Know your strengths

James Partlow's move to Vangent Inc. lastyear was easy. He had been working for QwestCommunications Inc., the telecommunicationscompany, in the same Arlington, Va.,building that houses Vangent's headquarters.Taking the job as Vangent's director of procurementrequired only an elevator ride up afew floors. Now into the job for nearly a year,Partlow has expanded Vangent's use of smallbusinesspartners."Small companies need opportunities.They need to be on a program that lets themgrow, based on the opportunities we're pursuing,"he said.Vangent supplies systems integration andother services to defense and civilian agencies,with a focus on health care. Partlow'stask is to bring new partners to Vangent,which is owned by Veritas Capital Partners, aprivate equity investment firm. Veritasacquired Pearson Government Solutions lastFebruary and renamed it Vangent.The company is building a roster of small-businesspartners, recruiting woman-ownedand HUBzone companies in particular.Vangent has a database of 200 potentialpartners.Vangent's Web site, which features a list ofcurrent contracts, should be a potential partner'sfirst stop. Existing projects are detailedat the contract vehicles listings in thePartners section of the Web site, Partlow said.Many small businesses don't do theirhomework to find appropriate relationshipsthat match their skills."A lot of our contracts have definitiverequirements," he said, including insurance,security clearances and other factors.Resource requirements are specified insolicitations, which Partlow said is a goodway to avoid confusion on how the prospectivevendor is to operate.Among Vangent's recent small-businesspartners are New Governance Inc., a softwarepublisher in Bannockburn, Ill., that supportsVangent's Military Health Systems contract.Longview International Technology SolutionsInc., a Bethesda, Md., veteran-owned smallbusiness, focuses on network support andinfrastructure design. For a project for theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention,Vangent has teamed with Language LearningEnterprises, a woman-owned language translationand interpretation services company inWashington.Partlow and his eight-person staff rely onthe Central Contractor Registration and alsouse other industry resources to find smallbusinesses for specific projects. Project managerssometimes suggest partners they havedirected on other projects and recommendationsfrom people they meet at trade fairs."We search based on codes," he said, underscoringthe importance of potential partnersgiving complete information when they registerwith the CCR. Vangent looks for specificcharacteristics such as whether a small businessis a HUBzone and is in a certain geographicalarea.Although partners are usually selected inthe pre-bidding phase, the company still looksfor subcontractors after a contract award."We are very sensitive to needs," Partlowsaid. "If a subcontractor provides excellentservice and support, it would behoove us toutilize this organization again with anotheropportunity."