Newton, Massachusetts – Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, acquisitions and contracting leaders participated in a panel discussion held March 11 by the Hanscom Small Business Program Office to discuss avenues for collaboration with small businesses.
The panel included program executive officers from the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center and the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, as well as representatives from the Hanscom Air Force Base Contracting Directorate, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the U.S. General Services Administration. One of the main themes was Team Hanscom's focus on working with small and medium-sized businesses.
“Over the past four fiscal years, Hanscom has obligated more than $1 billion to small businesses each year,” said Andrea Panagoulias, director of the local Small Business Program Office.
Panagoulias said her office is focused on supporting Hanscom Air Force Base's PEO mission to maximize opportunities for small businesses.
“FY23 was a great year for small business,” said Maj. Gen. Anthony Genetempo, PEO for Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence, and Networks. “We exceeded expectations in every category, and I am very pleased to report that we are on track to achieve similar goals in FY24.”
Ryan Mantz, Acting Deputy PEO for Digital, said the agency also met its small business goals for FY23, noting that small businesses are critical to supporting digital excellence in the areas of “speed and innovation.” He added that he is playing a role.
Another topic of discussion was the pathway for small businesses to connect with the Department of the Air Force to showcase their capabilities and learn about new business opportunities.
Panelists highlighted several opportunities for engagement, including community support events hosted by the SBA. One-on-one meeting with the Hanscom Small Business Programs office. Capability briefing with Hanscom Air Force Base PEO. Get in touch with the Hanscom Innovation team about future pitch opportunities.
Panelists also discussed the importance of digital transformation and digital engineering.
“All new programs have to be born digitally,” Mantz said. “Also, when making changes to existing systems, at least the government's reference point is that he wants to be able to start with the architecture and consider how the system connects to other systems.”
Another area of focus was the need for products and solutions for small and medium-sized businesses to be adaptable.
“We want to emphasize scalability to all our small business partners,” says Genatempo. “Many of the things I've seen from our vendor pool work very well for groups of 250 users, but scale the same architecture to satisfy hundreds of thousands of Air Force and Space Force users. “If you're talking to me about your product and you're thinking about scalability issues, I think that would be a great leg up for you.”
To contact the Hanscom Small Business Programs office, email Panagoulias at andrea.panagoulias@us.af.mil or Associate Director Amy MacDonough at amy.macdonough@us.af.mil.
