Each year, Washington Technology compiles their Fast 50 rankings through nomination and data analysis. Application forms are due to WT prior to June each year and this year's applications exceeded 100 in total. Companies submit five years worth of contract revenue, which is calculated over a five-year term against annual growth rates. And, voila' the results of their tallies determine the Fast 50. . .
What is most notable about the Fast 50 for Washingtonians is, 44 of these emerging small businesses are within the Metropolitan Washington DC business corridor. Only 6 companies reside outside of the area and of those 6 - the furthest away hail from Jupiter, Florida; Eatontown, New Jersey; and Centennial Colorado.
Everyone else is pretty close to Washington DC if not in the DC hub. This year's Fast 50 includes:
- Rank in 2011-1 Rank in 2010-2 SAVA Workforce Solutions, Compound Annual Growth: 326.05%
- Rank in 2011-2 Octo Consulting Group, Compound Annual Growth: 227.75%
- Rank in 2011-3 VAE Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 211.40%
- Rank in 2011-4 Insignia Technology Services LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 199.76%
- Rank in 2011-5, Rank in 2010-4 MicroTech, Compound Annual Growth: 196.09%
- Rank in 2011-6 FedSys Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 189.59%
- Rank in 2011-7 Integrity Management Consulting Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 188.18%
- Rank in 2011-8 Next Tier Concepts Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 176.34%
- Rank in 2011-9 Axom Technologies Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 167.87%
- Rank in 2011-10, Rank in 2010-9 Centuria Corp., Compound Annual Growth: 155.98%
- Rank in 2011-11 Halfaker and Associates LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 153.32%
- Rank in 2011-12 Plan B Government Systems Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 152.83%
- Rank in 2011-13 B3 Solutions LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 146.30%
- Rank in 2011-14 Evoke Research and Consulting LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 125.58%
- Rank in 2011-15 IPKeys Technologies LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 114.32%
- Rank in 2011-16, Rank in 2010-5 EDC Consulting Services LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 111.01%
- Rank in 2011-17 Soft Tech Consulting Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 107.71%
- Rank in 2011-18 Edaptive Systems LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 105.20%
- Rank in 2011-19 Knight Point Systems LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 102.38%
- Rank in 2011-20 Wexler Technical Solutions Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 102.23%
- Rank in 2011-21 HumanTouch LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 102.20%
- Rank in 2011-22 Triumph Enterprises Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 101.66%
- Rank in 2011-23, Rank in 2010-22 Array Information Technology Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 97.25%
- Rank in 2011-24, Rank in 2010-43 TeraThink Corp., Compound Annual Growth: 95.70%
- Rank in 2011-25 Technical and Project Engineering LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 95.58%
- Rank in 2011-26 Innotion Enterprises, Compound Annual Growth: 95.54%
- Rank in 2011-27 Cornell Technical Services LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 92.81%
- Rank in 2011-28 Silverback7 Inc. , Compound Annual Growth: 91.48%
- Rank in 2011-29 DatamanUSA LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 90.68%
- Rank in 2011-30, Rank in 2010-31 P3 Partners LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 88.65%
- Rank in 2011-31, Rank in 2010-25 RLM Communications Inc. , Compound Annual Growth: 87.24%
- Rank in 2011-32, Rank in 2010-27 Acuity Inc. , Compound Annual Growth: 85.60%
- Rank in 2011-33 Evolver Inc. , Compound Annual Growth: 85.25%
- Rank in 2011-34, Rank in 2010-40 GCS Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 82.45%
- Rank in 2011-35 TurningPoint Global Solutions, Compound Annual Growth: 81.73%
- Rank in 2011-36 McKean Defense Group, Compound Annual Growth: 81.49%
- Rank in 2011-37 ATSG LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 79.50%
- Rank in 2011-38 Professional Solutions LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 79.07%
- Rank in 2011-39 Total Solutions Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 78.59%
- Rank in 2011-40 5AM Solutions Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 75.17%
- Rank in 2011-41, Rank in 2010-20 Millennium Corp., Compound Annual Growth: 73.04%
- Rank in 2011-42, Rank in 2010-41 Logistics Systems Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 70.51%
- Rank in 2011-43, Rank in 2010-13 DRT Strategies Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 69.83%
- Rank in 2011-44 Group Z Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 69.43%
- Rank in 2011-45, Rank in 2010-37 Herren Associates Inc., Compound Annual Growth: 69.18%
- Rank in 2011-46, Rank in 2010-35 Pluribus International Corp., Compound Annual Growth: 69.08%
- Rank in 2011-47 VariQ Corp., Compound Annual Growth: 65.98%
- Rank in 2011-48 Blue Canopy LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 63.41%
- Rank in 2011-49 NextPoint Group, Compound Annual Growth: 62.49%
- Rank in 2011-50 Veris Group LLC, Compound Annual Growth: 60.72%
Some comments regarding the Fast 50 suggest ANC 8 (a) companies don't compete under typical 8 (a) rules - suggesting ANC's should have their own categories. These commentators suggest:"Compound growth fueled by unrestricted sole source award amounts, and is not competitive with 8(a) companies that are limited to the standard $4m for consulting."
