Page 57 - FCW, November, December 2018

will provide TSA offices with a centralized contract for application development and design services.
Enow led the team that developed the contract from the statement of work and cost estimates, then gathered input from various agency offices to make sure their needs were covered. She also worked with the Office of Contracting and Procurement on the overall procurement strategy for FAST.
BENJAMIN FRANICH
Business Development Manager, Edgewater Federal Solutions
Benjamin Franich is a one-man corporate earthquake who has shaken loose millions in new business while redefining corporate processes at Edgewater.
Less than three years ago, he began working for the company’s IT line of business with no previous experience in the sector. His supervisors say he has been a quick study and has pushed for substantial internal changes to obtain and support new business. The company, which previously had been content with being a $6 million-a-year “mom and pop” firm, now earns $25 million annually.
Franich’s colleagues say that in an astonishingly short amount of time, he became the company’s business development manager — with full responsibility for preparing all proposals, exploring partnerships with other IT companies, identifying key personnel to work on projects and coordinating contract transitions.
He has also transformed internal operations. For instance, he threw out the old headhunter/search-service method of hiring in favor of social media and internal vetting. He also coordinates with the business development and human resources teams to make sure new hires fit the company’s mission.
RYAN HILLARD
IT Specialist/Systems Developer, Business Technology Solutions, Office of the CIO, Small Business Administration
The Small Business Administration has a total annual budget of less than $1 billion, which means there usually is not a lot of funding to pursue big, ambitious ideas. And that makes what IT Specialist Ryan Hillard has been able to accomplish all the more impressive.
“Ryan gets the long game and the money piece of it, that we’re not made of money,” SBA CIO Maria Roat said. “You know, $10,000 is a lot for us, so we’re very careful [about what we approve].”
Colleagues describe Hillard’s impact on SBA’s modernization initiatives as transformational. For instance, he played a central role in revamping the SBA.gov website, instituting innovation sprints and spearheading a series of new initiatives, including pilot programs to incorporate small-business loan guidance and SBA resources into popular commercial digital assistants such as Alexa and Cortana.
Hillard also helped develop Lender Match, a free online referral tool that connects small businesses with participating SBA-approved lenders, and he helped curate and grow the Idea Lab, a co-working environment that promotes better collaboration among employees and better cross pollination of ideas.
In addition, he moved SBA’s website into the cloud, which has improved response times and positioned the agency to quickly recover from denial-of-service attacks by publishing replacement versions of the site within 90 seconds.
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