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GTSC Releases 2019 Annual Report: Fostering Collaboration to Cast a Wider Shadow on the Homeland Security Market

The Government Technology & Services Coalition, the foremost organization for government contractors in the homeland security mission space, released its 2019 Annual Report at their Annual Meeting.

GTSC’s 2019 Annual Report: Fostering Collaboration to Cast a Wider Shadow on the Homeland Security Market, catalogs the non-profits activities and progress toward a trusted community to protect the nation.

The theme: Fostering Collaboration to Cast a Wider Shadow on the Homeland Security Market highlights the effectiveness of the over 200 contracting companies that have joined together to collaborate to bring the best solutions to the homeland security market. The organization saw 25% growth among its mid-tier members, contractors with revenue between $25 million and $1 billion, and saw over one million page views at their news site, Homeland Security Today (www.HSToday.us).  In addition to engaging to improve procurement for all contractors, the organization works to provide a level playing field, increase competition, and assure that smaller companies with innovative solutions have an opportunity to share with the public sector officials that need them.  The organization has attracted new government partners, and sustained vibrant partnerships with its traditional supporters.

“We are extremely happy that our approach to collaboration, facts, and practical solutions has been embraced by the homeland security community.  We have worked very hard to create a community of trusted relationships between the public and private sector to work together to protect our nation. We work daily to bridge the communication gap and lack of understanding between those who are accountable for the mission, and those who support them to achieve it. Our non-profit’s work, our mission, has always been to support those on the front lines, executing our nation’s laws, to keep our children, citizens, and cities safer against all threats.” said Kristina Tanasichuk, CEO & Founder, at the release.

“Our partnership with GTSC is incomparable,” said Alba M. Alemán, CEO of Citizant and GTSC’s Mid-Tier Company of the Year. “GTSC, has been paramount in developing trusted relationships between industry and agency leaders to bring forward unique perspectives, so that those agencies will be better served and able to achieve mission-critical objectives. Moreover, to be a part of such an elite network of like-minded professionals passionate about national security and core infrastructure missions, is both energizing and humbling.”

GTSC was founded in 2011 by small business CEOs in the homeland security market to find ways to improve procurement and acquisition of innovative technologies, give small businesses a voice in the federal market, and provide a trusted community for those tasked with securing the country.  The organization has evolved to represent the ecosystem of the homeland security market with small, mid-tier, and large companies engaged to collaborate, mentor, and network to achieve mission. In 2017, the non-profit purchased the Homeland Security Today media platform.

“As a fairly new business having started in 2012, I have been a part of various organizations and associations.  GTSC has been the ONLY one that has consistently supported businesses and government entities with a passion for both sides. I can proudly say that Potomac Management Solution’s growth and success has been directly contributed to the programs, guidance and overall structure of GTSC!” said Diane McCain, CEO of Potomac Management Solutions and GTSC’s Small Business of the Year.

GTSC and Homeland Security Today also hosts the Annual Holiday Hero Awards recognizing those on the front-lines on watch every single day to protect our country from threats to homeland security.  The awards recognize private citizens and public sector officials doing exceptional work on behalf of the homeland.

The 2019 Annual Report catalogs the numerous programs, meetings, networking opportunities, charitable events, and workgroups supported by the organization and the leaders and members shaping those activities.

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.

GTSC 5th Anniversary Awards Spectacular December 7

Join GTSC to celebrate 5 years of serving the homeland and national security community at our 5th Anniversary Holiday Awards Spectacular!  With special guests galore and our usual line-up of stellar supporters — this will be the year to remember — and the YEARS to be thankful to all for their support!

We will announce our:

Small Business Member of the Year

Mid-Tier Company of the Year

Mentor of the Year

Federal Small Business Champion of the Year

Market Maven Award

Federal MVP

Strategic Advisor of the Year

Strategic Partner of the Year

and include a special new 5th anniversary recognition for supporters from our 5 years!

CONTACT US TO NOMINATE A PEER, CLIENT OR ADVISOR FOR OUR AWARDS (nominations accepted until November 15!)

Support and sponsorships of our holiday event are welcome — please contact us to help make this our best event ever!

