Project 38: The Future Of Federal Contracting

Lumen Technologies' corporate mission is to help enterprise organizations capitalize on the convergence of digital, physical and bio technologies commonly called the "Fourth Industrial Revolution."What that means for federal and public sector customers is a pillar of this episode featuring our Ross Wilkers' interview with Zain Ahmed, senior vice president of Lumen's public sector business.Ahmed explains how company no. 31 our 2022 Top 100 rankings strives to ensure that agencies are not overwhelmed by their adoption and modernization journeys.The discussion agenda also includes where things stand today on agencies' transitions to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract, which was awarded five years ago and is intended as the government's main vehicle for modernizing their networks.

Parsons Corp. was born an engineering company in 1944 and remains such today in a world vastly different than the one it started in.Company number 39 on our 2022 Top 100 rankings is also equally a software business in both its government and infrastructure markets as told to us by Peter Torrellas, president of the company's connected communities business.Our senior reporter Ross Wilkers spoke to Torrellas in conjunction with Parsons' official unveiling of a new solution set and delivery model, which helps explain where the company is going and how it sees markets as becoming converged.Regarding that word "converged" -- do any lines exist anymore between what is digital and what is physical? Wilkers asks that question too and Torrellas answered. 

Change is a prevalent theme among Top 100 companies as they constantly adapt to customer needs, technology trends and competitive pressures.The focus of this Project 38 episode is NCI Information Systems' rebrand and relaunch as Empower AI 33 years after its founding -- a story that should resonate across the market.CEO Paul Dillahay explains to Editor Nick Wakeman how that change was years in the making and is much more than just swapping out one name for another. It’s also not just about picking a strategy and sticking to it, but letting all of that transform a company.

Hot technologies come and go, but building person-to-person relationships is ultimately what drives success.Marketing experts Mark Amtower and Sheri Ascencio share the story of their mentor-protégé relationship with Editor Nick Wakeman. While Amtower is the mentor, they describe a relationship where the value flows in both directions.Their bottom-line advice is that everyone needs a mentor and everyone eventually should look to be a mentor. No one succeeds alone.

Private equity in the government market is a two-way street in that many companies are looking for a investment partner to resource them, the latter of which also is looking for a business opportunity.For this episode of Project 38, Sagewind Capital's founding partner Steve Lefkowitz and managing partner Raj Kanodia take our Ross Wilkers behind the scenes of how their private equity firm works with contractors to build and grow.The conversation naturally turns to how the search for acquisitions goes for Sagewind's portfolio companies: Axient, By Light, Federal Advisory Partners, Gcom and Sigma Defense Systems.But in a portfolio company is also step one in many ways, so Lefkowitz and Kanodia also explain how Sagewind works with businesses on organic growth and infrastructure they need to succeed.

DeEtte Gray, president of CACI International’s business and information technology solutions sector, counts herself lucky because she had role models ahead of her. But more work remains to be done even though female leaders have come a long way.For this episode of Project 38, Gray explains to Editor Nick Wakeman how she acts as role model and coach to others . She shares her best advice for future female executives -- take on challenges, be courageous, be confident and be prepared.

As president of CACI International’s business and information technology solutions segment, DeEtte Gray is responsible for delivering enterprise expertise and enterprise technology to CACI's customers. Her sector will account for about 45 percent of the company’s $6.2 billion in expected 2022 revenue.That’s a huge piece of business to keep on a growth trajectory and in this episode of Project 38, she describes to Editor Nick Wakeman her strategy and how she keeps the business focused and pushing forward.This includes her philosophy for picking contracts to pursue and building the capabilities that will differentiate CACI from competitors. The last thing she wants is to be in price shoot-out. Instead, she focuses on timing, competition, and CACI’s discriminators. And of course, you have to have the right answer to the question, “Why hire us?”

A shortlist of today's stressors on the federal technology ecosystem include not enough high-quality computer chips to go around and other supply chain shortages, which are taking place amid the digital transformation push inside government.But as part of this Project 38 episode, World Wide Technology's public sector leader Bryan Thomas tells our Ross Wilkers that commercial enterprises are going through much of the same dynamics as government agencies.The main difference is found in the tools and methods businesses have to navigate those challenges, which Thomas points to as a matter mostly of policy and buying practices within government.He also triangulates how technology, talent and investments relate to one another with the goal of both bringing government IT systems into the modern age and bringing more workers into the public sector ecosystem.

Finding one’s niche in the vast and sometimes opaque world of artificial intelligence is a daunting task for many businesses amid the ongoing AI hype cycle.In this episode of Project 38, SparkCognition’s government leader Logan Jones explains to our Ross Wilkers the company’s self-touted “full-spectrum AI” strategy and how they are working to map it with what the Defense Department is trying to achieve in AI.AI is a means to the end as Jones sees it, rather than being the end, so the conversation gets into technologies intended to feed into the larger solution.Check out these articles from WT and its partner publications for more background:SparkCognition's government shop names lead execDOD Debuts Office to Help It 'Move Faster' on Artificial IntelligencePentagon adds new top AI roleDOD's AI portfolio skews toward research, GAO reports

Putting widely held beliefs to the test and challenging each other is a necessary exercise for any team to succeed and stay on that path of success.For this episode of Project 38, FedSavvy Strategies’ leader Bring Lindholm breaks down to our Ross Wilkers how he sees businesses in the government market repeatedly falling into the same patterns of decision-making when it comes to their pursuits.Lindholm and his FedSavvy teammates recently dove deep into some common misconceptions they run into with their Deadly Sins in Proposals series and this opinion article written for us -- Can you spot your Achilles' heel in your next pursuit?As Lindholm sees it, arming one’s company with information and deeper understanding translates to being smarter in how they spend their dollars. This episode is intended as a roadmap for how to get there.

