Delivering Commercial, Outcome-Based Solutions Will Speed Mission Success
SAIC brings together innovations from the commercial market with government procurement and compliance savvy to deliver outstanding outcomes
05-14-2020
Heath Starr
IT MODERNIZATION
In late February, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jason Kattman, procurement operations branch chief at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and host Francis Rose for an episode of Government Matters “Agency in Motion: USDA” (video below). It was a great discussion on outcome-based procurement, including how relaxing requirements on an employee’s location could help bring the best talent and solutions to the government.
Little did I know then that we were about to head into a global pandemic that would abruptly and fundamentally alter how the world works and almost all of our work locations were about to change.
I saw a meme the other day that asked, “Who in your organization has been responsible for bringing about the most innovation in telework and remote technologies in your company: your CIO, your CTO, or COVID-19?” With due credit to all CIOs and CTOs who have quickly pivoted to implement continuity of operations plans for rapid technology adoption, the message rang true: the COVID-19 pandemic has, in a matter of weeks, driven changes that might have otherwise taken years to occur.
The sudden shift has been disruptive in many ways, but it presents a tremendous opportunity for the government to reimagine how it procures goods and services. It also gives companies like SAIC a chance to take a new approach to how we engage with our customers.
Now, more than ever, it’s clear that we need to take a creative, forward-looking approach to getting the right solutions that meet our government customers’ needs, so that they can quickly adapt to the challenges of the moment. This approach has many elements, including a more dispersed workforce, increased access to emerging technologies, and procurements that are less prescriptive and allow greater flexibility for companies to develop and provide solutions. Working together with our customers, we can help them achieve the outcomes they need to serve critical national missions.
SAIC is well-positioned to help build this success. In March, we completed the acquisition of Unisys Federal, providing us with new market access, accelerated investments in research and development, and managed services capability on a larger scale that builds on SAICs existing services, which were already serving nine million users last year. The acquisition further expands our capacity to more than 1,000 technology experts delivering managed services across nine geographically disparate U.S-based service centers, with enhanced remote virtual agent capabilities.
As part of our integration, we established a new practice area to oversee our commercialization and managed services business, and I’m honored to have been asked to lead that effort. In this role, I’ll be looking to build on the platform of outcome-based procurement activities that we have built working with USDA, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and many others. The new organization will focus on the development and delivery of product and “everything as a service” (XaaS) offerings. By doing so, we can bring the best solutions to government faster and with better results.
To be clear, we have always had commercial customers, but as the government evolves its understanding of how to efficiently buy and implement technology and services, we are responding by increasing the volume of our fixed-unit and fixed-price offerings of commercial-grade products and services that have been tailored to the unique missions and requirements of our federal customers.
The integration we bring is critical to this effort. I have seen firsthand what happens when a federal agency attempts to contract with a purely commercial company for services. The shock of federal compliance, documentation, and processes quickly grinds progress to a halt.
By increasing SAIC’s focus on delivery of commercial products and offerings, our federal customers gain the efficiencies, scalability, and on-demand features of the commercial market. And they get them from a proven federal systems integrator that understands how to implement those offerings while complying with federal requirements — yielding the best possible solution for the taxpayer.
As we pivot to a post-COVID-19 reality, there will be new and unique pressures on the government workforce and national priorities. With a creative, flexible, and outcome-based approach to procurement, we can leverage the scope, scale, and expertise of our more than 25,000 employees, along with the capabilities of our vast network of commercial partners, to deliver fast, reliable, predictable, and, most important, successful results to our federal customers.
For more information on SAICs commercial products and services offerings, or to have a discussion about how we have aided our other federal customers in making the change to outcome-based acquisitions, please contact me at heath.a.starr@saic.com.
RELATED: Visit SAIC'S COVID-19 Information page at www.saic.com/covid-19-response
MORE: Watch Government Matters "Agency in Motion: USDA" with Heath Starr and USDA's Jason Kattman:
Posted by: Heath Starr
Vice President of Service Delivery Innovation
Heath Starr is vice president of the service delivery innovation practice within SAIC’s Innovation Factory group, leading SAIC’s commercialization and managed services for the company’s solutions and services. He also leads product management, commercial pricing, sales, go-to-market strategy, alternative acquisitions, business transformation and customer success. Since joining SAIC in 2014, Starr has driven innovation of digital services across the federal government. He has garnered more than $2 billion in contract awards for SAIC and designed and delivered large-scale federal programs for diverse customers across 14 different federal agencies.
Heath Starr is vice president of the service delivery innovation practice within SAIC’s Strategy, Growth, and Innovation group, leading SAIC’s commercialization and managed services for the company’s solutions and services. He also leads product management, commercial pricing, sales, go-to-market strategy, alternative acquisitions, business transformation and customer success.
Since joining SAIC in 2014, Starr has driven innovation of digital services across the federal government. He has garnered more than $2 billion in contract awards for SAIC and designed and delivered large-scale federal programs for diverse customers across 14 different federal agencies.
As an expert in business transformation, with a background in change management, organizational strategy, digital services, and the adoption of new business models, his successes include leading some of government’s largest and most visible transformation initiatives and citizen-facing technology integrations. He has been recognized as SAIC’s Program Manager of the Year and won the CEO Ingenuity Award, which recognized his creativity, empowerment, integrity, and mission understanding.
Prior to joining SAIC, Starr spent eight years directing a portfolio of organizational design and innovation contracts for General Dynamics. He started his career as a federal employee working in the Business Transformation Office at the Department of Homeland Security, which chartered the integration of 26 legacy agencies that formed the agency.
He is a certified Program Management Professional, Change Management Professional, and Scrum Master, with additional credentials in DevOps and ITIL. He is a member of the ACT-IAC Partners program and serves on the advisory Boards for Operation Homefront and the St. Michael the Archangel School.
Starr is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and holds a master’s degree in public administration and a bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University. He has been awarded credentials from Georgetown University in organizational performance management and George Mason University and earned his a Six Sigma Black Belt from George Mason University.
HEATH STARR IN THE MEDIA:
- Government Matters: Trends in Technology Acquisition at USDA (Video)
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