Project 38: The Future Of Federal Contracting

Noblis' goal is to be at the intersections of research, science and technology for federal agencies as they think beyond just adopting "what's next."For this episode, Noblis' chief executive Mile Corrigan explains how company No. 76 on our 2023 Top 100 is carrying out the seven-year blueprint for itself that the team calls "Vision 2030."Vision 2030 at its core is all about aligning everything inside Noblis to those common goals, including its many teams of employees and how Noblis recruits the people for them. Corrigan describes to our Ross Wilkers how Noblis focuses on both how new hires get onboarded and the experiences prospective candidates have when applying to join the firm, including so-called "boomerang hires."Corrigan also updates Wilkers on the continuing shift in Noblis' delivery model they went over on this podcast nearly two years ago, where the firm finds itself writing "more code than papers."

Edition number 30 of the Washington Technology Top 100 rankings is now live for all to use as a resource for more than just the numbers behind the federal market's largest technology and services contractors.This latest episode of WT 360's Info Session series has our Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers do some talking about some of the numbers, including those that do not jump off the page. But the majority of their chat is about what the Top 100 tells us about what directions these government contractors are going in and that of the market.One company of particular interest to everyone in the market is No. 9 Peraton, whose CEO Stu Shea sat down with Nick for an on-stage interview at WT's June 6 event to unveil the list. Nick summarizes his takeaways from that conversation, as does Ross from the perspective of an audience member.The upcoming CEO transition at Science Applications International Corp. is on the agenda for this episode as well.

Advent International's acquisition of Ultra Electronics in the summer of 2022 was one in a series of investments the private equity firm has made in defense and government contractors: $28 billion to be exact within the past three-and-a-half years.For this episode, we turn the lens on the Ultra Intelligence & Communications business unit by hearing from its president Jon Rucker on how that team contributes to the larger whole that is Ultra Electronics.Rucker is six months into this role in leading Ultra I&C, whose core product and service lines also include cybersecurity and electronic warfare. Where the business is looking to invest is a main focus of this conversation, as is how Ultra balances honoring its nearly 100-year brand amid the push into new markets.

ICF has a new organization in place that focuses on enabling technology innovation and its connection to service delivery across all of the firm's public and private sector markets.Joining WT 360 to take us through the team's mission and its place in ICF's overall strategy are Mark Lee and Kyle Tuberson, respectively chief technology executive and CTO at ICF.This is merely the latest in a series of moves by ICF to place itself further at the intersection of tech implementation, advisory and consulting work for government and commercial clients.As ICF sees things: the client demand landscape has similar themes no matter which market is of discussion. As Lee and Tuberson tell it to our Ross Wilkers: those with the job title of technologist and others more in the domain knowledge type of role all have equal importance.

AT&T is constantly looking for ways to bring its commercial networking and other technologies forward to government agencies.Our guest for this episode to go over that strategy is Zee Hussain -- president of public sector, FirstNet and healthcare at AT&T. He explains how the public sector team works to align itself with the goals and vision of the corporation at-large to be a world leader in technology and connectivity.Hussain also highlights both the investments AT&T has made in its core network and partnerships with other companies in the federal market to make both 5G and its augmenting capabilities a reality for agencies.What's next for the FirstNet public safety network AT&T has been building out since 2017? Hussain answers that question as well.

For this episode, Washington Technology's Ross Wilkers and Nick Wakeman give their initial reactions to Jacobs' plan to spinoff the company's government services business into an independent, publicly traded company.Jacobs had spent the past decade building that unit and creating a $4.4 billion-annual revenue entity with close to 16,000 employees. But Jacobs now sees itself going down a different path and believes Critical Mission Solutions is better off pursuing its own goals and vision as a standalone.All of that said: Jacobs has left the door open to different options for that business if they present themselves again, as the executive team stated to an audience of inquisitive investors.