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

GTSC Expands Steering Committee to Accommodate Growth

GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY & SERVICES COALITION
EXPANDS STEERING COMMITTEE
GTSC expands Steering Committee to accommodate Coalition’s growth

Washington, D.C. April 8 — The Government Technology & Services Coalition (GTSC), the premier non-profit organization for small and mid-sized companies in homeland and national security, today announced that it has expanded its Steering Committee to serve the mission more effectively by representing the increasing number, and diversity, of companies in the Coalition.
“US-CERT last month told electric utilities to disengage from the internet as much as possible.  The Office of Personnel Management suffered a breach that affected over 22 million people.  In 2015 we lost approximately $800 million to hostile countries, nation states, and criminals.  ISIL uses Twitter to plan attacks quickly and effectively across the globe.  As we approach our 5th anniversary, we have expanded our Steering Committee because we need more mission-oriented people and companies engaged in providing the government the best ideas and execution,” said Kristina Tanasichuk, founder and CEO of the Coalition.
“While GTSC works to parse through the challenges in Federal procurement, the mission marches on.  We want to assure that the most successful small, mid-tier and large companies committed to the homeland and national security mission have a voice.  It was natural to reach out to some of our best and brightest to inform our path,” she continued.
“The key to successfully delivering against our most pressing homeland and national security challenges is a strong partnership between private sector companies with innovative approaches to delivering real capability and this in government who understand the challenges.  GTSC is providing significant value to both my firm and our federal partners through dedicated focus on bringing us together to advance the mission of homeland and national security,” said Frank Landefeld, managing director & public sector market leader at MorganFranklin Consulting.
Members of the GTSC Steering Committee contribute to the direction and priorities of the Coalition, identify mission needs, and work with federal partners to find innovative mechanisms to bring cutting-edge ideas and technologies to the homeland and national security mission.
Additions to the Steering Committee include:
  • Robert Aguilera, Garud Technology Services, Inc.
  • Elizabeth El-Nattar, CEO, TRI-COR Industries, Inc.
  • Diana Francois, Senior Vice President, WBB, Inc.
  • Josh Kussman, CEO, Sentinel Strategy and Policy Consulting
  • Frank Landefeld, Managing Director & Public Sector Market Leader, MorganFranklin Consulting
  • Suzanne Liscouski, Vice President, NCI, Inc.
  • Tim May, Chief Marketing Officer, Salient CRGT
  • Dennis Murphy, PMP, President, ASM Concepts
  • Michael P. Stabolepszy, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, INTEGRITYOne Partners
  • Wayne Willis, Managing Partner, HWC
They join existing Steering Committee members Dr. Sheri Dougherty, president, DAI; Elaine Kapetanakis, CEO, Kapstone Technology; Lisa Martin, CEO, LeapFrog Solutions; Carolyn Muir, executive vice president, SE Solutions; Brian Nault, president, BlueWater Federal; Kathy Pherson, CEO, Pherson Associates; and Andrea Stone, CEO, Dynamic Pro, Inc.
“As a small business in homeland security we are thrilled with how GTSC provides a forum where small and mid-tier firms can forge trusted relationships to collectively pursue opportunities.  Nowhere is there such a strong voice with the attention and focus on the continuing success and extremely high ROI to member companies as at GTSC – we are excited to be part of an organization bringing the best of breed to our government partners,” added Michael Stabolepszy, co-founder and managing director, INTEGRITYOne Partners.
“I am honored to have had the privilege not only to serve the first two secretaries of DHS, but also now to assist GTSC in defining their strategic path forward in engaging DHS in productive industry dialogue.  Their work on behalf of mid-tier companies is unique and extremely relevant in today’s market,” said Suzanne Petrie Liscouski, vice president, federal civilian agencies, NCI, Inc.
GTSC works on behalf of its members with the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, State, Justice, Treasury, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Founding Strategic Advisor Michelle Mrdeza on GTSC’s Accomplishments

During our March Membership Madness promotion we asked a number of our Strategic Advisors to share with our community why they joined, how they see us impacting the homeland and national security agenda, and what the ROI for joining the Coalition is for small, mid, and large companies.  In our latest video, Michelle Mrdeza, one of the most respected homeland security professionals in Washington, D.C. discusses the Coalition’s role in educating members of Congress, their staff, and our Federal partners.  Michelle has more than twenty-three years in public service on Capitol Hill and the Executive Branch, including four years as Majority Staff Director of the House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Homeland Security.  At Cornerstone, Michelle contributes to the firm’s homeland security practice group.

