Welcome to Advantage Consulting

Department of Defense has published a policy memorandum regarding the safe and effective use of Internet-based capabilities, including social networking services (SNS) and other interactive Web 2.0 applications. The memorandum makes it policy that DoD non-classified network be configured to provide access to Internet-based capabilities across all DoD components. Commanders at all levels and heads of DoD components will continue to defend against malicious activity on military information networks, deny access to prohibited content sites (e.g., gambling, pornography, hate-crime related activities), and take immediate and commensurate actions, as required, to safeguard missions (e.g., temporarily limiting access to the Internet to preserve operations security or to address bandwidth constraints).

DOD's press release states the directive is consistent with the increased security measures that the Department has taken to secure its networks and reinforces existing regulations related to ethics, operations security, and privacy and, " ... recognizes the importance of balancing appropriate security measures while maximizing the capabilities afforded by 21st Century Internet tools."

The press release notes that the uses of Internet-based capabilities, including SNS, have become integral tools for operating and collaborating across the DoD and with the general public. Establishing a DoD-wide policy ensures consistency and allows for full integration of these tools and capabilities. The policy memorandum is available at www.dtic.mil/whs/directives.

To Hunt Successfully, Go Where The Game Is!
By Bill Hamilton, Vice President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.

But first, where is the game?

Exploring and penetrating a new business area is an exciting challenge.

Business development begins with our knowledge of people in the organization. We do not begin by looking at a particular procurement -- though that may be the driving factor for wanting to penetrate a new business area. This is a good opportunity to mobilize our entire employee team or resource base. We begin by identifying three organizations of interest. An organization of interest is an organization or entity that we know can or believe can use our products or services. The organizations are small enough for us to manage, such as a service command or an agency division. At this point, all we will have done is identify organization of interest candidates. We now need to determine our potential access strength in those organizations. We refer to this process as an "access survey." We are going to determine how capable we are of accessing the organizations so we can prioritize our new business development efforts.

We begin by interviewing all of the people in our company external resource base. These interviews will be face to face. We want to identify as many people in the target organization that some one in our resource team knows and determine how well they know these people. We will assign a relationship score to each contact and tabulate our lists. When we complete the survey, we will add the scores and divide by the number of people in the organization we surveyed. That number is the target organization "power score." Next we will sort our candidate targets by their power score.

We now have a quantifiably justified and prioritized range of targets. We address the target with the highest power score and develop a business development plan and call plan for that organization. By our survey we have determined that we have a viable target and we have a good idea where our strengths lie and where they are weak.

Want to discuss ways the access survey can help your company or just want to discuss numbers? Call me at 703-642-5153 or contact me by e-mail me at bhamilton@acibiz.com and let's talk.

Make vs. Buy Business Tool Decisions
By John Bender, Vice President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.

The first quarter of each year we see companies looking at packaged Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) applications to help solve business problems.

Many business processes (business development and proposals, for instance) have changed quite a bit over the years. If you created any automated tools to help - from lists in documents and spreadsheets to older database applications - they are probably not working as well as they once did. This happens for a lot of reasons: organizational changes, people movements, older technology, etc. The tools may have been added to; changed and rewritten so many times that nobody wants to keep them up. If you have not been using automated tools, you are probably having a difficult time keeping up with your competitors who do use them. Is it time to start looking at what your real business tool needs are and at your alternatives?

It is very difficult to justify further development of internal tools when COTS applications are available. The applications often perform 80-90% of your needs at a fraction of the cost of internal development, testing, documentation and maintenance. The "Buy COTS" decision is usually your best choice if you evaluate realistically. We are always reviewing COTS tools to find "Best of Breed" solutions for companies like yours. There are new business tools literally coming out every day.

Contact John Bender at 703-642-5153 or jbender@acibiz.com for details on what is available and what might work best for you and your company.

Brown Bag Session 3: Telling Your Company Story
By Sid Jaffe, President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.

There are several Business Development topics and exercises that make excellent "Brown Bag" topics during a working session with your team. One exercise is for the staff to share their knowledge about your company and learn from each other additional details about your firm's capabilities.

Ask the group to discuss the following four questions and then fill in the bullet points that the group uncovers. The first question is to describe the company and create a sentence or two that provides a general overview of your firm. In the second question have them describe the solutions that your firm provides, in a bullet point format. The third question is to discuss what is compelling or unique about your products and services; that is, the things you are known for within certain client groups. The final question is to discuss how should your group refine and use the information you have created in the first three questions with people they meet.

What you are building is an "elevator speech" or the 45 second introduction that informally describes your firm, and is personalized in your employee's words. It isn't a sales pitch, it isn't a briefing; it is information about your firm presented in a clear and concise manner. For information of BD training and techniques like this one for your managers and technical staff contact Sid Jaffe, sjaffe@acibiz.com at 703-642-5153.