How 25 Small Federal Contractors Beat the Odds

16 Ideal System Solutions Inc. (ISSI)
Location: Osseo, Minn.
References: Air Force, Department of Agriculture
Categories: Women-Owned, 8(a), HUBZone
Top exec: Elise Hernandez, President
Partners: Cisco, Dell, Epson, HP, IBM, Juniper, Sun
Employees: 15
Year founded: 1996

In addition to offering the full spectrum of IT solutions, ISSI supports government agencies with procurement services typically associated with much larger systems integrators. Financing options, product leasing and rental, and trade and consignment are a few options available to enable flexibility in purchasing by federal customers. Similarly, the company's huge portfolio of products means more options to meet customer requirements, and the ability to respond to requests for proposals with competitively priced, cutting-edge solutions.

17 Global Technology Resources Inc. (GTRI)
Location: Denver, Colo.
References: Veterans Affairs (VA), NASA, Navy
Categories: 8(a), HUBZone
Top exec: Lance Vierra, CEO
Partners: Cisco, HP, Network Appliance, NetScout, Proxim
Employees: 22
Year founded: 1998

A huge victory for GTRI came in July 2006, when the VA awarded the solution provider a $39 million contract for Cisco SmartNet maintenance services. That came thanks to a proven record of network consulting, addressing everything from IT strategy planning and operating systems and directory services to storage systems and services, security, wireless, convergence and project management. The company reported annual sales growth of of up to 55 percent for the first five years in business, which, in turn, landed GTRI at No. 365 on the 2006 VARBusiness 500 and No. 38 on the VARBusiness list of fastest-growing resellers.

18 By Light
Location: Arlington, Va.
References: DoD, DHS, intelligence agencies
Category: SDVOB
Top exec: Bob Donahue, President
Partners: Cisco, Marconi, SafeNet
Employees: N/A
Year founded: 2002

If you ask federal agencies what qualities make for a good industry partner, many will tell you a government veteran on the payroll. By Light, for one, was founded by a group of retired senior military officials and telecommunications industry veterans, and the company perfectly leverages its knowledge of network design, integration and implementation. Currently, By Light is providing engineering, implementation, test and support services for the Global Information Grid Bandwidth Expansion (GIG-BE), the DoD's backbone optical network, and project management and IT services for the SCAMPI Optimization and Modernization project. In addition, the By Light Integration Center provides communications services to the DoD's Special Operations Community and DHS, as well as other federal and state government agencies.

19 Millennium Systems Services Inc. (MSSI)
Location: Huntsville, Ala.
References: Army, Air Force, U.S. National Guard
Categories: SDVOB, 8(a)
Top exec: Francis Gordon
Partners: N/A
Employees: 53
Year founded: 2001

It's hard to question the abilities of a company that reported triple-digit growth in revenue for three years in a row--reaching 348 percent in 2004 alone. Certainly, MSSI's wins keep rolling in. It's scheduled to wrap a five-year contract with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command later this year, and was awarded a $1.1 million contract with the Air Force for pro- fessional and communications services in 2005. Other customers include the Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM), Integrated Material Management Center (IMMC) and the Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity (AMSAA), to name a few.

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