Meet Joanna Alexis, President and CEO of Navstar, an IT Services and Innovative Enterprise Consulting Solutions firm that provides Software Development, Systems Engineering and Data Management to federal agencies.

With her knowledge and expertise of securing contracts with the Intelligence Community, Alexis has led the company to be recognized as one of the Top 25 Small Technology companies in the Washington Business Journal, Top Woman Owned Businesses in Virginia and 500 Top Women Owned Businesses in America.

Alexis spoke with WashingtonExec about challenges the government faces with high volumes of big data, key players who can influence how data analytics are analyzed as well as how to connect data end users with the various amounts of big data.

WashingtonExec: What are the latest needs across the government in big data?

Joanna Alexis: The Government requires new storage techniques and IT tools to more quickly and productively analyze huge volumes (multi-petabytes) of information to sort through and identify “actionable intelligence”.  In addition to the technology and tools, new processing models and innovation in thinking, organization and comprehension is also needed.

The government is looking for ways to make sense out of the avalanche of information that is coming down. Navstar is involved in the many phases of the big data process.  We provide people who can write the algorithms to query the data, people who can find correlations from disparate data sets, and those who understand how to take the data a step further and exploit the data – those who can pass knowledge on to those who take action based on the findings. We also have the engineers who understand how the data is stored, administrators who can ensure the integrity of the data, and developers and visionaries who can provide a platform for the end user (an analyst, someone in the field, or whoever else) that receives the information in a digestible manner.

WashingtonExec: What roles are new tools and techniques playing in making big data analytics a reality?

Joanna Alexis: System Engineers and Developers who create the tools and apply innovation to legacy applications; Data scientists who define the requirements and help to filter the information such that it is usable. Administrators/Network Engineers who understand that the information in their care is not just for their organization’s consumption, but for OGAs (Other Government Agencies) as well The open source movement has been steadily proving its worth, and big data and the tools surrounding it are no exception. By allowing administrators and developers direct access to projects (Apache Hadoop is the prime example in this case), two benefits immediately come to mind: (1) ‘Crowdsourcing’ allows for the ‘best of breed’ solutions to evolve out of many ideas, and (2) the ability to customize an implementation for an organization can provide a targeted solution, rather than the 80% solution given by COTS vendors.

WashingtonExec: What are the challenges and opportunities?

Joanna Alexis: The primary challenges are space, data organization and accessibility which have to scale from manageable data and solution sets to the previously unimaginable volumes with which we are now and will be working in the near future.  Using storage on demand and commercial and custom applications for search and retrieval, Government users may take advantage of industry, commercial products and services in a “private” cloud implementation.

Another challenge is deciding how to provide the data to the end users. This can take two main tracks of concern: the first deals with how to present the data (virtual desktops, client apps, web-based, etc), the second deals with the role of the end user (analyst who wants to be able to connect the dots, data scientist who is concerned with how well the system that accesses the data is performing/accuracy of results, manager who is concerned about system stability, etc).

Perhaps the biggest opportunity is sharing lessons learned in standing up and operationally hosting big data. By having various organizations providing access to their data among partner agencies, a ‘best of breed’ can take place, where hosting standards, data access, and even infrastructure decisions down to the network topology, can be shared and disseminated, providing a place where discussions can occur, and lessons learned result in cost savings to the agencies involved, from an infrastructure and data access point of view.

WashingtonExec: What are the future partnering opportunities around big data?

Joanna Alexis: Every agency or department within the government can partner with one another to create solutions to collect and provide data that is mutually beneficial to all parties involved. Some of these joint efforts are more organic than others, based on the definition of the data concerned. Both large and small companies can also form strategic partnerships with solutions vendors to provide solutions to the government.

Four Local Government Contracting Leaders Appointed To Navstar Board Of Advisors

Written by Kelly Petty on March 26, 2012 on WashingtonExec.com        

 Joanna Alexis, Navstar

Navstar announced Friday that it had named four local, distinguished business executives to its newly-formed Board of Advisors. Kenneth Bartee, Rafael J. Dominguez, Joanne O. Isham and Todd A. Stottlemyer have all agreed to serve on the inaugural board. The new members hail from various industries including consulting, software development, Intelligence and IT.

These executive bring combined years of experience in M & A, finance, intelligence community procurement, government contracting and small business growth strategies to provide insight and guidance to Navstar management throughout the development and execution of an aggressive long-range strategic plan.

