EKCS: Spoke to the company today, actually to Mr. Barchenko. I always think of more details I should have got after I hang-up, but I'll post this here if any of you would like to build on the facts I got today.
Some points I got from the conversation include:
1.) The "backlog" numbers given in reports do not refer to proposals; but actual orders. Although most of the orders have not been funded yet. He said the company has many more proposals out there....awaiting comitment...but these aren't in the baclog. He said IBDSS funding just isn't flowing as originally anticipated. He said that his staff has been working diligently on site walk overs and proposal writting....and he's disapointed that none of this has led to billable work yet. He said when the IBDSS solicitation was originally issued there were 32 projects outlined....now that number has increased to 132 projects...but funding isn't flowing yet....he speculated that some of it MIGHT break loose before the election?
2.) He said that he only knows of one IBDSS task order award to date, it was given to Abacus, the other small business. He's disappointed with the slow funding of these projects. He mentioned that EKCS was a sub to Abacus on another project he thought might potentially be a higher priority.
3.) He said most of the work on IBDSS does require secret clearances....I asked how much workload EKCS could handle if the work load hit all at once...he said with the "cleared" staff of ECSI and their partners they should be able to handle whatever is thrown at them.
4.) He basically agreed with me that small business set asides NEED to be met on federal contracts.
5.) He said a few things about new technology partners on the IBDSS team that I thought might warrant a PR, so I asked why these things weren't Pr'd....and he said he didn't want to be accused of hyping his company. But apparently they've got some agreemenet with ADT Federal Systems recently to team in IBDSS work. I felt pretty good about the fact he's afraid of hype.....because I know of plenty of other companies that would have these kind of events all over the wires....regardless of their significance.
I believe the market is pretty short sighted here on EKCS and eventually this one will work out.
"Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them." - Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Economy, 1854
