New research firm aims for government space

A new hired gun has come to town, but it wants to give customers the weapons to hunt for themselves.

MAP ROI Systems Inc. is a new market research firm that hopes to pry marketshare away from Federal Sources Inc. and Input Inc. by giving aspiring government contractors not only factual information about opportunities, but Web-based software tools to guide them through the procurement process.

The company introduced itself to the Washington area contracting community at the Greater Washington Government Contractors Awards dinner Oct. 16.

Chris Stahl, founder and chief executive officer of MAP ROI, said his team's decades of experience writing proposals and working with the boards of companies such as Lockheed Martin Corp. give its customers an advantage when entering the complex federal space. For instance, the company has compiled a database of existing proposals, from which customers can draw models to base their responses.

"If you've never built a quality control plan, you can go in and get 100 quality control plans to work from," Stahl said.

Through one of its seven product centers, MAP ROI also provides collaborative materials that will aid large contractors working on big contracts with many subcontractors, he said.

The government is looking to increase the level of participation of minority, 8(a) and small businesses, Stahl said, but it pushing the management of those many smaller firms back on the big contractors.

"A company could buy a block of [enterprise] licenses ? and give away seats," he said. "It's a resource to help them manage that process, [and] for the first time they can be confident the small business can get the proposal out in time with the caliber of sophistication and quality."

In addition to the federal government, MAP ROI will be tracking contract opportunities at the state and local level, and internationally. The company has 27 employees in its Sterling, Va., headquarters, an operation with seven employees in the Philippines and a sales presence in Guam, Stahl said.

The software suite at the heart of MAP ROI has been in development for more than two years, Stahl said. Before starting up this new company, he worked as a senior consultant in the government procurement process for such firms as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Corp., Raytheon Co., Williams Telecommunications and Bell Labs, building expertise in business development, capture strategy and technology, and an overall understanding of federal government procurement reform and regulations.