Maggie Hallbach was nearly 18 months into her time at Verizon’s federal unit when she got the call to lead the telecommunications giant’s entire public sector portfolio.For this episode of Project 38, Hallbach describes to our Ross Wilkers how she leans on experienced gained in a previous role at Verizon’s state and local government business and other key agenda items since her promotion in February.One of Hallbach’s main priorities will be Verizon’s growth and execution on the so-called “EIS” contract vehicle for network modernization solutions. Where agencies are on their modernization path is a mixed bag however and Hallbach sheds light into Verizon’s conversations with customers on that front.Taking what Verizon does on the 5G front in consumer markets into the federal environment is always top of mind for whomever leads public sector, so Hallbach shares her perspective on that leg of the company's continued strategy focused on being the "indispensable partner."

Several factors are driving today’s record-setting pace of merger-and-acquisition pace such as access to capital, highly valued public companies, and increasing numbers of private equity firms.But Kate Troendle and Marc Marlin of the investment bank KippsDeSanto also see the government market as maturing and getting more sophisticated, as they explain in this interview with editor Nick Wakeman.Today’s environment sees a broader range of transactions beyond the traditional one company buying another variety. Small companies are buying others just like them, while other deals just focus on specific contract vehicle positions. Larger companies are divesting so they can shape and hone their portfolios.Troendle and Marlin also see the momentum continuing in 2022 and even if the volume pulls back a bit, they believe the M&A landscape will remain substantial and robust.

One power of mergers and acquisitions is the way they can transform business and suddenly give a presence with added customers and capabilities.For Gunnison Consulting, closing three transactions over less than 18 months has pushed the company from its status as a small business to solidly in the middle tier. In this conversation between Gunnison CEO Gil Dussek and Editor Nick Wakeman, we hear about that journey and how it is just a beginning for the company.Gunnison nearly doubled in size through its most recent purchase of Centerpoint, which brought the acquirer more full-and-open business and a new governmentwide contract vehicle.Dussek shares the company’s strategy and how he sees the federal market changing.

The reality of operating in the government market is that organic growth is both hard to achieve and sustain, which explains much of the merger-and-acquisition activity that never ends.But why is it so hard to begin with? That is the launch pad of this latest episode on federal market M&A that sees our Ross Wilkers interview Stephanie Johnson, government contracting senior analyst and valuation services director at RSM.Johnson’s dual-hatted role at the professional services firm positions her as both an informed watcher of the overall market and practitioner who deciphers what drives true value in a government contractor.Much of this conversation between Wilkers and Johnson sees her illuminate some myths about valuation that have a degree of truth to them but are not always what they seem on the surface, as well as how companies should think about the notion of their future scale and not just today’s.

With two deals in 2021 and another deal already in the works for 2022, Booz Allen Hamilton has shed its reputation as a reluctant acquirer. In fact, the company has closed eight deals since 2014, but in the recent years, the deals have become larger and more frequent.But don’t call Booz Allen a consolidator. As Matt Calderone explains to Editor Nick Wakeman in this episode of Project 38, Booz Allen’s deals aren’t about adding scale, but there is a focus on capabilities and customers and adding companies that can accelerate Booz Allen’s growth.

Cracking the code of the federal market is a dual exercise of first learning the extensive rules of the road and then finding what works in achieving business success.In this episode of Project 38, Mike Sanders, founder and CEO of small business contractor Interactive Government Holdings shares his roadmap and playbook with our Ross Wilkers.It is true that some of the challenges to success in the federal market are unique for small businesses, but Sanders sees the sector’s biggest challenge as one that companies of all shapes and sizes share in along with their agency customers.Some of the are the same as well as Sanders sees a common goal: the market’s tent becoming more open and wider.

Predicting how the future will play out is a next-to-impossible art becoming even harder, but knowing the landscape and what is important in that landscape helps you prepared for the future.This episode of Project 38 looks at the megatrends in technology and talent that are poised to shape the public sector ecosystem in 2022 as outlined to our Ross Wilkers by Mike Canning, leader of Deloitte’s government and public services practice.At the end of each year, the entire Deloitte team contributes to the firm’s annual “Tech Trends” report that is their outlook on the most important technology areas and events to watch in the coming year.Both tech and talent are of course intertwined and it is people that is very front-of-mind for Canning, who also provided Wilkers some updates on an acquisition Deloitte closed near the end of 2021.

In this episode of Project 38, Maximus Federal President Teresa Weipert shares what is driving the business forward as it integrates two critical acquisitions and brings new solutions to customers.She discusses with Editor Nick Wakeman how a focus on better outcomes leads her strategy and that can mean improving technologies, processes or systems. Most often: it is some combination of all three.

Amy Gilliland runs a multibillion-dollar enterprise as president of General Dynamics IT and believes listening, mentorship and trust are all critical elements for GDIT's success.For this second in a two-part episode, Gilliland shares more with Editor Nick Wakeman on her approach expands on how the people part of the business is as important as any technology or service that a government contractor can provide to its customers.Gilliland talks about how she makes connections throughout her business and how what seem like small decisions add up to major impacts. She believes both professional and personal mentors are crucial no matter where anyone sits in an organization.

As president of General Dynamics IT, Amy Gilliland runs one of the federal market's largest technology services businesses. She also oversaw one of the biggest integration efforts when GD doubled its portfolio through the acquisition of CSRA in 2018.In this interview with Washington Technology Editor Nick Wakeman, she overviews the mechanisms put in place to combine the two businesses and how they laid the foundation for how the company responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Chief among those is a focus on people. They were important for the integration post-merger, but will be even more crucial for the long-term success of GDIT.Understanding technology and customer priorities are just “table stakes,” according to Gilliland. People are what differentiates a company from the field.