A pair of big-ticket programs focused on health care for veterans, soldiers and their families is the focus of this newest WT 360 Info Session series of episodes that bring together reporters from across the GovExec media team.FCW's executive editor Adam Mazmanian and NextGov reporter Edward Graham join our Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers to update the current situation regarding the ongoing electronic health record integration programs at the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments.On the surface, both programs appear to be going on very different tracks. But nothing in the world of government technology at this scale we're talking about is simple.Mazmanian and Graham explain where both departments are looking to go with their EHR programs, how they got there and the roles of the companies involved in each. The common thread between them is in how both adopting variants of Oracle Cerner's electronic health record.Leidos is the lead contractor for DOD's EHR program with Oracle Cerner, Accenture, Henry Schein O

Vectrus and Vertex joined forces in the summer of 2022 to form what is now V2X -- a global government services provider roughly double in size to approximately 14,000 employees.For this episode, V2X's chief growth and client service officer Sue Deagle describes how the combined company is looking to build off that foundation and expand into new areas of the market.One significant leg of the corporate strategy is converged infrastructure, which V2X defines as integrating digital offerings into large physical assets with the end goal of creating smarter buildings including many military bases.V2X also has to be a scout for technologies and partners to make that converged infrastructure a reality. Deagle also explains how V2X thinks about technology and goes about identifying the right tools and partners for more than just an individual program.

Arcfield is a company whose name is slightly more than one year old, but also touts at least six decades of history behind it through the heritage of its former parent Peraton.How Arcfield has come to be and where it is looking to go is the focus of this episode featuring chief executive Kevin Kelly, who explains the systems engineering provider's overall thesis and approach with the backing of private equity firm Veritas Capital.Peraton and Arcfield both share Veritas as their owners but with a slightly different twist. Arcfield's strategy and execution is supported by on Veritas' Vantage Fund that focuses on mid-sized companies in the government technology landscape.Kelly describes how Arcfield identifies and decides on the right larger opportunities to pursue, plus how the company thinks about further acquisitions and his perspective on overall trends in the space and national security domains.

Military matters lead the agenda for this latest in WT 360's series of Info Session episodes that bring together reporters from across the GovExec media team with our own Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers.Lauren Williams and Marcus Weisgerber of our partner publication Defense One jump in to share what they heard and wrote about at Sea-Air-Space, a Navy-focused trade show and one of a handful of the defense industry's largest conventions. The topics there represent key areas of interest for government contractors.The group also goes over the impacts of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse and other banking sector difficulties on the industry. Also up for debate are the emerging cybersecurity rules and practices for companies and where L3Harris Technologies' acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne stands. The JADC2 networking construct also gets discussed and how the military is moving on its integration of commercial cloud computing.Click here and go to page three to see the Defense Department's rendering of the Joint All-Do

BigBear.ai spent much of 2022 undertaking a reset and restructuring effort, all with the goal of placing itself at the forefront of artificial intelligence adoption for its government and commercial customers.This episode covers what BigBear has done and where it wants to go as told by chief executive Mandy Long and Tony Barrett, president and general manager of the federal segment.BigBear is 15 months into its life as a publicly traded company, while Long joined in October 2022 as CEO. Long, Barrett and other BigBear leaders have since been at work explaining to investors the company's strategy and where it sees itself in the broader AI landscape.Also on the agenda for their interview with our Ross Wilkers: distilling fact from fiction in the world of AI, how BigBear works to keep its federal and commercial segments in sync, and how making AI a greater reality for federal agencies requires multiple companies.

Aeyon did not even call itself by that name when Sunny Singh joined the company as chief executive in the winter of 2018.Fast forward to 2023 and what is now Aeyon is pushing to be a leading integrator of robotic process automation and other similar technologies for federal agencies.In this episode, Singh joins the WT 360 conversation to explain why Aeyon decided to partner with the investment firm Enlightenment Capital in support of that ambition and what that backing has done for the company so far.Singh also gives our Ross Wilkers a glimpse at how Aeyon blends its integration and consulting roles, plus what federal buyers are looking for with respect to RPA and other technologies under the umbrella of automation.

One of the federal government's largest contracts for commercial products and services is in a paradox as the General Services Administration is taking it through a complex consolidation process.Noted GSA watcher and Schedule contract specialist Courtney Fairchild returns to WT 360 to provide an update on where the consolidation is now, next steps for companies to take and why they should view their actions as a series of business decisions versus purely administrative work.Fairchild's role as CEO of the proposal consultancy Global Services Inc. means she is continuously peppered with questions on what companies should do next in this third phase of the Multiple Award Schedule consolidation. Consider this episode a collection of "Frequently Asked Questions" on pitfalls to avoid.GSA's end goal for the consolidation is simplicity for agencies and companies alike. Simplicity should also drive contractors' actions in order to make the process straightforward for GSA employees, as Fairchild told our Ross Wilkers.F

