| Doing Business with DHS: Kevin Boshears (June 4, 2009) |
| Written by Mushtaq Khan | |
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A very interesting and well attended event was held on June 4, 2009 with the Small business champion at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Mr. Kevin Boshears. Kevin is a Director in the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) who provided a detailed and animated presentation of how small business organizations can take advantage of the contracting opportunities and navigate the sprawling labyrinth of this very large department. The event attracted about 30 OPEN DC members and guests and was hosted by the courtesy of Primatics Financial. The attendees interacted with Kevin via interactive presentation threaded with many questions and clarifications. Kevin started by describing the structure of how DHS is organized and the various contracting channels and opportunity segments. He followed that by describing the various small business programs supported by the department. These range from 8a, HubZone, Small Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, and traditional small business set-asides. The department also supports Mentor/Protégé program which has been found to be quite active compared to other such program in the industry. The DHS represents three major types of opportunities. They are the usual contracts and subcontracts, Research and Development projects and grants to State and local governments. Small businesses should determine which particular type of opportunity is more suitable for them to pursue as each one has a different process that needs to be pursued. Kevin ended the small business segment of his presentation by highlighting a large IT services opportunity that the department will be undertaking in the coming few years and is targeted primarily for small businesses.. This is the EAGLE-2 (Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading Edge Solutions) through which DHS will buy general and specialized IT services. EAGLE-2 follows the EAGLE-1 program that is currently underway and will be terminating in the next 2 years. EAGLE-2 is at Request for Information stage with an Industry day planned very shortly. The department will likely issue a draft Request for proposal to solicit comments from the industry. |
