How 25 Small Federal Contractors Beat the Odds

3. Carrillo Business Technologies (CB Technologies)
Location: Westminster, Calif.
References: Air Force, NASACategories: 8(a), Women-Owned
Top exec: Debra Turturo, President
Partner: HP
Employees: About 30
Year founded: 2001

It's not easy for any company to get noticed after only five years in government contracting, but CB Technologies has certainly done that--earning top ranks on DiversityBusiness.com's lists of Top Women-Owned Businesses, Top Hispanic American-Owned Businesses and Top Diversity-Owned Businesses, earning the Business of the Year Award from the Latin Business Association and ranking 320 on the VARBusiness 500. Young as it is, the company was built on experience. Turturo and CFO Kelly Ireland have 35 years of combined experience in the IT industry. The company philosophy is to "take ownership" to create personalized service and long-term partnerships.

4. EMW
Location: Herndon, Va.
References: Air Force, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Category: 8(a)
Top exec: Tony Bui, President
Partners: AT&T, Avaya, Cisco, Ericsson, Foundry, Microsoft, Net.com, Nokia, Nortel, Oracle, 3Com
Employees: N/A
Year founded: 1995

A look at the partner vendors that make up EMW's portfolio reveals one major area of focus for the solution provider, as does the procurement vehicles it participates in. The Air Force Network-Centric Solutions (NETCENTS) contract, for example, is the primary source of networking equipment and services for the Air Force, Department of Defense and other federal agencies. Of course, this showcases something else about EMW as well: The company isn't afraid to go after the mega-opportunities. The small business was awarded contracts under the Army CECOM Rapid Response, Installation Modernization II and Strategic Services Sourcing (S3) programs for lifecycle-management capabilities, to name a few. Beyond networking, EMW specializes in areas of planning, engineering and implementation, project and program management, systems integration, operations and maintenance, and training.

5. Pacific Crossing
Location: Irvine, Calif.
Reference: DoD
Categories: 8(a), Women-Owned, HUBZone
Top exec: Phyllis Johnson, CEO
Partners: ATG, BEA, EMC, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, Siebel, Sun Microsystems
Employees: 90
Year founded: 1994

As federal agencies start to warm up to the idea of outsourcing and managed services, Pacific Crossing stands poised to respond with expertise across most of the software companies' product lines to offer supplemental IT staffing and services, and help-desk support. The company was awarded a $1.6 million contract in 2005 with the Navy, touts past experience with leading defense contractors Northrop Grumman, SAIC and Raytheon, and earned kudos from DiversityBusiness.com as a Top Woman-owned Business in 2004. One of its more recent initiatives? Installing a communication system for the DoD at the Presidential Palace in Baghdad, a former residence of Saddam Hussein.

6. Thomas & Herbert Consulting (T&H)
Location: Silver Spring, Md.
References: GSA, Navy, departments of Homeland Security (DHS), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Treasury
Categories: HUBZone, SDB
Top exec: Rodney Thomas, President/CEO
Partner: Microsoft
Employees: 55
Year founded: 1996

Proving that small businesses don't have to play second fiddle to the mega-contractors, T&H acts as a prime for a number of large federal-procurement vehicles, including the GSA Mission Oriented Business Integrated Services (MOBIS) program, the Navy SeaPort Enhanced (Seaport-e) program and the DHS blanket purchasing agreement for watch-list technical integration support. The company averaged 769 percent sales growth in the past three year, touts more than $60 million in contract dollars and maintains access to a line of credit exceeding $3 million. T&H also offers an Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence (CoE), which acts as a best-practice "collaboratory" to facilitate and resolve platform issues and bridge the gap between business managers, enterprise architects and IT specialists.

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