“I am honored by the commitment of these local business luminaries to join our Board of Advisors,” said Joanna Alexis, founder and President/CEO. “I look forward to their expert advice as we navigate our future course in this very competitive marketplace. I am very pleased about their willingness to devote their time and resources to Navstar and appreciate their interest to ensure our continued, future success.”

The four executives carry an impressive resume:

Bartee, President & CEO of Decisive LLC, is a 27 year veteran in the information technology sector. Previously, he served as President & CEO of McDonald Bradley, where, through directing daily operations and the long-term strategic plan, he increased revenues ten-fold over 13 years. He also successfully completed five acquisitions and sold the company to ManTech in 2007 for nearly $80 million. He currently serves on the Board of Visitors for James Madison University and on the boards of Govplace, BRMi Consulting, Silosmashers and Teardrops to Rainbows charity.

Dominguez is CFO and Treasurer of CRGT. He has 20 years of finance experience in a range of industries including high technology, software development, government contracting and professional services. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President at ManTech International, he was responsible for finance and accounting operations of the 1.8 billion company as well as the acquisition integration strategies with McDonald Bradley, where he served as Senior Vice President and CFO for almost six years before ManTech acquired it.

Isham is the Chairman and CEO of Strategic Connections and Solutions. She has spent more than 30 years in the Intelligence community for the federal and private sectors. Isham has held executive management roles with such government contractors as BAE, High Performance Technologies and L-1 Identity Solutions. Currently, she is a member of the Director of National Intelligence Advisory Board, the Board of Trustees of Analytic Services, the Board of Directors of the Hertz Foundation and the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation.

Mr. Stottlemyer is CEO and Board member of Acentia, a $160 million IT solutions provider to the commercial and government markets. Prior to being EVP for the INOVA Health System and President and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business, he founded Apogen, an IT company, growing it to $200 million and successfully selling it to QinetiQ. He holds Board seats in several local public and private organizations, ranging from Virginia Commerce Bank to the Northern Virginia Technology Council.

Bruce brings nearly 30 years experience supporting and managing information technology programs for federal government customers, particularly in the intelligence community. He has been directly involved in all phases of systems procurement, development, delivery and operations.  

At Navstar, he will be establishing best practices and discipline which the Company will use to build consistency in IT service delivery across its entire customer base.  In addition, he will create a framework which the Company will use to target new federal opportunities and to effectively manage their capture process.

Previously, Bruce helped to double the revenue of TRS Consulting, Inc. in two years then to smoothly assimilate it into NCI Information Systems after it was acquired. Similarly, after resurrecting the Intelligence business at Infodata Systems, Inc., he helped to transition that work into McDonald Bradley when it was acquired. Prior to that, he served as a Director at Oracle Corporation where he oversaw the company’s software development, administration and applications support to the Intelligence Community. Earlier in his career, he served as Deputy Director at Quality System Inc. where he led a staff of engineers, developers, and technicians on technology contracts for more than 12 years.

We are excited  to have Bruce as a part of our team!

Happy New Year!  As we close out 2011 and as 2012 begins to dawn, it seems like a great time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished, the journey we’ve taken to get to where we are and the plans we have for an exciting, bright future.  

I’d like to start by telling you how much I appreciate each member of the Navstar team and that I recognize we wouldn’t be where we are without the contributions made by each and every one of our employees.  Thank you. 

Last year was a year of growth, change and transition.  At the beginning of last year, the executive team consisted of Beth Bawcombe, who joined us in 2010, and me.  Beth was a great addition to our executive team and made huge strides in expanding our work within our customers, implementing best practices in recruiting, operations management and service delivery.  We still needed expertise in matters of HR, Finance, Contracts and Security.  We looked for executives with proven expertise “been there done that” in these various roles to help get us to the next level.  In 2011 David Acton joined us as CFO and Stephanie Winebarger joined us as VP of HR.  They brought with them a breadth and depth of knowledge and expertise which was just what we needed.  

The last “missing piece” was expertise in driving operations, and specific business development know-how with our customers.  We got that in December 2011 when we brought Bruce Morton onboard.  Bruce’s 30 years of experience supporting and managing information technology programs, particularly in the intelligence community, gives us depth in all phases of systems procurement, development, delivery and operations.  He is going to be the one to drive the development of our best practices and the corporate discipline we need to build consistency in our IT services delivery across our customer base.  He will also use his experience to help create a framework that Navstar will use to target new Federal opportunities and to effectively manage our capture process.  Whew – his plate will be full!  He’s just what we needed.  Our executive team is complete, symbiotic and fully functional!  We are proving the old adage that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  

With the executive team in place and with the help of our awesome employees, we are really making strides in achieving our strategic goal of transforming our service offerings into core competencies, and increasing our market share in the Federal sector by growing our existing clients and expanding our client rosters.  We have earned a great reputation as a trusted partner to our customers.  And, we want our reputation for excellence to spread to other areas within our customer community.  In a nutshell, that’s our goal for 2012.  

