Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Introducing the Insider
The Industry Defined
HUBZones: Anyone Can Play
Beyond Reproach: The Incumbent's Bind
Breaking Wave: Human Resources BPO
Cooperative Personnel Services: Differentiating Not a Problem
Adventures in Marketing
Policy & Regs: Can We Satisfy the Appetite for Cleared Personnel?
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Northrop Grumman IT won a three-way battle for a DHS contract worth as much as $175 million over three years to integrate, implement, and operate a human resources system that would standardize and ease the administrative management of 180,000 employees. The win surprised some companies and industry observers, as contender Booz Allen had some unique DHS understanding and robust federal HR qualifications and was considered in some quarters the team to beat. The Accenture/IBM team also had a lot going for it, but the win proved that pertinent past performance carried a heavy weight, as did a track record of success in large-scale systems jobs.
Not that anything is simple or safe in war-torn Iraq, contracting, even with the US government has become less certain with the turnover of sovereignty at the end of June, according to Washington lawyers who specialize in government contracting. Not only is the influence over US government contracts by the host government a cloudy issue, the posture of the US government toward existing contracts has become less clear. This article tells you why and has some practical advice.
For a pretty large industry, government services firms assume a rather low profile. Yet some firms pursue their individual quests for changes in policy, specific appropriations, and projects via paid lobbyists. The Senate is one important lobbying venue, and the Insider researched which firms with a large interest in information technology had registered lobbyists and what they spent lobbying in the most recent calendar year. You'll find that some very successful firms spend a little, and vice versa.
After many years as top staffer for an influential Republican senator, Jahn took the reins of the Contract Services Association of America a few months ago. The Insider stopped by CSA's offices to discuss the small-business share of the federal contract pie, the withdrawal of proposed SBA small-business size standards, and small-business lobbying.
This roundup summarizes the timing of a new set-aside program for women-owned businesses, new findings on competition at DoD and the IRS, DHS/TSA's pledge of support for small firms, and the green light for bundling of base operations contracts.
The past month turned out to be eventful for under-fire EDS. Some new modifications in its troubled Navy Marine Corps Intranet contract give hope that the company can still break into the black on this program, which continues to generate large losses. However, investors saw dividends slashed and the company's commercial paper rated "less than investment grade" ("junk" in Wall Street parlance) by Moody's.
Like many of their management consultants, federal managers and executives tend to like best practices a lot. But there's a pitfall in the way they are usually identified and presented, according to Jerker (pronounced "Yerker") Denrell, at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The problem centers on not giving failures ("worst practices"?) their due weight in evaluating what works and doesn't. Jerker says this "systematic undersampling of failure" tends to mislead decisionmakers and striving up-and-comers looking to adopt the best methods. This article summarizes Denrell's concept and suggests how to correct for the impediments that he's identified.
Alan Chvotkin of the Professional Services Council provides an update on these not-for-profits that garner about $7.5 billion per year in research, analysis, and program management. He identifies their progressive encroachment on market turf normally served by government services firms, including recent advances at DHS and an upcoming thrust at NASA. He suggests how you can try to protect your market share from an almost "invisible adversary."