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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Managers and executives of a certain age will remember the procurement scandals that stretched from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. They arose not in the services arena, but in the Defense hardware arena. Industry executives, companies, and government officials were convicted of a range of crimes in Operation Ill Wind, as the FBI called it.
The Insider asked: how have things changed since Ill Wind, and what can companies do to forestall misbehavior and procurement scandal? The question is timely because the Boeing affair(s), though, again, in the Defense hardware realm, have created some obvious anxiety in government services firms.
Responses to the above question come from representatives of the services and defense hardware industries, a noted defense attorney, a veteran ethics and business conduct practitioner in large corporations, and a government official. Their answers may surprise you. Their advice is action-ready.
In a relatively young industry without much history and few pioneers, AMS is one of the venerable brands in government services. Founded in 1970, it became a powerhouse in application systems and solutions with great depth in specific business functions, such as financial management.
However, it began stumbling a few years ago and became a takeover target. In mid-2004, CGI of Montreal, a strong and fast-growing outsourcing firm, bought most of AMS. The Insider talked with CGI-AMS president Donna Morea, who heads of all the merged company's business, both government and commercial, in the United States.
The article gives you a clear idea of the company's planned positioning in the federal market, growth expectations, and insight into how the merger is going.
In September, AT Kearney, a wholly owned EDS subsidiary since 1995, announced it was establishing a "government practice" to address public sector business with more focus than previously. Public sector work worldwide was about 10 % of the firm's business. Only a small portion of that has been federal.
The Insider interviewed a leader of the new practice, which he preferred to call an "industry focus" This was one of several signs that the move towards public sector work is a very modest initiative, as detailed in the interview. The article also explores the extent of parent EDS's involvement in Kearney business.
In addition, the Insider presents highlight from a large contract in Canada jointly won by EDS and AT Kearney to provide business process outsourcing for the Province of British Columbia. You'll be surprised about just how hard a bargain the client drove with EDS/Kearney.
Alan Chvotkin addresses how firms can begin to add internal know-how in the burgeoning activity of tracking federal government policies and regulations and actions that affect the government services industries and individual companies. He provides practical, experience-based advice on when to start a government relations function, where to put it in the organization, and how to staff it to support the business.
The Insider describes three separate inquiries and studies, triggered by the Druyun affair that are underway to identify evidence of wrongdoing.
In December SAIC sold off its Telcordia subsidiary, a large R&D organization formerly known as Bellcore. The Insider reviews the purpose of the acquisition and why, in the end, it was smart to sell it, even without much of a profit.