See the video here.

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.

Part II: Implementing Agile at USCIS

PART II

In part II of our interview with Josh Seckel, Sara Kindsfater-Yerkes, Chair of the GTSC Business Development Exchange, was able to sit down with USCIS’ Chief of the Applied Technology Division (ATD) to discuss the agile transformation at U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Among ATD’s chief responsibilities are driving the adoption of agile across the USCIS enterprise, brought about in part by providing agile coaching services – experts across the technical, process and organizational change domains who help clients shift their culture and mindset to lean/agile thinking. This is a sea change in Federal IT – moving away from the lengthy, and staged waterfall methods to continuous activities for developing software. By doing them continuously quality improves because testing starts day one, visibility improves through collaboration and increased visibility, and risk is reduced through continuous feedback and prioritization of work.  

GTSC: You’ve been through some of the best agile coaching training out there – for those who aren’t coaches what does “being a good mirror” mean?

Josh: Yes. They are able to point out to the team what is engrained that they are doing and can’t see for themselves, and get them to question, “is there a better way” versus accepting “we’ve always done it this way”. That takes a special relationship – one built on trust, honesty but without being a snitch, not judging but helping and not being oversight.

GTSC: So how are coaches typically different than scrum masters?

Josh: Again, really good scrum masters can be agile coaches, as long as they’ve had experience helping teams grow and get better. It’s a really small number of people that can do that though – be scrum masters AND agile coaches. Biggest differences between scrum masters and agile coaches is their area of engagement – scrum masters focus on team, coaches focus on project or program, and multiple teams of developers, scrum masters and stakeholders. At USCIS we have agile coaches that focus on divisions and entire portfolios of systems.

GTSC: This is somewhat self-serving given my background but how is agile driving culture change in the government?

Josh: Agile is helping the government breakdown silos, slowly. People are talking – maybe not collaborating to the fullest extent but we’re realizing why it’s important to talk to other parts of the organization. Within USCIS the IT people are engaging the business side more than they used to. Speed is also a big driver of change – there’s a new expectation for delivery on the order of months not years. The pace of change in government is increasing – I know it’s been that way in industry – but in government we are really pushing to think about what comes next. Agile is also changing the way we think about quality – we’ve got to deliver quicker, with less resources and keep focused on quality while maintaining that pace. Next, we’ve got to focus on understanding MVP (minimum viable product) on the business side – that’s coming.

GTSC: It’s a consistent pain point – how do you procure agile services?  

Josh: We’ve got to focus on agile acquisition, not acquisition for agile. What I mean is we need look at what we need to change in the acquisition process. We’ve also got to keep contractual requirements in contracts and leave business requirements out of them. Come to Agile 2016 to hear me talk about this – I have a lot to say on this topic!

GTSC:  As you know, GTSC’s “tag line” is, It’s All About Mission.  How do you think agile impacts the mission of USCIS? 

Josh:  Agile impacts the mission of USCIS by providing more immediate responses to changes in direction, both large and small.  When the executive order for Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) came down, we were able to start working on the changes much faster than history would indicate.  And when the court stayed the order, we were able to switch back very rapidly as well.  Or on the small level, we are fixing and changing items on a rapid basis because of user feedback. This enables the officers to be much more responsive to the applicants rather than having to deal with a long wait and many work arounds.

GTSC: So last question, how do we work together (government and industry) to continue to bring things like agile, to the government to improve government?

Josh: Neither can do it alone – agile, devops, etc. – it has to be a partnership. We’re going to put out RFPs for agile delivery, and we’re going to expect that those bidding can do things like test driven development (TDD). If companies bidding don’t have the skills they won’t win. It’s a different world. Companies need to keep the skills of their teams up to date and growing; we’ve all got to focus on the work and the mission.

JOIN US to hear Josh in person discussing best practices in agile at USCIS, March 10, 2016.  REGISTER here.

Sara Kindsfater Yerkes


Sara Kindsfater-Yerkes
, leader of GTSC’s DHS Business Development Exchange and member since 2012, is an Organizational Change Strategist with expertise in guiding large-scale transformations, Sara is passionate about helping individuals and teams to become high performing and creating cultures in which all can thrive. She currently supports Josh and USCIS in the cultural adoption of lean/agile practices.

