Prove your worth as a partner

Partnership has been the centralethos for Ace Info Solutions Inc.since Jay Challa founded the businessin his basement in 2001.The first few months were tough asChalla and Nar Koppula hammered out abusiness plan. Challa took on the task ofgetting the company started, whileKoppula continued to work for anothercompany until Ace Info was off the ground."We had the vision and the goal but noclients," Koppula said.That changed after they met executivesat Employment Enterprises Inc., a humanresources support company that was havingtrouble generating financial and budgetreports. Challa and Koppula offered todo a free one-week analysis, and if thecompany liked the analysis, it would hireAce Info.The strategy worked. EmploymentEnterprises hired them, and they are stillclients seven years later, despite never signinga contract. They were hired and continuedworking for the company with onlya handshake agreement.The element of trust between Ace Infoand its partners and clients has been a criticalelement of the company's success,Challa said.Today, the Reston, Va., company isranked No. 13 on Washington Technology'sFast 50 list of the fastest growing smallbusinesses with $14 million in 2007 revenueand a five-yearcompoundannual growthrate of 125.69percent. Thecompany focuseson providing softwareengineering,infrastructure andnetwork security, program management,program and administrative support, andsecurity support services.One of Ace Info's early partners was CGIFederal, with which it worked on anEnvironmental Protection Agency contract.To win over CGI, "we analyzed therequest for proposals and explained tothem how we could win," Challa said. "Wetold them, 'This is our solution, and weshould have this rate. We need these certifications.The proposal should includethese things.' And after an hour and a half,they were convinced."To form its partnership with ManTechInternational Corp., Ace Info showed howthe partnership was beneficial for both.The companies they have worked togetheron Transportation Security Administrationand Defense Department contracts. For TSA, Ace Info is the prime contractor andbrought in ManTech for its experiencewith adjudication systems. For the DODcontract, ManTech recognized Ace Info'scorporate skills and was willing to help thecompany gain experience with DOD,which it didn't have."It has to be a mutually beneficial relationship,"Challa said. "We can never goand talk to a company and say, 'Give us apiece of work because we are qualified.'That doesn't work. We have to explain whyit is beneficial for them and why it is beneficialfor us."