PVBS Customer CSSI CEO Featured in Woman’s Business Magazine

We’re excited about an article that featured our customer Cindy Castillo, CEO of CSSI in the November/December issue of March magazine.  After 17 years with Castillo at its helm, CSSI has grown to around 270 employees and $40 million in revenue.

“Our goal is to be at $60 million by the end of next year and $100 million by 2015,” she said. CSSI’s primary customer is the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); it also works with the Navy and NASA.

Letter from Bernard Mustafa in June/July PVBS Newsletter

From the June/July “High-Growth Government Contractor News“.

We were guests on the Federal News Radio Gov Con Straight Talk show to discuss management strategies for companies that provide services to the government and want to start selling products, and vice versa. Companies that sell products to the Federal Government are always looking for ways to expand into more lucrative and higher margin service offerings. And service providers are often looking for product offerings to round out their business lines. Either way, it’s easier said than done. Listen to the show here.

On the show, Rich Marksberry of ROM & Associates, Christine Zmuda of Microsoft, and I discussed the major issues companies typically face when adding products or services to the mix. Product companies are concerned with managing high-volume transactions, which requires effective order management, quoting processes, and inventory and shipping controls, among many other challenges. Services, however, are typically done over a long period of time and require rigid tracking of billing and related implementation activities.

Product companies now providing services need to comply with Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and well as Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) compliance. Both are usually quite foreign to existing operations. Listen to the show for the management concerns you also need to be aware of.

Also, I invite you to visit our new YouTube channel to see our new solutions overviews and testimonials.

Best regards,
Bernard Mustafa

Finance VP Presents Why Growing Contractor Powertek Chose Dynamics NAV

Steve Miller, Powertek Corporation Vice President of Finance, presented why his firm chose Microsoft Dynamics NAV for Government Contractors at the Microsoft Third Annual Government Contractor Summit.  Download a copy of the presentation here. PowerTek Case Study for Microsoft GovCon Summit, 111709

Powertek’s rapid and sustainable growth over the past three years has contributed to its becoming recognized as a leading provider of information technology and business management solutions. Since its incorporation in 2001, Powertek continues to earn the trust and loyalty of its customers by demonstrating an in-depth understanding of their dynamic business and technical environments and providing holistic and innovative solutions to their unique needs. The firm’s continued success and repeat business validate the confidence its customers have in its capabilities.

Steve Miller, Powertek Vice President of Finance

Expert Panel Closes MSFT Annual GovCon Summit

PVBS was pleased to sponsor the “Government Contractor Expert Panel” that closed the 3rd annual Microsoft Government Contractor Summit on November 17 at the Marriott Fairview Park. The moderator was Tom Temin of Federal News Radio 1500AM.

Panel members were:

• Kwesi Rogers President, Federal National Payables, Inc.
• Ken Bricker, Managing Partner, Goodman and Company
• Tony Bui, President, EMW

Questions posed by Tom included:

1. Discuss recent OMB guidance urging more use of fixed-price, competitive contracts instead of no-bid, or cost-plus or time-and-materials contracts. Is it actually happening at the agency task order or contract level? How should companies prepare for it? How might it effect small contractors when they are subs to larger primes? How does this affect a small firm’s ability to fund their operations?
2. Small Business Administration is proposing new rules. For instance, Hawaiian native corporations can also get unlimited sized sole contracts, not just Alaska Native. All must now perform 40% of the work, and not just sub it all out to large companies, under the proposed rules. Are SBA and other federal mandates for use of various classes of businesses striking the right balance of fairness, competition and best value for the government?
3. Discuss technology changes you see in the government–are they real and what effect will they have on small or highly specialized contractors. Examples are cloud or hosted software services; data analysis and machine readable streams; mobility devices; collaborative tools.
4. What does the acquisition workforce really look like from the standpoint of contractors? Discuss in light of the new OMB direction to increase acquisition ranks by 5% over the next five years. Have you noticed or been affected by a trend of government hiring from the private sector?
5. Discuss how you’ve used Microsoft Dynamics technology to assist in meeting the above challenges and the role business applications will help growing government contractors meet the above challenges.

Sign up for a Government Contractor Accounting Software Demo

Accounting, finance, and operations executives at fast-growing government contractors want to ensure that the government contractor accounting solution they choose meets and exceeds their requirements. PVBS offers demos regularly at our customer’s offices or in our state-of-the-art training center in Reston. We also offer online demos for our many customers across the US and worldwide.

Click here to schedule a demo of Microsoft Dynamics NAV for Government Contractors from PVBS.

We’ll be at the Grant Thornton Government Industry Roundtable on February 24th

 

We attend Grant Thornton’s Government Contractor Industry Roundtables. The next one is on the morning of February 24 and features Stan Soloway, President and CEO of the Professional Services Council (PSC) and Norm Duquette, who will discuss the latest trends in the sector. They’ll also provide an overview of GT’s 14th Annual Government Contractor Industry Survey. The event will be at the Tyson’s Corner Ritz.

Go to http://grantthornton.gov.sgizmo.com to register.

