By Dan McCue
Staff Writer

Standing at the front of a crowded room at the North Charleston convention center, Barbara Hennessey, of Command Decisions Systems & Solutions Inc., tells the story of the small, high-tech company for which she works.

The Clifton, Va., firm specializes in fostering Web-based collaborative electronic data interchange and creating procurement management systems for both commercial and federal government clients. Before finishing here 20-minute presentation, Hennessey explains what her company does, at what volume, who her workers are, and what the company’s geographic reach is.

She also mentions that past and current clients include the U.S. Navy, and the departments of Commerce, Education, Justice, Transportation and Treasury, and the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in North Charleston.

Preceding her to the podium were such companies as the Atlanta-based Scientific Research Corp., the advance electronics systems company with a significant presence in North Charleston, and L-3 Titan, the nation’s sixth largest military contractor, with some 60,000 employees around the world in 65 different business units.

Following her presentation were to be representatives of UEC Electronics LLC, the Hanahan-based member of Charleston’s Digital Corridor, HiTec Systems of Egg Harbor Township, N.J., and vectorCSP of Elizabeth City, N.C.

Could these large and small companies someday work together to land a major share of the billions of dollars in contracts the federal government awards each year?

That is the goal of the Charleston Defense Contractors Association and the South Carolina chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, who sponsored the morning-long event in cooperation with SPAWAR’s small business program.

About 100 individuals, representing 45 firms, attended the forum, which was intended to build bridges between large and small companies interested in vying for Defense Department and Homeland Security contracts.

The ultimate goal of the event, the first of what are anticipated to be quarterly gatherings, is to further develop a searchable small business portal being developed by SPAWAR through which companies can find potential partners with whom they can better bid on federal contracts.

“Small business is the backbone of our economy and a very important element in SPAWAR’s business model,” said Ann Howell, deputy of the agency’s small business program.

“On one level, this will provide a greater opportunity for us to do some networking with small technology companies in the area, (and) at the same time, I think our off-site programs will provide a great opportunity to educate local companies about doing business with each other, with SPAWAR and, by extension, with the federal government as a whole,” she said.

The sessions will also provide businesses with a second opportunity to communicate their qualifications to SPAWAR decision-makers and project supervisors.

“The idea is to bring everybody together, give them an opportunity to talk, and for people to see who’s in attendance and perhaps say, ‘Well, maybe we can team with them,’” said Marsha Hassell, spokeswoman for SPAWAR Charleston.

Howell said while all parties that need to approve the portal have given it their blessing, some final details need to be worked out—not the least of which is who will host it. She said she expected it to be fully operational in about 30 days.

Cynthia Clark, a North Charleston-based representative of the Science Applications International Corp., the nation’s largest employee-owned research and engineering firm, served as a member of the committee that brought the meetings to fruition.

“This gathering grows out of something defense contractors often talk about: how large and small businesses can best use their resources,” Clark said.

“Large companies have the resources and personnel to keep in the loop with opportunities at SPAWAR and to market their services,” she said. “Small companies have the ability to do the work, but because they don’t have the same resources as their larger counterparts, they get left behind.

“A forum like this allows small businesses to team up with large businesses and learn our processes, and allows us to know what they do … because there might be a niche aspect of a contract that we’re not equipped to handle ourselves, but that a smaller partner might be very well versed in,” she continued. “Now we’ll have access to an excellent teams.”

The effort by the CDCA and AFCEA comes at an auspicious time for those engaged in economic development in the tri-county region. One of the goals of the Angelou Report, which is guiding those efforts, is to create a cluster of businesses engaged in what the consultant described as the advanced security industry.

“We’re really in the midst of a very interesting time for the region,” said David Ginn, president and CEO of the Charleston Regional Development Alliance. “There isn’t a community in the country that’s stepped up and said, we want the mantle of being the leading provider of homeland security, and we have all the attributes to be that.”

The interest clearly exists. While attendance at the first meeting was capped at 100 due to the lack of the availability of a larger room, perhaps twice as many more had indicated an interest in attending, Hassell said.

Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.

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