Client Spotlight - Avilar Technologies Inc, a Veteran Owned Small Business. At the dawn of the Internet era, Tom Grobicki, CEO of Avilar Technologies began envisioning a world with technological advances that would eventually propel the software industry and subsequently help the armed forces. After serving in the US Air Force and cultivating over 25 years of software development experience, Tom determined that the key to enterprise success was its people. After being in the ROTC and then serving as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force, Tom oversaw operations at the office of SYSCON Corporation, which provided software engineering support to the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. He regarded himself and his colleagues as futurists, which would accurately describe their efforts towards projects they worked on. While there, he interacted with the Department of Defense and other agencies. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Duke University and would later obtain his Master of Science in Business Administration from the University of Northern Colorado, as well as Master of Science degree in Computer Science from The Johns Hopkins University. He then joined AdaSoft, Inc. where he continued as a leader of several advanced technology assessment projects at the Applied Physics Laboratory. A true starting point was the innovations Tom developed for combat system training. From there, Tom ventured into competency management, workforce planning, and eLearning. Avilar Technologies was founded in 1997.

In observance of National Military Appreciation month as well as Memorial Day, Winvale is highlighting Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (VOSBs) and topics relevant to them. We will be starting with five key things that veteran small business owners Star #1 should know: The United States Code defines a veteran as someone who has served in the active military, naval or air service, and who was discharged or released under any conditions other than a dishonorable discharge. Federal Agencies spend an estimated 5% of their budget on VOSBs. With an estimated $179 Billion awarded a year, veteran owned opperations can potentially generate $8.9 billion worth of business. Here are three key requirements to becoming a VOSB: 51% of your company needs to be owned by one or more Veterans. If your business is publicly traded, the same criteria needs to be met for shareholders. Management and daily business operations are controlled by you or other veteran colleagues as well. Your VOSB needs to be categorized as “small” under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to the procurement.

GSA is making changes to become better aligned with the OPM Federal Human Capital Business Reference Model. The contracting vehicle's changes are in support of the government-wide Category Management goals to reduce contract redundancy, increase cost savings and to streamline the acquisition process. The updated 738 X Schedule complements the new, and more complex, Human Capital and Training Solutions (HCaTS) vehicle, by offering an A-La-Carte menu of specific services. The update also has provisions for time, material, labor hour contracts and traditional Firm Fixed Price service.

GSA’s Springboard Program helps with the U.S. Government’s high demand for emerging technology solutions For years the GSA Schedules Program required companies to have a minimum of two years’ corporate experience before applying for a GSA Schedule Contract. Now, with the U.S. government having a higher demand for emerging technology solutions than ever before, new Information Technology (IT) companies don’t have to wait to become a GSA IT Schedule 70 contract holder. Thanks to GSA’s Springboard Program, innovative companies with less than two years’ experience can become a GSA IT Schedule 70 contractor and can now have access to over $15 billion in annual federal, state, and local IT opportunities.

Earlier this month GSA announced there would be some big changes coming to all the GSA Schedule solicitations in April 2017. With March quickly coming to an end, it’s time to look at what these changes are. In an article on GSA’s Interact website, they released information on changes that will be initiated in April through a schedule-wide Mass Modification, which will refresh all GSA MAS Contracts. This mass mod is of significant importance because April also happens to be a reporting month for large contractors who have an Individual Subcontracting Plan and therefore need to complete and Individual Subcontracting Report. There are some changes in this mass mod that will impact this reporting in the future.

In our blog last week, Women in Business: WOSB and EDWOSB Sole Source Advantage, we discussed the competitive advantage the WOSB and EDWOSB programs give Women-Owned Small Businesses. This week we’re going to focus on who and how you should be marketing to the federal government. An agencies past performance can be a good indicator of future needs, so we will also take a look at some agencies’ spending patterns related to the Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs) and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Businesses (EDWOSBs) programs.