SPAWAR Charleston to enhance outreach to small businesses

The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in North Charleston is reaching out to technology businesses in the region interested in future subcontracting work with the agency.

The initiative, which is scheduled to get under way May 1, stems from a partnership between SPAWAR, the Charleston Defense Contractors Association and the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.

It will include streamlining businesses’ ability to communicate with SPAWAR online. It will also provide opportunities quarterly for company representatives to meet with SPAWAR technicians and officials at locations in the community away from its secured facility.

“Small business is the backbone of our economy and a very important element in SPAWAR’s business model,” said Ann Howell, deputy of the agency’s small business program.

“On one level, this will provide a greater opportunity for us to do some networking with small technology companies in the area, (and) at the same time, I think our off-site programs will provide a great opportunity to educate local companies about doing business with SPAWAR and, by extension, with the federal government as a whole,” she said.

Howell and her staff are in the process of developing a “company-at-a-glance” online data sheet that will help small businesses communicate their qualifications for future contracting and subcontracting opportunities to the agency in a more efficient manner.

But just as important are the half-day sessions that will provide small business owners with their own form of basic training.

“One of the basic tenets of business is ‘Know your customer,’” Howell said. “You’d be surprised how many people who contact us don’t really have a clue about what we do.”

In short, Howell said, “We buy information technology.”

For more information of the initiative and upcoming community sessions, visit http://sscc.spawar.navy.mil/.