classification System codes (NAICS). The campaign, launched with an info-graphic on the value proposition of mid-tier firms, will work with the public and private sector to understand why there should be a viable path for these companies and how to achieve it. Learn more about the campaign here.

“The lack of mid-tier opportunities leaves matriculating small businesses with nothing to bid on. Often, they can’t even bid on continuation of their current contracts despite exceptional performance. While change isn’t always bad, the government stands to lose substantial investment in providers with proven business acumen and expertise meeting mission needs,” said Dianna Francois, Vice President, WBB Inc.

Members of the Lion’s Den include Alion, Barbaricum, Blacktsone Technology Group, BlueWater Federal, CENTRA Technology, E3 Federal, Eagle Ray, GAP SI, Grant Thornton, Integrity One Partners, Micropact, Miracle Systems, Morgan Franklin, NCI, Salient, SE Solutions, and WBB.

What can you do?

We invite you to join us to be part of the solution.

Share our infographic with colleagues in the public and private sectors.
Schedule a mid-tier presentation for your office.
Join the Lion’s Den.
Share our media updates, twitter posts, and linkedin updates using #midtier
and #midtiergovcon
Join the GTSC Linkedin group and the Lion’s Den subgroup.
Refer interested government officials to the Lion’s Den to set up a presentation.

Contact us with questions or comments [email protected].

Beating the Cyber Security Drum

Every year, the Government Technology & Services Coalition beats the drum of cyber security – particularly during October’s Cyber Security Awareness Month.

We pull out the cute little monster virus icons, we parade a series of sessions, webinars and blogs about the perils of ignoring cyber security, and try to provide some tangible steps for small firms – or really ALL firms — to implement to be responsible partners to their Federal clients.

There is still quite a bit of complacency — but the threat – to our nation and to our assets is very real. Most recently, the Senate Armed Services Committee found that Chinese government hackers have repeatedly infiltrated the computer systems of major U.S. companies including government contracting firms of all sizes – to find out about the movement of U.S. troops and military equipment.

U.S. Transportation Command, or Transcom, was aware of only two of the intrusions. Gaps in reporting requirements and a lack of information sharing left the U.S. military largely unaware of the computer compromises of its contractors.

What the Senate Armed Services Committee really found – is that cyber security, information sharing, defending our systems MATTERS NOW. And that protecting “our systems” is protecting a complex ecosystem of both public and private entities enmeshed through so many access points it is virtually impossible to untangle them all. Detecting the patterns of attack requires a complex collaboration between government and industry.

Although efforts to address cyber security are still “in process” – for contractors the writing is on the wall.

Currently – cyber security is still “voluntary.” To satisfy President Obama’s Executive Order on Improving Critical Infrastructure Cyber security – this year we saw the release of two reports that map out the future of cyber in procurement: The DOD- GSA report on Improving Cybersecurity and resilience through acquisition and the NIST’s Cyber Security Framework — a description of what should be in a cyber security program.

The “mandatory” is coming: late last year, DOD required companies handling ‘unclassified controlled technical information’ to implement security controls and report incidents within 72 hours of discovery. This is only the beginning.

Lawmakers are using the tools at their disposal to tighten up security through procurement — a provision was added to the annual National Defense Authorization Act to tighten requirements for defense contractors to report cyber attacks by known or suspected government actors.

So, everyone is – or should be — preparing. But there are still important questions like, “when are my systems ‘secure’? what happens when I am the victim of an attack? What if I’ve done all the right things?”

To find some answers, most contractors are watching the examples. USIS – a government contracting firm that performed background investigations for the government – is currently front page news. After detecting a breach, the company reported it to the Department of Homeland Security. Subsequently their contracts pertaining to background checks with both DHS and OPM were suspended.

At first blush, that sends an ominous message. However, the reality of “cyber” is that every company is vulnerable and every company from Lockheed Martin to the much smaller USIS have fallen victim to hackers, breaches, attacks of one kind or another.

What we are learning every day is that partnerships – BEFORE an attack – will make or break our success. And that “waiting” is not a strategy.

So you’re probably thinking, well that’s all well and good Kristina. What does it mean for me?

It means that if you are working with Federal clients, this is that moment when you look up from the weeds to see the trees:

FIRST: Join the FBI’s InfraGard – or have your CISO join. The public private partnership’s mission is to protect the critical infrastructure of the United States and its roots rest squarely in cyber – protecting our digital infrastructure. They provide invaluable alerts, lots of training and information to assure you are ahead of the curve and know who to call, when.

