Consultants: Government is thirsty for foreign tech expertise

Federal business opportunities abound for foreign-based small companies that specialize in technology -- if they are willing to move, according to Washington area consultants.

Rather than sell directly from abroad, "you would want to come set up a U.S. company," said Gina Gallagher, a vice president at Pathfinders International LLC, a business development practice that helps clients secure government contracts. "If you're a small business [in the United States], you would be able to go after set asides" reserved for small firms.

Gallagher shared advice for international companies during a Wednesday Webinar hosted by Input, a government business research firm.

Alan Swendiman, former general counsel for the General Services Administration, agreed that startup companies overseas should set up subsidiaries or branch offices in the United States.

He noted that in order to get on a GSA schedule -- the procurement agency's inventory of eligible contractors -- a company must be in business in America for at least two years. Swendiman now serves as an equity director at Jackson & Campbell P.C., a Washington law firm. Pathfinders and Jackson & Campbell are members of the World Trade Center Dulles Airport, an affiliate of the New York-based World Trade Centers Association.

Gallagher said many requests for proposals require large companies to award a portion of the work to smaller subcontractors. In large procurements, the typical subcontracting plan must account for 40 percent of the total offer, she said.

"We highly encourage you to team," Gallagher said. "The SAICs, EDSes, Northrop Grummans -- they actually have a small business office, so they're actually trying to meet small companies because they have got to present 40 percent: how they are going to give it to small businesses."

Without entering into subcontracts, foreign firms likely will struggle to win fleeting Recovery Act funds, the consultants said. "We're now almost a year into the stimulus money," Swendiman said.

But GSA also received stimulus money for long-term, multiphase information technology and construction projects, such as the building of a new Homeland Security Department headquarters at the St. Elizabeths Campus, Swendiman added. "There may be a possibility to look at that from the standpoint of teaming, of subcontracting, if you've got a particular expertise or product that could be used in connection with that," he said.

Meanwhile, the State Department is using technology to help low-income foreign nationals rise to the same level of success as the foreign companies seeking government business. Alec Ross, senior adviser for innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said the department views technology as a tool for creating economic prosperity when health care, education, good nutrition and other basic needs are scarce.

Telecommunications, particularly cell phones, can be deployed for distance learning, exchanging medical records and mobile banking, for example.

"It's important not to be a cyber-utopian," Ross said in an interview with Nextgov on Wednesday. "There are many other issues that need to be addressed."