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Capturing Intelligence Contracts Poses Challenges to Small Businesses

Intelligence community agencies have many secrets and among them is how small firms can do business with them. Individuals with decades of experience in the intelligence community concur that small businesses have a lot to offer, but building a strong relationship with intelligence organizations requires hard work on both sides.

Small businesses need to know the agencies’ needs, but the community is reticent to share information for fear of revealing vulnerabilities. Small companies need customers who are willing to talk about their solutions publicly; however, the community must remain tight-lipped about the technologies they use. And, some projects require firms to partner with other companies, but some small businesses are reluctant to share information with other firms.

Experts in both small business and various intelligence agencies have some insights into this secretive world. They agree that a company must map out a strategy. Then, it must position itself to be able to work in the classified environment. A firm also must develop a business plan that does not rely on intelligence community business alone. Finally, it should determine if working with a large company or another small firm best positions it to provide the solutions the community needs.

Capt. Mark F. Greer, USN (Ret.), vice president, business solutions, McNeil Technologies Incorporated, contends that creating a solid business plan and conducting research to recognize the community’s requirements is crucial.

The captain relates that he has spoken with several small business owners who express the desire to work with the intelligence community because it is lucrative. However, many of these companies do not have former intelligence community employees on their staffs and have not done their research, he states.

"My point is that you’ve got to come with a little bit of something that differentiates you from someone else. That’s where the product guys are different [than service firms], because they have a really neat, unique patentable idea that no one else has and the government needs," Capt. Greer says.

Gwyn L. Whittaker, chief executive officer, Mosaic Incorporated, has experience in both the intelligence community and now as a small business owner. Her company specializes in hiring very experienced people in the intelligence community arena. The company has hosted meetings between people who are in different intelligence agencies and has introduced government off-the-shelf capabilities from one agency to another.

Whittaker believes that virtualization and cloud computing are two of the key needs of the intelligence community. These would enable personnel from different places to access the same data. While they can pose huge challenges in access and protection areas, the U.S. government needs to start taking advantage of these capabilities, she maintains.

Another community need that Whittaker’s team identified mirrors Capt. Greer’s call for faceted search and guided navigation of data. "How do you ask questions of the data in multiple ways so it provides you with different perspectives? How do you ask very detailed questions that are ad hoc and specific to your interests, and then receive the answers that are categorized around that?" Whittaker asks.

 Technologies and services that can assist the intelligence community with using new media and virtual worlds are among the top of its needs, she maintains, particularly with the number of digital natives that are beginning to fill the ranks of the communities’ agencies.

 Read an expanded version of this article in the June 2009 issue of SIGNAL Magazine, in the mail to AFCEA members and subscribers June 1, 2009. For more information about purchasing this issue, joining AFCEA or subscribing to SIGNAL, contact AFCEA Member Services.