SECOND: Join an organization, network, information sharing exchange that will educate you about the cyber requirements coming down the pike. Learn what is required – and build your cyber security practices beyond that. Cyber security is a new cost of doing business with the Federal government and you need to be ahead of the curve.

THIRD: Use the free resources available to you to develop your cyber plan and educate your employees. GTSC has a slate of resources available to help small and mid-sized companies educate their employees and the FCC has developed a free cyber security planner for business. StaySafeOnline.org has the resources and information to educate your workforce are there – you just need to use them.

Kristina Tanasichuk is CEO and founder of the Government Technology & Services Coalition. She is also President and founder of Women in Homeland Security and Executive Vice President of the InfraGard National Capital Members Alliance. She has worked in homeland security and domestic infrastructure for nearly 20 years.

The New Paradigm of the Government Market: Plan, Prepare, Position, Partner

I recently attended a small business Match Making event sponsored by the Government Technology Services Coalition for small business and prime contractors to meet, greet and exchange information on each other in hopes of identifying potential government contracting opportunities. This event showcased a three person panel of small business program office directors from the Small Disadvantage Business Offices of three different agencies.

I have attended many of these match-making sessions and recently asked the question in one of my Linkedin discussion groups: is attending these events valuable time well spent or a waste of time? I received various comments both positive and negative. However, I must say that this particular event was one of the best that I have attended and my reason is based on the content that the government panelist shared with the small businesses.

There is no question about the changing state of the government contracting market. There is definitely a new paradigm. The landscape has and is continuing to change significantly.

What does this mean for small business? Well, it means that they are being presented with opportunities greater than they have ever been presented within the history of small business contracting in the federal market.

With the implementation of the President’s Job Act coupled with new legislation and regulation that are favoring increased small business participation for contracts and better oversight on Prime/sub-contracting relationships, larger and longer multiple year contracts are being offered to small businesses. To support these initiatives Agencies are increasing their market research activity by sending out more RFI’s and Sources Sought announcements with the intent of identifying more small business to contract with.

Agency Collaboration and the need to reduce redundancy and budget cuts are responsible for this new trend. With that said, the small business community has to change its thinking and their desire to go it alone when pursuing contracts.

The main theme presented by the government panelist was the lack of preparation by the small business community in pursuing contract opportunities. Some specifics were:

Presenting too many capabilities “jack of all trade” scenarios
Limited knowledge of agency mission
Inability to clearly present their core skills and solutions relevant to the agency mission
Not responding or poorly responding to RFI’s and Sources Sought announcements
Failure to present their value proposition as it relates to the agency request for support

Considering these things, the take away from this event boils down to the following:

Plan

Plan by performing an internal assessment of your company, who are you, what business are you really in, what are you best qualified to do – not what you want to do. Do your market research to establish where your skills and solutions best fit the agency problems you have targeted and refine your pitch based on your research and knowledge of the agency’s mission.

Prepare

Prepare by creating a compelling story of who you are and why your company is best suited to solve the agency problems based on your research and understanding of the agency mission. Responses to the RFI’s and Sources Sought should be focused on how your skills or solutions support the agency mission. Follow the congressional legislative and regulatory initiatives, and agency news. This information will provide you with great insight into the agency mission and the problems they are encountering in carrying out their mission

Position

Use your research to position your company. The more information you know about the legislative, regulatory initiatives and agency news, the easier it will be for you to communicate with agency program managers and department heads. The more knowledge you can share with them will provide them with a level of comfort that you have a understanding of their issues. This will be the basis of establishing a rapport which will lead to trust.

Partner

Performing a formal assessment on potential partners you have identified to team with is essential. The dynamics of the market demand that you spend ample time to do this. There are more contract opportunities that are multiple 8-10 year contracts and this requires thorough knowledge of who you will be spending that time with.

Compatibility, integrity, culture, vision, goals and trust will be the key factors for you to assess and consider in your selection. These criteria should be used regardless of whether or are considering a Prime or subcontractor relationship. Casual teaming is not the best way to go in the new market.

Contributing Author

Earl S. Holland III is the President and CEO, Growth Strategy Consultants, Strategic Advisor with the Government Technology Services Coalition and former Vice President of the Washington Chapter of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals. You can reach him at: [email protected]www.growthstrategyconsultants.com