MDA eyes small local businesses
Director already targeting companies as part of BRAC transition plan

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

By REBECCA SALLEE
For The Times

The director of a Washington-based Department of Defense office that will move to Huntsville during BRAC transitions over the next few years is already courting local small businesses.

Lee Rosenberg, director of the Missile Defense Agency's office of small-business programs, said his organization will establish a Huntsville office within the next three to five years.

"Part of my office will move when facilities become available," said Rosenberg, who estimates the move will take place between 2009 and 2011.

Meanwhile, he is already working hard to provide a share of MDA's contracts to local small businesses.

"We target small businesses with the technology capabilities that we're looking for," Rosenberg said, adding that work includes everything from sensor and radar systems to rocket booster systems, laser systems, communication systems and control systems, among others. "A host of technology that all fits into and has a piece in the missile defense systems."

About $60 million to $70 million of MDA's $133 million budget is awarded by the Space and Missile Defense Command and already involves local businesses and corporations, but there's more work on the horizon, Rosenberg said.

His organization, like other government entities, is required by law to award a percentage of contracts to small and disadvantaged businesses, and it's his job to find them.

Rosenberg gets MDA's name out through an outreach program. He and his staff members attend conferences throughout the nation, including those that involve specific segments of small businesses, such as those owned by service-disabled veterans, women and other minorities. "I try to go out (and find types of businesses) where maybe we are not doing as well as we should," he said.

Local small businesses who feel their capabilities might be in line with MDA's needs or the needs of the organizations larger contractors should contact Rosenberg by phone or e-mail and provide him with their capability statements.

"What I find most effective is I sit down and meet with five or six businesses a week," he said.

MDA's public Web site offers "tons and tons of good information about the agency," he said. "Go to the part about 'doing business.' They can find out what types of services we're looking for."

Many local small businesses have already talked to or met with Rosenberg to discuss how their capabilities might fit into MDA's needs.

New World Solutions, a Huntsville-based information technology and engineering service firm, already has a foot in the door and a contract in hand.

Joe Savage, president of the company he founded in 1997, said New World Solutions is under contract to help with MDA's reorganization planning, consolidation of computing infrastructure, system conversion and merging of organizational applications as the group prepares to move to Huntsville.

Rosenberg hopes partnerships will be similar for other local companies.

"My big message is I'm really interested in learning about the capabilities of the Huntsville area," he said. "We're going to draw a lot more of our support from down there. I would foresee some of the companies from here (Washington, D.C.) moving down there."

Rosenberg said his job is to make sure his two types of customers, small-business owners and MDA program managers, meet and are mutually happy together.

"My job is to marry the two. It's important that we get capable, good performing small businesses," he said.

The work is challenging and meaningful, he added.

"In all seriousness, we're talking about defending a nation from very serious attack," he said. "We live or die on technology innovation and being able to stay ahead of the threat that's out there."