Top 100: HP focuses on matching solutions, customers

Hewlett-Packard Co. faced several critical recompetes last year, including the $5 billion Navy NGEN contract. Its success rate has public sector leader Marilyn Crouther feeling confident as the market moves forward.

Last year, Hewlett-Packard Co. faced as a big of a recompete as any company could possibly imagine: the follow-on to the Navy Marine Corps Intranet contract.

Worth $5 billion, the contract now known as the Navy Next Generation Enterprise Network, or NGEN, had an added wrinkle from its predecessor NMCI. This time around, the contract was being competed as a lowest price, technically acceptable contract.

More Top 100

Our Top 100 coverage contains more analysis and profiles of the leading companies as well as access to a sortable database of the top companies in the market.

HP faced off against a team led by Computer Sciences Corp. and Harris Corp and won, and then survived a round a bid protests.

While its scale as an LPTA contract is huge, the contract reflects the current state of the federal market and reinforces a reality that HP has embraced under its public sector leader, Marilyn Crouther.

“In the public sector today with the frequency of recompetes, you really need to manage costs and make that part of your culture and the fabric of how you do business,” said Crouther, SVP and general manager, HP Enterprise Services public sector.

But cost isn’t just about low price for HP, No. 6 on the Top 100 with $4.1 billion in prime contracts. It’s about bringing innovation that solves customer problems.

Whether it is NGEN or other contracts, the business environment today requires that “we work with our clients constantly on how to spend less and be more efficient,” she said.

A big part of that is helping customers shift from a traditional style of consuming IT to a new style that is more consumption based, Crouther said.

“A lot of public sector clients have aging infrastructure that they’d like to move to the cloud, and we are helping them detail out a transformation agenda and develop an IT road map,” she said. “That’s where we can add a lot of value.”

While HP didn’t undergo a major restructuring or reshaping of its business, it has put an emphasis on leading with solutions.

“We’ve aligned our CTOs to our market facing teams,” Crouther said. “It’s not a big change in terms of organization, but it’s a big change in prioritization and focus and how to bring innovation that is effective from a cost perspective.”

In addition to the move to the cloud, HP is also focused on solutions around Health IT, mobility, data analytics and security, she said.

“We have practice areas around all of those, but it isn’t because they are industry buzzwords, but because as we move to a new style of IT, those are the technologies that enable more productive workforce and a better use of funding,” Crouther said.

It’s important to make a focus on innovation and affordability a part of a company’s culture, she said.

Innovation has to come from the ground up. “ A lot of the things we’ve done started as small ideas that people saw in their workplace that would make their life easier and deliver faster to the customer,” she said.

The company has what she called a “service delivery excellence review” to look at new ideas for solutions and processes and leverage them across different clients, Crouther said.

HP has also benefit from greater acceptance of commercial technologies and practices in the government.

“With severe budget constraints, there is more inclination to share lessons learned and leverage best practices, Crouther said.

The focus has to be on delighting the customer, she said, but the challenge is what is required to delight the customer changes.

“You have to make sure their constituency, their end user, is better served, but it changes because there is an expectation of continuous improvement, so you need to be able to respond quickly,” she said.

Crouther points to several successful contract awards in addition to the NGEN win as evidence that the company has the trust of its customers. These include wins such as the Homeland Security Department’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation contract for cybersecurity services. The company has won the first task order under the contract for $32.4 million task to supply security product licenses.

HP also won work with the Defense Manpower Data Center and Veterans Affairs. The VA contract is worth $543 million and is for an integrated real time asset location system.

One thing that is significant about both contracts is that they are with existing customers.

“It is important to win all our recompetes so that customers continue to have confidence in use,” Crouther said. “Winning a recompete is the highest compliment.”

NEXT STORY: Five lose OASIS bid protest fight

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.