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June 17,
2008 |
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IT
ROUNDTABLE;
GOLF GADGETRY
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We finish up our federal IT roundtable from
the Reston McCormick &
Schmick’s with industry
leaders:
- John Barrass, COO of
STG, Inc.
- Champ Mitchell, Chairman of
Network Solutions; and
- Paul Cofoni, CEO of
CACI
A special thanks to our sponsors John
Chierichella of law firm
Sheppard Mullin and Bob
Shue of commercial real estate giant
Jones Lang
LaSalle. |
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Paul Cofoni
spent 14 years at CSC before
coming to CACI, spending the
last four heading its federal
business. |
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| Bisnow: |
What keeps
you up at night? |
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| Champ: |
A great concern to
me is where the country is headed on a
macro-economic basis. Right now
our business at Network Solutions is doing great
and it’s during a down economy.
However, no business can continue to do great
indefinitely if the economy continues to go
down. I worry about the value of the dollar, the
cost of oil, food costs, how the average
American feels about his or her economic future
and how we’re going to solve these
problems. | |
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John Barrass
says STG’s biggest customers are the
Army and State
Department. |
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| Bisnow: |
How about
your government contractor and system integrator
clients, John—what are you hearing from
them? |
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| John C: |
Their principal
concern is competition for
contracts. But winning a contract these
days is just the start. Everything gets
protested. No contract goes
into performance for a minimum of four months
because everybody is fighting for every
contract. |
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| John B: |
I’m on the other
end of the spectrum. I don’t worry about the
macro economics, but the micro. Even though
we’re a technology company, it’s a people
business. If we’re growing 20 percent a year, I
need 20 percent more of
everything of the same quality, including
people, and that pool isn’t
growing. | |
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Bob Shue makes
a point while our Mark Bisnow
jealously wonders why he didn’t order an iced
tea. |
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| Bisnow: |
So everyone
at the table wants the same
employees? |
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| John B: |
Yes. There was a
move in the 90s to declassify a lot of things,
but after 9/11 there are more and more things
being classified. Getting someone who can get
the proper security clearance
is incredibly hard and if you do get them you
can’t use them right away, because they spend a
year in limbo land getting a
clearance. | |
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TECHIES TAKE ON
GOLF |
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In the mood to hit the links after
yesterday’s thrilling US Open
playoff? Shukoor Ahmed and
Robert Nelsen, whom we met at
the Eisenhower Golf Course in
Crownesville, Maryland, founded
GolfFlyOver.com, which gives
users virtual tours of a course (using
Google Earth technology) before
playing it. The site has nearly 9,000
courses from Augusta
National to the local
muni and is adding more daily. “Before
you play you can see the course to make sure it
is what you want,” Robert tells us. Even cooler,
owners of the new iPhone (out
July 11) can use the phone’s GPS
technology to mark where there shots
went (you know: trees, trees, water, bunker) and
login later to see how they played the course.
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David Stegon is hot on the trail for
story ideas. Send him some: David@Bisnow.com
or 703-674-7718 |
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The SCENE is our newest
publication—covering all the movers and shakers
around Washington. Click
here to check it
out!
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This newsletter is a journalistic news
source which accepts no payment for featured interviews.
It is supported by conventional advertisers clearly
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below. © 2008, Bisnow on Business, Inc., 1323
Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036. All rights
reserved. | | |