Business matters lead the agenda for the latest of WT 360's Info Session episodes and in particular a chief executive transition at the government technology market's largest company.Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers review the tenure of Leidos' retiring CEO Roger Krone that started with his initial appointment in 2014. His first big move happened two years later through the merger with what was Lockheed Martin's IT services business, which laid the groundwork for what Leidos is today.What kind of company is the incoming CEO Thomas Bell going to arrive at on May 3, and what background does he bring? Wakeman and Wilkers go over that element of the transition as well.The WT team also attempts to get a handle on the endlessly troubled National Institutes of Health's CIO-SP4 IT contract vehicle, plus the Veterans Affairs Department's strong preference for speed regarding its T4NG2 vehicle, also for technology solutions.The merger-and-acquisition portion of this episode goes over these transactions: IBM's acquisition

This Government Accountability Office decision illustrates the challenges small businesses face when moving a technology or solution they developed during the first two phases of a Small Business Innovation Research grant to production in phase three.WT Editor Nick Wakeman sits down with attorney Stephen Bacon to discuss what and how GAO made its ruling, plus what it means for small businesses looking to move their SBIR solutions to the next level.Phase one and two SBIR awards are common, but a phase three award is not guaranteed. The onus is on companies to educate and convince a potential government customer about their SBIR product and how it meets that agency's needs.

Acquisition and procurement issues lead the agenda for this latest in WT 360's series of Info Session episodes that bring together reporters from across the GovExec media team with our own Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers.Courtney Buble of Government Executive and Chris Riotta of FCW join to share their initial reactions to President Biden's mention of "Buy American" supply chain initiatives during his State of the Union address, and new regulations and legislation regarding climate reporting and cybersecurity compliance.The panel also goes over the Defense Department's move to go its own way with respect to the use of best-in-class contracts that all federal agencies feel some pressure to lean on, plus the shared workforce problem across the entire public sector ecosystem highlighted by a key vacancy at the government's most senior level.

Jacobs was born in 1947 as a company whose mission was to help clients carry out large-scale programs and that remains its focus.In today's landscape, that means working with the customer base on how to tie data and technology into those efforts. For this episode of WT 360, Jacobs executive John Karabias explains what he calls the current "wave three" iteration of his company's strategy.Jacobs' vice president of strategy for its new divergent solutions operating unit takes our Ross Wilkers through the company's gameplan unveiled in the spring of 2022 and how it came together. Divergent Solutions is a key leg of that, given its mandate is to develop and roll out digital offerings across all of Jacobs' end markets in government and commercial.All throughout the conversation, Karabias harkens back to the company's origin story and shares how he sees much of what Joseph J. Jacobs started as still shaping the firm today.

Amentum as the market knows it today launched in early 2022 and has since been at work making and rolling out its strategy with the help of two large acquisitions.How and where the global government services company has focused itself is the subject of this episode, where Amentum CEO John Heller explains to our Ross Wilkers what they are up to now.This includes the identification and pursuit of opportunities in adjacent markets to extend beyond Amentum's core. Heller shares examples of those and how fast many of them are changing, including the energy market that Amentum views as part of national security.

What business and technology macrotrends are going to dominate the agendas of companies in the government market for 2023?This episode is all about answering that question in the form of a discussion featuring our Ross Wilkers and Stephanie Smith, government contracting industry senior analyst and valuation services director at the global professional services firm RSM.Analysts and reporters have similar jobs: take in information, find the larger narrative and context, then present their findings to the respective audiences.Smith does that at RSM to help its government contractor clients make informed decisions on strategies. Consider this conversation between Smith and Wilkers as an exchange of notes on what they have heard across the industry regarding what is important and gaining in prominence.

As the long-time executive chairman and CEO of CACI International, Jack London became a legend in the government market for his leadership and vision. He finished his new book "Ever Vigilant" before he died in January 2021. Two years later, the book has been published. His wife Jennifer put finishing touches on the manuscript. This episode features Editor Nick Wakeman's conversation with Jennifer about the meaning and lessons lessons from Jack's life and career when it comes to curiosity, persistence, vision and entrepreneurship."Ever Vigilant" is a business book, but is also a personal memoir featuring stories about Jack's childhood and family. He also explains some decisions he had to make during his career.