The Power Of Partnerships

Striving for enhanced mission performance in all areas, agencies are relying more than ever before on trusted industry partners who can provide end-to-end technology solutions and swift access to the best new technology. Agencies are also looking for partners who can provide the necessary services to ensure that all the technology works correctly. In the face of unprecedented urgency to find new approaches to security, interoperability, communicative and data access, this aid is indispensable.

In one response to 9/11, the government has initiated its most massive reorganization in more than 50 years. Combining a host of component agencies, it created both the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Integrating those disparate units into one unified whole with interoperable systems and an enterprise architecture is an enormous task. These new entities will need trusted partners to provide the technology products, services and solutions critical to their mission performance.

From the outset, the DHS issued a call to industry to suggest technologies that could help protect the American people. The DHS emphasized such areas as biometrics, explosives detection and diagnostics, mobile and wireless communications, and information gathering and analysis. The response was so overwhelming that the DHS created a Technical Support Working Group to evaluate all the proposals it received. It clearly recognized the need for partnerships in this area.

Experienced solution providers are in a unique position to find and implement new technologies to help fight terrorism. Keep in mind these four points:

• Strong relationships produce better results. As we have found at GTSI, broad relationships with key technology sources can alert a skilled solution provider to new approaches and help expedite the task of putting good solutions in place. The key is effective screening and evaluation of advances in technology.
• "Best-of-breed" approaches often depend on combining technologies from multiple IT vendors. When properly supported, these multivendor approaches can give government customers more flexible and comprehensive mission-performance capability.
• Understanding the customer's focus and timetable is essential. Strong customer relationships, a knowledge of government needs and the procurement process, and the ability to take an enterprise view are all essential to producing results. Government customers are often risk-averse and prefer dealing with experienced, dependable private-sector partners.
• Teams produce the best results. Working together, we can help assess needs and provide appropriate products and services. Technology is too sophisticated and specialized today for one company or manufacturer to do it all and do it well.

As agencies at all levels of government look to protect our nation, they need strong partners who can help implement sound technology solutions. Effective partnerships offer the best chance to optimize benefits for us all.

John Spotila ([email protected]) is president and COO of GTSI, which provides IT services to government worldwide.