The day Lockheed Martin Corp. officially took over a flight services network for the Federal Aviation Administration, Joann Kansier's husband sent her flowers with a note that read, "To the little train that could."
Young entrepreneurs often ask Ernst Volgenau what type of company he set out to build when he founded SRA International Inc. on a shoestring budget more than 25 years ago, and if he's surprised by the outcome.
The sales channel is not a new concept. Makers of hardware and software products have long used multiple channels -- distributors, resellers and systems integrators -- to sell their products to government. But many of them are shifting even more of their sales to channel partners as a way to drive corporate growth.
When Washington Technology set out to write this issue's feature story, we envisioned an article that would examine new opportunities in the privacy arena for integrators and security specialists. Instead, we discovered the main point of concern today is not what can be done to protect privacy, but what should be done.
Washington Technology's annual ranking of the Top 100 federal prime contractors is known as the Big Dog issue. Here are two pieces of information that explain why:
The Department of Homeland Security's plan to combine nine major screening programs under one office makes sense on paper, but it's got a lot of contractors worried about what it means for programs.
March has barely begun, and already we're seeing a major shake-up in the telecommunications industry. SBC Communications wants to buy AT&T for $16 billion, while Verizon has offered $6.7 billion for MCI. Meanwhile, Qwest is still battling to wrest MCI from Verizon by increasing its offer to $8 billion.
When the first reports of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal identified a CACI International Inc. employee as involved in the abuse of Iraqi detainees, the company quickly was sucked into the uncontrollable vortex of controversy.
"It's eat or be eaten," said Russell Wright, Dimensions International Inc.'s chief executive officer, regarding his June 2004 decision to acquire Sentel Corp. The move doubled the size of his company to about $100 million. "We decided we weren't ready to be bought," he said.
By many accounts, the Registered Traveler program, which uses biometric identifiers to speed passengers through airports, has been a success. Federal officials are evaluating the pilot project, which is being tested at five airports, to decide whether to expand it to other airports.
"You can't do anything these days without a space connection," Air Force Gen. Lance Lord told industry executives at the Military Communications Conference 2004 this month. "If you're not in space, you're not in the race."
Virginia is embarking on a bold outsourcing plan, asking vendors to propose innovative contracting approaches, such as share-in savings, for enterprisewide outsourcing initiatives. Also new ? the state is letting interested contractors review each other's proposals before submitting their final offers.
As our Election 2004 special report makes clear, federal IT contractors have many good reasons to favor Republicans over Democrats with their campaign contributions.
