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Evans & Chambers is an 8(a) STAR!
Evans & Chambers has been awarded an 8(a) STARS II contract. The 8(a) STARS II Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) is designed to promote small businesses in the federal government by identifying small businesses that exhibit technical proficiency with competitive pricing. The 8(a) STARS II GWAC provides agencies with pre-competed, easy-to-use contracts, access to proven technology providers, a shortened procurement lead time, and 8(a) socioeconomic credit. For a small business like Evans & Chambers, the contract award opens doors for more opportunities within the federal government, and provides an opportunity to lead teams of subcontractors on federal projects, sparking company growth.
Information Sharing Needs Good Marketing
Corporate marketing professionals face challenges that parallel those of information sharing promoters in the US national defense community. A great product won’t sell without a strong marketing strategy. In the same way, information sharing initiatives can’t succeed unless the participants (customers) buy-in.
Deeplocal, an award-winning marketing firm servicing Fortune 500 companies, knows a little bit about sharing information with potential customers. As described on their web site, Deeplocal “builds interactive experiences that bridge the physical and digital worlds, generating emotional connections with consumers, earned media, and increased revenue.” The better a brand is able to connect with media and consumers on both the digital and physical planes, the more revenue the brand can expect to generate.
Information sharing benefits are well understood by many: reduction in redundant efforts such as monitoring and data analysis, faster innovation, improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of intelligence agents and analysts. The benefits are clear and the technology is here, yet we’re not seeing the results that we’d expect. Perhaps it’s failing because there’s no buy-in. Information sharing promoters can learn a lot from marketing firms like Deeplocal.
EC teams with Metters under DHS Mentor-Protege Program
Recently, Evans & Chambers announced its new mentor-protege relationship with Metters, Inc. under the Department of Homeland Security’s Mentor-Protege program. Metters is an experienced Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business providing a range of technical solutions to federal customers, including enterprise IT solutions. “This year, Metters celebrates its 30th anniversary. We can think of no better way to mark the occasion than by joining forces with a promising newcomer that shares our passion for technological transformation of the very most critical government missions,” said Santo LaTores, Metters COO.
Through the partnership, the Metters/EC team will develop innovative solutions and concepts to support the DHS mission – and our first task is developing a solution for using social network analysis to cultivate communities that are more resilient to disaster. Part of DHS’ success strategy is in strengthening our nation’s preparedness and emergency response capabilities, and social networking may be the next tool in disaster response. The Metters/E&C solution considers the ways in which social media might help civic leaders understand the first response community and their geographic relationships, identify underserved populations, plan for distribution of public services, enhance collaboration in resource planning, and guide economic recovery after a disaster.
We’ve Wowed Another Customer!
At Evans & Chambers, we measure our success by listening to customer feedback, so we were absolutely delighted last week when our Federal client presented our co-founder Jamil Evans with an award for his contributions in fostering improved integration and collaboration practices! Our client credits Jamil, as the lead developer and software architect on the project, with creating the foundation that would allow the agency to build upon its web service interfaces, standardize new development activities, reduce operations and maintenance costs, and increase the ease and accuracy of external applications that interface with enterprise data. In addition, Jamil authored a Web Services Standards document and Programmer’s Reference document, which allowed our customer to begin implementing and sharing best practices among agency teams.We’re so excited to share Jamil’s accomplishment! If you see Jamil on Twitter or LinkedIn, be sure and congratulate him on the job well done.
Can I Offer You a Job? And a Cupcake?
Recently, Evans & Chambers attended the ClearedJobs Job Fair and got to meet many new job candidates. We were so pleased at the way the event turned out!
A few weeks ago, we began planning for the fair, which included discussion of handouts. Most companies give away pens, or stress balls in addition to brochures and pamphlets containing information about the company. In a flash of pure genius, our recruiter, Debra, suggested we try a different approach – by giving away cupcakes! Everyone was delighted by the idea as we all imagined crowds of people swarming our booth for a taste of our delicious cupcakes and, of course, the possibility of leftovers!
We did quite a bit of research in selecting our giveaway cupcakes, exploring the local cupcakeries and their unique flavors and presentations. We wanted pretty cupcakes that had great taste reviews, with a recognizable name. We finally settled on Georgetown Cupcake, a very popular local establishment that also happens to have it’s own TV show on TLC – “DC Cupcakes.”