PVBS Customer iGov CFO Rich Marksberry Shares Tips for GCs

 

Rich Marksberry brings a unique blend of tech and financial expertise to his role as CFO of iGov, a systems integrator based in McLean, Va. Marksberry joined iGov at a critical time in the company’s history, when it was redefining its focus away from simply being a product reseller to a full-scale information technology engineering and services firm.

With his arrival in January 2007, Marksberry overhauled the company’s accounting systems infrastructure — a move that jumpstarted iGov’s ability to better handle cost and time and material, as well as fixed-price contracts. Marksberry also revised accounting and operational procedures to assist iGov in ISO certification, and updated the company’s IT infrastructure.

Looking to 2009, Marksberry has one main goal: to further raise the value of iGov for its shareholders. As a key player in that process, Marksberry sticks to a time-proven formula: Know your customers. “We are very keen on keeping our customer relationships up and running and understanding what their needs are,” he says. Staying focused is critical, he adds. “Knowing your prime customers and focusing enough to go after the things that you can provide is key; if you try to take too wide a swath at opportunities in the federal government you can really become overwhelmed, overextended and not focused enough to provide the solution that the customer needs,” he says.

Marksberry’s Tip for 2009: Go back to basics

“What you really have, when you’re dealing with a government customer, are people who are trying their best to fulfill their mission,” says Marksberry. “Whether they are trying to meet energy compliance standards or get ready for the next troop deployment — just being cognizant of their needs and bringing unique solutions to them to fulfill those needs can really help you focus on bringing them the right solutions and getting your proposal accepted.”

Microsoft Government Contractor Summit Agenda

Pleasant Valley Business Solutions (PVBS) is proud to be the Premier sponsor of the second-annual Microsoft Government Contractor Summit which will take place on Thursday, December 11 at the Fairview Park Marriott. This event is limited to 300 executives so please reserve your spot today.

Click here to register.  
 
When: Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008.

Where: Fairview Park Marriott, 3111 Fairview Park Drive, Falls Church, VA. Free Parking on Site

The day’s highlights include:

8am: Registration, Exhibition Hall Opens

9am: Exit Strategies in Turbulent Times

Sponsored by PVBS and moderated by Nick Wakeman, Washington Technology Editor-in-chief. Panelists include:

• Robert D. Kipps, Managing Director, KippsDeSanto & Co.
• William J. Mutryn, Co-Leader M&A Practice, Holland & Knight LLP
• Bernard A. Mustafa, CEO, PVBS
• Dave Young, Co-founder, Oberon, a Stanley Company
• Jodi Johnson, Co-founder, Oberon, a Stanley Company

10am: Anticipated Changes in Government Contracting Post Election, featuring Dan Mintz, CIO of Department of Transportation and Kim Nelson, Executive Director for Microsoft EGovernment 
 
Noon: Lunch, CFO-CIO Best Practices Panel Discussion 
1pm: Breakout Sessions (choose one)

• Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Preview. Come See What the Buzz is About (Presented by PVBS)
• Best Practices in DCAA Compliance
• Managing Projects for Greater Profitability
• Empowering the Project Team 

2:30pm: Breakout Sessions (choose one)

• How Earned Value Management (EVM) Can Provide Early Warnings of Operational Issues and Profit Opportunities (Presented by PVBS)
• Pursuit Management for Government Contractors
• To Tax or Not to Tax: Current Thinking on Tax Exempt versus Taxable Purchases by Government Contractors (Presented by Grant Thornton)
• How Managing Performance Increases Your Win Rate (Presented by I3 Solutions)

3:45pm: Conclusion

Click here to register.

Three Things Oberon Did to Earn its $170+ Million Price Tag

PVBS co-sponsored an event last week with Microsoft and investment banker KippsDeSanto. Over 100 senior executives from some of the fastest growing government contractors in town gathered at the Tower Club to learn what Jodi Johnson and Dave Young did to put their company, Oberon Associates, in position to be sold for $170+ Million earlier this year.

Jodi and David shared some very insightful and personal thoughts on how they prepared for the hugely successful sale to Stanley Associates. Three messages that struck me were:

Spend 1% of your time planning and 99% executing. David said that planning was very important to their success but that everything came down to their exemplary ability to execute.

Start with the end in mind. They said that they knew from day one that they were going to be successful and would aggressively grow the company and sell it, most likely to a strategic buyer, within 5-7 years. Remarkably, they still are growing having added over 300 employees in the past year.

Truly treat the customer as king.  Instead of simply paying lip service to customer service, they did everything they could to ensure that they were on top of everything the customer needed. They demonstrated this with a sense of urgency.

PVBS is proud to have Oberon as client and to be a small part of this great achievement.

There were other take aways as well. Give me a call and I’ll share more.

Best regards,
Bernard Mustafa
bernard.mustafa@pvbs.net
CEO, Pleasant Valley Business Solutions
www.pvbs.net

Microsoft Government Contractor Summit

On December 11th, Microsoft will be holding a full day event geared to help Government contractors capture more business and manage financial growth. The event will be held at the Fairview Park Marriott, Fairfax, VA.

Hear from Industry Experts, C-Suite Executives of Fast Growing Organizations, and key partners, such as PVBS. To reserve your seat at this exclusive event, please register today.