DHS approves new AT&T protégé
The company will help HCI Technologies improve its capabilities and make it a more viable contender for DHS information technology business.
The Homeland Security Department has approved a mentor/protégé partnership between AT&T Government Solutions and HCI Technologies. Such arrangements are intended to improve the smaller company's capabilities and make it a more viable contender for DHS information technology business.
Bill Polizos, head of AT&T Government Solutions' small-business program, said the company's goal is to help HCI learn to develop new business opportunities and become a reliable supplier of networking and telecommunications services to DHS. The larger firm will help the smaller one in business development, marketing, proposal development and quality management, Polizos said.
HCI, a small, disadvantaged business based in Sterling, Va., has 85 full-time employees and provides a range of IT capabilities to federal agencies including network management, systems analysis and other skills.
AT&T Government Solutions has several successful mentor/protégé agreements in place and has earned special recognition for its outreach to small businesses. The firm also mentors companies trying to win Defense Department business, and in 2003 won DOD's Nunn-Perry award for its work with Terradigm, a small New Mexico company.