The day of the job fair arrived and we showed up with cupcakes in tow. We quickly created a buzz among other vendors, who came to our booth to meet us and get an eyeful of the sweet treats. Our cupcake display was quickly deemed the best among company giveaways.
When the doors opened and candidates started pouring in, we were suddenly very busy greeting, shaking hands, making connections, and offering cupcakes. We were surprised to find that many candidates declined a cupcake, while others came back for seconds. Some people even asked if they were real, thinking that they were for display. Everyone that tried a cupcake agreed that it was delicious! We’re pretty sure the cupcakes attracted at least a few people to our table that perhaps wouldn’t have approached us otherwise.
In the end, we felt that the cupcakes were a huge hit, and much to our delight we even had a few leftovers to enjoy. We got to meet some bright and interesting folks, and we even came away with quite a few resumes to match our available jobs. As we sift through the stack, we wonder: how do we top cupcakes for our next fair’s giveaway?
Where We’ve Been…and Where We’re Going
2009 was an exciting year for Evans & Chambers Technology. It was a year of continued high performance, growth, team building, giving, and positioning for the future.
Performance
This year, our core team played various roles to support the development of several secure, robust, and easy to use mission-critical web applications. Some of us wrote software code, managed teams and schedules, and conducted application testing and software deployment. We provided subject matter expertise to our customers in many areas including enterprise custom software development, web 2.0 concepts, project management, and information sharing in the Intelligence Community. Congratulations to all of the Evans & Chambers employees who received accolades from their respective customers in 2009.
This year our Recruiting team performed at its highest level yet. In a slow economy, the team added hundreds of cleared resumes to our application tracking system and interviewed a good percentage of them. We welcomed several new members to our team, and are positioned to welcome more in 2010.
Team building
At Evans & Chambers we like to have fun, which doesn’t seem too difficult for a company full of great personalities! Thanks to our CFO (Chief Fun Officer), we enjoyed several happy hours at new and exciting local area restaurants (Il Fornaio was my favorite), got a little competitive at the company picnic at Dulles Golf Park, and took an adventurous weekend retreat to Baltimore. That’s where we learned to sail in extremely low winds and watched the Orioles play at Camden yards. Then, as a way to thank our core and virtual teams, we enjoyed a night of good food and conversation at the annual holiday party at Panache Restaurant. It was a fun 2009, and we look forward to even more fun next year.
Giving
At Evans & Chambers, we strive to give back to our communities through charitable giving. This year we donated to the Liberty God Parent Home. This sponsorship enabled two young women living in Lynchburg, VA to reach their goals despite some difficult challenges life has thrown their way. The Liberty God Parent Home is an organization that provides life skills for teenage pregnancy through counseling, adoption services, and higher education opportunities.
Positioning for the future
We have put ourselves in a strong position for success in 2010. From a new business perspective, our Business Development team wrote and submitted a strong proposal for an important Government contract that will allow Evans & Chambers the opportunity to make the most of our 8(a) designation. Evans & Chambers has also joined several teams to bid on 5 large government procurement efforts in the coming year.
In addition to bidding on the competitive contracts above, we began executing plans to deliver new Information Sharing solutions for the Government that will allow local police departments to better “predict” where a criminal or terrorist event will occur. We also have plans to explore new opportunities within the commercial sector, including a project that would allow us to assist companies involved in litigation with the discovery process. At Evans & Chambers, we strive to provide above-average service and consultation and are excited to explore these and other opportunities.
As we say goodbye to 2009, we introduce a new theme for 2010: “Excellence through Execution.” That’s our reminder to be mindful that as a company or an individual contributor to a project, excellence is achieved not only through individual mastery of ones craft, sharp intelligence, or a motivated attitude. Excellence is realized when those collective strengths are put into action. Only then can we deliver results and make a positive impact.
Happy New Year!
Jamil Evans, President
Evans & Chambers Technology
Evans & Chambers is now an 8(a) company
That’s right. Evans & Chambers joined the 8(a) program in July of this year, after operating without it for over 5 years in the government contracting community. Occasionally I’m asked about the 8(a) program by prospective employees during interviews and business owners who are not in the government arena. To help better explain the 8(a) program and why you should be aware of it, I’ve written this quick primer.
