Air Force office sees bigger picture in small businesses

 

San Antonio Business Journal - August 25, 2006

 

In a world where bigger is often seen as better, the Air Force Outreach Program Office (AFOPO) has found a calling in helping small businesses grow -- understanding that great things can come in small packages.

In fact, the AFOPO assisted locally based Frontline Systems Inc. get its running legs as a business in 1992, and now uses the company's innovative Internet content-delivery technology through its joint venture NoWaitMedia to help train government professionals and other small-business owners.

The AFOPO, housed at Brooks City-Base in San Antonio, was established by the director of the U.S. Air Force and is part of the Air Force Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization. AFOPO provides assistance to small businesses through training and outreach in an effort to better prepare them to compete in the government contracting arena.

"The purpose (of the AFOPO) was to help reverse the downward trend of less business going to small businesses," says Renee Wesley-Case, director of the AFOPO. "The Air Force had a decline in the percentage as well as dollars going to small business starting in 1997. So, our purpose was to run programs and activities that would reverse that trend."

Wesley-Case says she has seen the office evolve significantly over the years. Wesley-Case is the former director of small business for Brooks Air Force Base and has been with the AFOPO since its inception in May 1998.

The AFOPO, Wesley-Case says, has both internal and external clients nationwide.

"The AFOPO is the most amazing, innovative and unique organization that I've ever had the pleasure of working with," says Bob Sanchez, chairman of Frontline Systems Inc. "They seek, find and use cutting-edge technologies to constantly improve not only their own service and performance, but also to motivate and assist small businesses to continue to improve."

Online training

One of the AFOPO's most successful services has been its online training program called the AFOPO Small Business Learning Center. The program is designed to train professionals with the government to work with small businesses to help them grow their business and products, benefit from programs such as the federal Historically Underutilized Business program, and to compete for contracts with the military. The site also makes it possible for small-business owners to train themselves.

"(The program) has been hugely successful," Wesley-Case says.

And some of the credit for the program's success goes to NoWaitMedia LLC, she adds.

"NoWaitMedia is using BroadRamp's (Content Delivery System) technology to deliver powerful, engaging, multimedia-rich Web-based training for the AFOPO on (the) Small Business Learning Center (Web site)," she explains. "It was a bold move to embrace an emerging technology to help the AFOPO ... deliver Web-based training that's relevant, highly effective and more palatable to their audience."

NoWaitMedia is a joint venture between San Antonio-based BroadRamp Inc. and Frontline Systems. The Content Delivery System (CDS) technology allows for immediate Web-based video and audio program launching with no time-delaying buffering and caching.

According to David Walker, director of training and development with Frontline, several training tutorials for companies looking to do business with the Air Force are being delivered via the CDS technology. He adds that several more tutorials are in development.

"Small business can enjoy ... tutorials like 'How To Sell To The Air Force' and 'Contingency Planning,'" Walker says. "The training has been improved most significantly in the area of enhancing the user's experience."

Sanchez says having the tutorials available is a great benefit to small businesses nationwide and also in San Antonio.

"The strength of San Antonio's small-business sector is due largely to the national AFOPO's working with our community," he says. "The start-up, growth and diversification of many small businesses like Frontline Systems is largely due to the guidance that we have received from the AFOPO."

Small companies, Sanchez says, have a tendency to focus too much on the contracts to see changes that affect them or to see new opportunities they can take advantage of in their business.

In the case of Frontline, in the mid 1990s, AFOPO provided Sanchez with mentoring services and contracting assistance, which helped Frontline to secure its initial business with the government. Frontline provides advanced technologies, information systems and program management for both government and commercial customers.

"The AFOPO is the organization that can keep you informed and moving in the right direction," he says.

Technology opportunities

As the AFOPO's Learning Center continues to grow, Wesley-Case says she is looking for additional ways to introduce new technologies to the office's Manufacturing Technical Assistance Production Program (MTAPP).

The Air Force Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization established MTAPP to assist in increasing and enhancing the competitiveness of small manufacturing firms in support of the Air Force and Department of Defense supply chain missions.

The MTAPP is managed by the AFOPO. As part of the program, the AFOPO assesses the manufacturing firms' capabilities. MTAPP support includes providing individualized technical assistance to the participating firms with the goal of addressing the gaps in their capabilities and improving their ability to meet future Air Force and Department of Defense requirements.

"We are currently performing research to determine if there are opportunities for technology infusion in the MTAPP program and if there are opportunities for MTAPP companies to take emerging or new technologies to production," Wesley-Case explains.

Wesley-Case says introducing new and emerging technologies to the Department of Defense supply chain is critical.

"(Technology infusion) would be interrelated with efforts to increase the exposure of our companies and program with the Department of Defense supply chain," she says. "We would collaborate with other organizations within the Air Force and the Department of Defense."

Although NoWaitMedia's CDS has not been introduced into the MTAPP program yet, Walker says the technology is being examined in terms of how it might benefit the program.

Teaching by example

The AFOPO is also continuing to expand its Mentor Protégé Program. The program was established by the U.S. Congress in 1991 to enhance technology development and to provide assistance to small businesses that have the potential to provide the Department of Defense (DoD) with supplies and services.

The program was established at Brooks City-Base in 1995.

"What we are trying to do is increase participation in the DoD procurement contracts," says Sathedia Bush, chief of the Air Force Mentor Protégé Program.

Bush says the program is also designed to help foster long-term relationships with the mentor and protégé businesses.

Currently the AFOPO has 25 mentor protégé agreements, Bush says.

"We like to be force multipliers, and in the last four years, we have invited other agencies to join us in our training," Wesley-Case says. "It's really exciting."

The Air Force Outreach Program Office

Where: 3315 Sidney Brooks, Brooks City-Base 78235

Tel: 210-536-1317

What: AFOPO provides assistance to small businesses through training and outreach in an effort to better prepare them to compete in the government contracting arena

Web site: www.selltoairforce.org