And, there is criticism regarding contests altogether within the federal procurement industry:
Federal agencies…are increasingly tapping a parallel universe of what are known as "prizes and challenges" to bypass the [Federal Acquisition Regulation] (sic) and agency procurement processes and bring innovation to government. . .[Agencies] (sic) have demonstrated some creative interpretations of existing statutory authorities to sponsor and award prizes for a wide range of requirements, in ways that push against the boundaries of the federal procurement system. . .This approach is able to lead to rapid selections, because it frees the agencies and the competitors from the complexities and costs of complying with the FAR rules, which are in place to protect taxpayers, even though the process employed is really a federal procurement. Applying innovative techniques to achieving federal missions should be supported. . .But their use should be carefully monitored and tracked to ensure that agencies are also following core procurement procedures to properly obtain necessary goods and services. Alan Chvotkin, Executive Vice President and Counsel of the Professional Services Council stated in a Washington Business Journal story. The Professional Services Council is the main trade association representing high-end IT (Information Technology) consulting professional services contractors.
When his story was cited by Washington Technologies, Steve Kelman - Alan Chvotkin responded:
I welcome the comments from my long-time friend Steve Kelman about my Washington Business Journal commentary on the growing use of prizes and contests in the federal marketplace, but I believe he misinterprets my points. Furthermore, Steve's creative use of ellipses in his response may also mislead those who didn't read my original piece. I share Steve's concern for the diminished capacity of our federal procurement system to encourage and reward innovation. Far from being an opponent of these prizes and contests, I'm a supporter of their appropriate use and welcomed OMB's 2010 guidance that clarified the scope of agencies' authority to use them. Space limitations in the original column constrained citing more of the appropriate and successful uses of these prize techniques, such as by the Army for its learning applications or the State Department for its "Apps4Africa" initiative. By the same token, I wanted to raise a caution about the risk of actions by some to employ this new technique because it's in vogue and seems to be one of this Administration's new initiatives, without considering the potentially serious disadvantages and consequences to taxpayers and competitors that could come from its misuse. My column's reference to the VA's Blue Button program was not to single it out for criticism but to draw attention to it as an interesting initiative by showing its pros and the cons and highlighting an important choice for participants of agreeing to surrender all of their intellectual property if selected and awarded the prize. In light of my "somewhat conservative" approach to federal procurement, and far from being a "naysayer" to innovation, I wanted to apply my 30 years of experience to caution our acquisition community to be alert to the risk that this innovative technique could be easily misused if not carefully monitored. That's just smart contracting that I hope Steve still believes in, too! -Alan Chvotkin, Executive Vice President and Counsel, Professional Services Council
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The Government Business Examiner suggests to emerging companies in the DC corridor and elsewhere to get their applications in for the 2012 Fast 50 and all other "contests" while the getting is good, because a growing dispopularity seems to lurking in the federal contracting undertow.
Citations:
- 2011 Fast 50; Washington Technology, 29 July 2011
- Fast 50 Winners have cause for celebration, concern, Nick Wakeman; 1 August 2011
- Procurement contests pooh-poohed by an unlikely source, Steve Kelman - Washington Technology; 10 August 2011
- When a procurement is not a procurement, Alan Chvotkin - Washington Business Journal; 4 August 2011
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