Part I: Implementing Agile at USCIS with Josh Seckel, Chief, ATD, USCIS

We’ve also got to create a culture of partnership. We recognize companies are in business to make money, but we’ve got to create alignment towards a bigger purpose – like changing the way federal IT works.

Sara Kindsfater-Yerkes, Chair of the GTSC Business Development Exchange, was able to sit down with Josh Seckel, Chief of the Applied Technology Division (ATD) at USCIS. In this two-part interview, they discuss the agile transformation at U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Among ATD’s chief responsibilities are driving the adoption of agile across the USCIS enterprise, brought about in part by providing agile coaching services – experts across the technical, process and organizational change domains who help clients shift their culture and mindset to lean/agile thinking. This is a sea change in Federal IT – moving away from the lengthy, and staged waterfall methods to continuous activities for developing software. By doing them continuously quality improves because testing starts day one, visibility improves through collaboration and increased visibility, and risk is reduced through continuous feedback and prioritization of work.  

GTSC: So Josh, we’ve known each other for a while now, but I’d like to give people insight into your background. Where should we start?

Josh: Where to start? So the dinosaurs roamed. No, just kidding! The short version is that after getting my Computer Science degree I went to work for IBM and got to participate in all aspects of the software development process – but come 2001 I was still programming in Cobol. I decided to go back to school and get my MBA which obviously taught be a great deal about the business-side of organizations. I get accounting, P&L, all that good stuff. After that, I came to DC and worked for a few federal contractors, which gave me the experience to support programs with the United States Marine Corps, the Joint Strike Fighter, the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office where I was part of a team introducing agile concepts and then to the Homeland Security Information Network coaching on agile. Then I came to USCIS, as a government employee. I’ve been around DHS since it’s inception and working with agile concepts like rapid application development before agile became mainstream.

GTSC: What has your role been at USCIS?

Josh: I came to USCIS to help CIO Mark Schwartz advise the organization on the adoption of agile and to be a federal coaching leading contractor coaches.

GTSC: What made the job as a “Govie” appealing to you?

Josh: The ability to say “yes” enticed me. I’d worked as a contractor and was told “great idea, but no” and wanted to listen to great ideas from both government and industry and be able to say “yes – let’s try that.” I also wanted the opportunity to really execute on this idea of agile adoption and improving federal IT more fully.

GTSC: You’ve been very mission focused from that perspective. Very cool. Your response made me think, and this a bit tangential, about the fed/contractor relationship. How do we change and improve that dynamic?

Josh: Good question. The government needs to do its part – we need to improve federal employee education and what I mean by that is putting someone in charge of overseeing an agile program with skills and experience in agile. We hire contractors because they have specific expertise that we don’t, but then we get unfriendly because they know things we don’t. The flipside of that is the perceptions that contractors think the government employees don’t know anything and that too causes tension.

GTSC: It’s definitely a vicious cycle that we’ve got to collectively break. There’s nothing more gratifying as a consultant then to work with a customer who needs your expertise and allows you to work with them to solve real problems.

Josh: Yes, so we’ve also got to create a culture of partnership. We recognize companies are in business to make money, but we’ve got to create alignment towards a bigger purpose – like changing the way federal IT works.

GTSC: You’ve been spearheading agile coaching internally at USCIS, what’s the value agile coaches provide? How are they different from Scrum Masters?

Josh: Well, I would start by saying that they don’t necessarily have to be different then scrum masters; really good, experienced scrum masters can be coaches. Agile coaches provide knowledge on how to do this new thing through their experiences not a 2-day course. Good coaches offer a broader perspective and are a good mirror – they are a reflection of the team back to itself, an objective 3rd party reflection. And they not only coach the development team, they coach management too.

STAY TUNED to next week when Sara and Josh discuss being a good “mirror,” coaches versus scrum masters, and how agile is driving culture change in the government.

Sara Kindsfater YerkesSara Kindsfater-Yerkes, leader of GTSC’s DHS Business Development Exchange and member since 2012, is an Organizational Change Strategist with expertise in guiding large-scale transformations, Sara is passionate about helping individuals and teams to become high performing and creating cultures in which all can thrive. She currently supports Josh and USCIS in the cultural adoption of lean/agile practices.