We know that because of the efforts of our phenomenal team, we not only survived 2011 in a down economy, we thrived.  We want 2012 to be even more successful for the company and for you.  It’s an incredible feeling to know that when I go out to clients – both existing and potential, that there’s no way I can oversell the competency and commitment of my team.  

Thank you for all you do.  My door is always open to you. 

Joanna

Thank you to everyone who helped make our adopted families’ Christmas a little brighter this year!  As you can see from the pictures below, your response was overwhelming and incredibly generous!  Proving, once again, that Navstar employees are the best people!!  We wish you a joyous holiday season and a very happy and peaceful New Year. 

 WOW!

The Elves Hard at Work

YOU Made This Happen!  And this isn’t even all the presents!

THANK YOU!!

This holiday season, Navstar has proudly teamed with Our Daily Bread in Fairfax County and will be adopting two families.  Thousands of families in our own back yard, in Fairfax County, turn to Our Daily Bread for assistance.  Many will find it difficult, if not impossible, to provide a special holiday for their children this year.  We would like to help make their season brighter!  If you choose to purchase gifts or donate money, you can drop them off at the Navstar Corporate Office at 1897 Preston White Drive, Suite 202, Reston, VA 20191 no later than Tuesday, December 20^th.  

Through this program, we purchase gifts for only the children.  Here are the wish lists for each family:

 Family #1 has 4 children and has asked for the following:

• 11 year old girl – clothing size youth large
• 9 year old boy – clothing youth size medium
• 6 year old girl – clothing size youth small 
• 4 year old boy – clothing size youth small
• Target gift cards 

 Family #2 has 3 children and has included the following items on their wish list:

• 4 year old girl – clothing size 6, shoe size 12
• 3 year old boy – clothing size 5T, shoe size 10
• 2 year old girl – clothing size 2T, shoe size 7
• Dolls, toy cars, and puzzles

 We can’t imagine a better way to embody the holiday spirit than to assist our neighbors in need.  Please be generous and join us in helping less fortunate families this year.

If you have any questions, please contact Stephanie Winebarger at swinebarger@navstar-inc.com.

There is never a shortage of compliments as customers continue to praise Navstar for the top-notch performances and skill sets displayed by our employees.  We are proud of the achievements we have made, and strive to promote an environment that encourages professional development and growth. 

 We are currently developing a long-term plan to ensure that each employee is afforded the tools needed in order to grow within the company.  Whether it be additional training, certifications or mentoring programs, it is important to us that we provide career development opportunities to support your continued professional growth.  We see each employee as a long-term member of our company and want to know what tools they feel will best contribute to their success at Navstar.

Our professional development benefit offers up to $3,000 per year toward training courses, college classes, certifications or professional associations.  We encourage our employees to let us know about additional programs they feel would help them learn and achieve more in their career.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the Navstar Company Picnic!  It was a blast!

As Navstar continues to grow, we have been awarded many opportunities to expand in several of our key service offerings. This expansion has allowed us to continue our focus on past and new business as we explore new opportunities for 2012. As management heads into strategic planning, we are focusing on turning these service offerings into core competencies. After conducting a careful evaluation of our current key service offerings, it becomes apparent that Navstar deals primarily in Enterprise/Systems Engineering, Data Management, and Software Development.

Currently, Navstar’s largest service offering is Systems Engineering. This area is important because it focuses on the design of complex engineering projects as well as how they should be managed over the life cycle of the project. Our top second offering, Data Management, functions to develop, execute and supervise the plans and programs that administer and enhance the value of data and information assets. Software Development is another important element of computer programming because it encompasses the research, prototyping, modification and maintenance that result in software products.

This evaluation will better enable us to watch our service offerings so that they may be matched to future key initiatives and buying trends, allowing us to establish a niche within these key offerings. In addition, it will help us define what makes Navstar different from our competition, ultimately laying the groundwork to transition from a staffing subcontractor to a strategic subcontractor and prime.