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TheLectern
New IT rms nd common ground
Some nontraditional IT companies are banding together to change the federal marketplace through collaboration and mutual support
BY STEVE KELMAN
Ihave written frequently on FCW. com about new, nontraditional IT vendors in the federal marketplace and how they are delivering services in a different way from traditional con- tractors. It’s a sign of the growing pres- ence of such contractors in the federal IT ecosystem that last summer a num- ber of them, with no fanfare, created a sort of support group to help one another in the federal marketplace.
The group originally used the non- descript moniker Community of Prac- tice but recently changed its name to the notably more ambitious Digital Services Coalition. The coalition has 56 individual members from 20 rms. About half of them have at least one federal contract; most of the rest serve state and local customers, and a few are still exclusively commercial but trying to enter the government marketplace.
The Digital Services Coalition is the brainchild of Robert Rasmussen, CEO of a small IT rm called Agile Six Appli- cations. The “agile” references agile IT development, while “six” is a nod to military jargon for watching a com- rade’s back. (Rasmussen is a Navy vet, and “I’ve got your six” refers to one’s 6:00 position, the blind spot directly behind.)
After leaving the Navy, Rasmussen
worked for a series of government contractors, but then his cousin sold a business he had started, which gave the two of them a few years’ income cushion to try something new. “Read-
at the U.S. Digital Service and con- nected with a contracting of cer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services who was interested in discov- ering new, nontraditional IT contrac- tors. Agile Six won its rst job there.
A different cultural mindset
The Digital Services Coalition’s mem- bers believe in delivering IT in a new way and also believe in having their companies interact with one anoth- er in a more collaborative way than traditional IT contractors typically “network.”
Such contractors frequently team or engage in formal collaboration to win business, but the mindset tends to include a very large dose of wari- ness about other rms in the space. Most have heard stories of company representatives who come to govern- ment-sponsored industry days hoping a competitor will reveal information of competitive value. Vendors often discuss how to “ghost” a competitor’s proposal to uncover weaknesses they can discuss in their own bid, almost always by indirection, to discredit the competitor’s proposal in the eyes of the customer agency.
And vendors often approach after- hours social events with a secret hope that someone, perhaps having drunk a
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Some vendors approach social events with a hope that a competitor will drink a bit too much and reveal company secrets.
ing the Digital Services Playbook,” Rasmussen told me, “I was inspired to become part of that new market.” The result was Agile Six.
Rasmussen got advice from people