|
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
August 31, 2009
|
|
| |
| |
 |
| |
|
SBA Loves GSA
|
|
Cardinal Bank's Economic Update, featuring Steve Fuller, is Thursday, September 17, at Cardinal HQ, 8270 Greensboro Drive. Registration and networking: 8:00 am. Program: 8:30–9:30 am.
Sign-up at 703-848-2182 or e-mail rsvp@cardinalbank.com. |
|
| |
| With small businesses, GSA is getting straight A’s. (Pardon the school metaphors; we'll get them out of our system this week.) Mary Parks, Acting Assoc. Admin. of GSA's Office of Small Business Utilization, won SBA’s '09 Administrator's Leadership Award on Friday, just a week after GSA received the highest-possible rating on the SBA’s Small Business Procurement Scorecard. |
| |
 |
|
We snapped this patriotic shot before asking how she won. It starts with initiatives like GSA’s 21 Gun Salute, which helps agencies procure more than 3% of contracts with Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses. (GSA is at 3.93%.) Mary works with small businesses to show them how to get a GSA Schedule or how to partner with a larger company. Her advice? “Know who you are and do your market research. Agencies want you to know what their problems are, and show them how you can help fix them."
|
| |
 |
|
Mary tells us most GSA stimulus funds are going to construction companies for building renovations, but there are opportunities for contractors to handle the greening. She grew up near Kansas City and spent the first 35 years of her GSA career working there; this past March, a promotion brought her east. Outside the office, she's a big Kansas City Royals fan (a first for us) and also cheers for University of Kansas football and basketball.
|
|
| PARATURE SOARS |
| |
 |
|
So why is everyone at Parature jumping for joy? As others tighten belts, they've turned to Parature's SaaS customer service software to help retain customers. That’s led to a 40% year-over-year revenue growth for the Vienna-based company and some recent milestones: 3K support portals worldwide, 16 million people using its product, and a 90% customer renewal rate. Pictured in various stages of flight: VPs Paul Ironside, Elaine Harvey, Gary McNeil, Karolyn Dector, Ben Martin, CEO Duke Chung, and VP Calvin Lam.
|
|
|
APPIAN TURNS 10!
|
| |
 |
|
After celebrating his company’s 10-year anniversary in August, we asked Appian CEO Matt Calkins about the next decade. “I didn’t have plans for the first!” he says, although we find that hard to believe. This year, Appian, makers of a business process management platform available via enterprise or SaaS deployment, has seen 67% revenue growth and found new office space in Reston Town Center. It’s hosting what's expected to be the world’s most attended vendor-sponsored BPM conference (Appian Forum, Oct. 26-28 at the Reston Hyatt).
|
| |
 |
|
Here’s Matt and his family a few weeks ago preparing for Appian’s big anniversary party at his house in Great Falls. It featured a live mariachi band and most of the company’s 160 employees. The reason for the recent revenue burst? Matt suspects it’s that their “platform delivers fast value and makes BPM incredibly easy to use.” The proof is in the procurement: Appian received a $10 million investment last summer from Novak Biddle.
|
|
| NOT EVERYONE'S IN THE VINEYARD |
| |
 |
|
At Four Seasons’ Bourbon Steak Saturday night, we snapped Microsoft Federal chief Teresa Carlson, seated third from left, and husband Chris (of IBM) behind her, hosting friends to celebrate the waning days of August. Next to Chris standing: IMC’s Suresh Shenoy and former IAC chair Leslie Steele. Seated far left, her husband John, with whom she runs Interimage, a 13-year old Arlington firm that does custom software apps. Seated far right: CSC Public Sector president Jim Sheaffer (the longtime AMSer who now helms a division with 29,000 employees); his wife Dale Koebenick is seated second from left. Seated between Teresa and Jim: Suresh’s wife Neena, who’s been helping their 23-year-old son Rajiv expand his new company that creates digital displays at colleges to replace old-fashioned fliers; event traffic at client Johns Hopkins has already quadrupled. We bet Rajiv was working Saturday night.
|
| |
| Send story ideas to techstories@bisnow.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
This newsletter is a journalistic news source which accepts no payment for featured interviews. It is supported by conventional advertisers clearly identified in the right hand column. You have been selected to receive it either through prior contact or professional association. If you have received it in error, please accept our apologies and unsubscribe below. © 2009, Bisnow on Business, Inc., 1323 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036. All rights reserved.
|
|
|
