Top 100: Tech changes feed Verizon's move beyond tradition

As technology needs change, so must the companies delivering those technologies. Verizon Enterprise Solutions, one of the largest government contractors, is no exception.

In the last several years, the company has expanded beyond a traditional network provider, said Michael Maiorana, who became senior vice president of public sector markets at Verizon Enterprise Solutions in 2013.

“We’re no longer simply a network company providing connections. We have a plethora of services that we’ve developed internally or, through acquisition, brought into the Verizon portfolio,” said Maiorana, who has worked at Verizon since 1990.

Throughout 2014, the company saw growth as agencies adopted Verizon’s wireless service, LTE phones and laptops, and connectivity. Verizon is providing the government with advanced communications and more hosted unified collaboration solutions. In addition, Verizon’s global IP network is providing high-capacity data connectivity as the government demands more bandwidth.

The company ranks at No. 11 on 2015 Washington Technology Top 100 with $2 billion in prime contracts.

Cybersecurity has become an important part of the company’s services too.

“The multiple threats that face government agencies are increasing exponentially, and we’ve got programs to help the government prepare for, identify and respond to cyber incidents,” he said.

Cloud computing is another area that increased in business and will continue, Maiorana said.

Verizon was certified as a FedRAMP cloud provider in 2014. The certification means that Verizon’s cloud-computing platform meets the government’s cloud security standards. The certification will drive more business into the company’s enterprise cloud.

Along with IT, Verizon offers professional services to agencies.

“Basically, every federal agency does business with Verizon in one way or another, and our No. 1 priority has always been delivering excellence on the business we’ve already sold and implementing it,” Maiorana said.

Verizon has also invested more resources in channels by expanding its Verizon Partner Program. Alex Hart, who formerly held senior leadership roles at VMware and Symantec, will lead the channel program. The program allows Verizon’s partners—oftentimes small firms—to offer the company’s cloud, mobility, Internet of things, advanced communications and intelligent networking solutions to potential government customers.

For example, the program can help IT resellers track current public sector opportunities and explore solicitations, enabling them with the right resources to win and then keep business.

In the last few years, the company focused on making its services more readily available by getting onto multiple contracts—another change, according to Maiorana.

Verizon recently announced that Enterprise Cloud: Federal Edition, its FedRAMP-certified cloud-computing platform for the public sector, is available on Washington Interagency Telecommunications System 3, or WITS 3, and on Networx Universal and Enterprise.

Network Services 2020—the next iteration of Networx—with the Enterprise Infrastructure Solution (EIS) contract is around the corner, and Maiorana said the services the governmentwide acquisition contract will offer “plays right into our hand.”

NS2020 is bringing an expansion of services compared to Networx. Networx was first a network-based contract vehicle, but NS2020 and EIS offers many more areas of service. Verizon has a team of professionals eagerly awaiting to jump into the details of the final RFP when it is released later this year.

Over the past several years, the federal market has faced its share of difficulties and turbulence. These forces pushed companies to rethink how they operate and redefine what they provide to their customer agencies. Verizon has made it through the rough market because of its diversity of services across multiple sectors and its partnerships with other companies.

“Why does Verizon think things are going good? Because we’ve got such an arsenal of services to bring to bear and leverage to help agencies carry out their missions,” Maiorana said. “We’re not just sitting on one or two things to sell to the government.”