From the SBA web site: “The SBA’s 8(a) BD Program, named for a section of the Small Business Act, is a business development program created to help small disadvantaged businesses compete in the American economy and access the federal procurement market.” A small disadvantaged business (SDB) is one whose revenues do not exceed $21.5 million per year(for our industry), owned by one or more socially or economically disadvantage individuals (Black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian Pacific, etc), owned by owners of good character, and able to demonstrate potential for success.
It’s not particularly easy to obtain. The applicant firm must have been operational for at least two full years, and show increasing operating revenues each year in the primary industry in which the applicant firm is seeking 8(a) program certification. The owners can also not be worth too much money. It makes sense: the SBA wants to know that the SDB has the ability to make use of the assistance they’ll provide, yet not owned by principles who can finance the business using their personal fortunes.
Even though we have successfully won contracts and built exemplary past performance based on our own merits, Evans & Chambers sees the 8(a) status as a means to solidify our position as a leader in the government contracting landscape. We can achieve this by utilizing these key benefits available solely to the 8(a) participants:
- Participants can receive sole-source contracts, up to a ceiling of $3 million for goods and services.
- Participants can bid on competitive acquisitions that are ‘set-aside’ for 8(a) and SDBs. Federal acquisition policies encourage Federal agencies to award a certain percentage of their contracts to 8(a) companies.
- To speed up the award process, the SBA has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with 25 Federal agencies allowing them to contract directly with certified 8(a) firms.
While the 8(a) designation is a big help, simply attaining our 8(a) status will not bring business like that movie Field of Dreams. Evans & Chambers must continue to emphasize what makes us unique, network constantly, and put in the hard work to market directly to the government in order to achieve that next level of success.
Hope that helps. If you have more questions, contact me or check out the 8(a) FAQ page on the SBA site.
A Bailout Plan for your Career
Gas prices, home foreclosures, bank failures, 700M bailout plan, what’s next? In uncertain times like these our emotions tell us to get out of the game. Buy high, sell low? On the contrary, finance expert Suze Orman is urging us to contribute more to our retirement plans and 401k’s (provided you’re not within a few years of retirement) because lower stock prices mean we can buy stock for less. Real estate mogul Donald Trump is emploring us to invest in real estate for the first time in 10 years! Buy low, sell high.
So, how does this relate to your career?
A recent blog by Seth Godin suggests that these uncertain times make for less competition for jobs and business opportunities. I agree. This is an opportunity to take your career to the next level. If you’ve been contemplating a jump from programmer to project manager, now might be a good time. You’ll probably face less competition. Why not help out with proposal and marketing efforts? Your efforts will be appreciated now more than ever because your company’s chances of winning the work is higher.
Join an exciting small business where you can capitalize on this rare opportunity to catapult your career.
Business Matchmaking and The Law of Attraction
If you’ve heard of the OSDBU Office of Small Disadvantaged Business Utilization) Procurement Conference, you won’t be surprised that my mind has been on the conference quite frequently. I’m confident of the positive impact the matchmaking events will have on our company. During these 15 minute sessions, we’ll sit face-to-face with reps of 3 different large government prime contractors. The purpose of the meetings is… well… to make a business match.
As Judy, our executive coach would say, my RAS (reticular activating system) has been set. The “Law of Attraction” went out and brought back two perfectly relevant magazine articles for me. My RAS tapped me on the shoulder and made sure I read them… figuratively speaking.
The first article was “Match Game”, by Mark Henricks. This article was published in the magazine “Winning Bids”, which I picked up at the local SBDC. The article gives a great overview of the OSDBU and other similar conferences with matchmaking events.
The second article, “The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint,” I ran across today in Entrepreneur magazine. Guy Kawasaki gives his rules for creating and delivering an effective Powerpoint presentation. For me, this article’s point of view is nothing revolutionary, but its reinforcement of timeless presentation do’s and don’ts. These articles couldn’t have found me at a better time. If you’re thinking of attending this conference, be sure to take a look at these articles.
