Manish Bhatia, an innovator the in Karsun Solutions Cloud Practice, recently attended Igniting Innovation, the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council’s (ACT-IAC’s) celebration of innovation in government modernization. Below he reflects on his experience at the event and as a member of the evaluation committee. This post first appeared on LinkedIn.

One cold winter day in 2016 as I was preparing to join the GovCon industry, my mind was clouded with certain doubts – I was wondering whether the government was ready ‘Enough’ to imbibe the latest and greatest in technologies for efficient and effective solutions for the citizens. What better use of the hard earned taxpayer’s money? Hailing from the commercial sector where cutting-edge is the norm, the Government industry is thought by many to be ‘jaded’ or slow in adopting the latest and greatest in technology.

My doubts quickly died when I first joined Karsun Solutions LLC, where innovation was weaved into the very fabric of the company. The entire focus was to achieve the extraordinary while defying the status quo for its customers utilizing nothing but the most advanced technologies and processes. Additionally, my selection as an evaluator on the ACT-IAC Igniting Innovation panel convinced me to change my own ‘jaded’ belief! I am honored to be on the panel to assess and evaluate the multitude of innovations across various walks of the Government industry. Applicants here are solving an array of ultra-complex problems with use cases ranging from utilizing Augmented Reality to save lives of Air Force Pilots to sophisticated Blockchain and Machine Learning solutions for the age-old problem of government acquisition systems to everything in between.

I was stunned! A few of the use cases strongly caught my attention:

• Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) – GSA FEDSIM
• HHS ACCELERATE – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Pilot Training Next – SAIC

Process Improvement — In the world of Government business, it is a known fact that obtaining efficient service from the GovCon community is difficult, whether by vendors or by the government agency. One has to comply with FAR rules and often times it’s difficult for both the government and the startups to do business due to these regulations. GSA FEDSIM’s Commercial Solutions Opening – (CSO) initiative is an answer to this problem. It offers a platform for the government to buy innovative solutions from organizations without complying with the FAR rule book. GSA and DHS can procure innovative services easily through the reduction of barriers, contract clauses and paperwork, in turn freeing the government to obtain top-notch services from innovative companies. The CSO solution is a win-win for both the sectors, bringing in high-quality innovation to agencies at a break-neck speed which took months in the previous procurement process.

Innovative use of Technology — HHS ACCELERATE (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) could very well become the future of Procurement not only within the US government but also for governments across the world. It’s a one stop shop for Procurement with APIs to Sam.gov and has dramatically improved user experience between the contracting officer and vendors by pre-populating templates. Vendors can enhance their profile by adding capabilities that could be easily searched by contracting officers. They can quickly upload their catalogs on the platform while contracting officers can easily create documents like RFI with a click of a button.The key is the trust and transparency that is shared across the system using a decentralized database incorporated using Blockchain technologies. This enables an agency for ‘Smart Contracts’ that could be executed by various parts of the agency rather than relying on one particular department. ACCELERATE is also powered by AI and machine learning which reviews content within the agency acquisition plan and selects applicable clauses for preview along with the populated form and solicitation at any point.

Disruptive Innovation to save lives –  Pilot Training NEXT (PTN) is an experiential approach designed to maximize pilot trainees’ capacity for learning. The US Air Force Air Education Training Command is using this approach to accelerate students through the undergraduate pilot training course that teaches them basic airmanship and aircraft control. PTN utilizes Augmented Reality to generate a sophisticated simulation environment in which a trainee student can operate a variety of aircraft seamlessly. This allows them to develop critical thinking skills to fly safely and think quickly when operating an aircraft beyond the memory associated with flying a single type of aircraft. It uses biometrics, advanced analytics, human performance and advanced learning strategies to achieve and provide indicators of practical learning and student improvement. Students who use PTN can quickly learn from mistakes made during simulation allowing them to train in different situations thus saving lives in the future. PTN is the future of Air Force.

My thoughts are certainly changing as the season is changing from winter to summer and I envision that the government along with GovCon community will continue to make big strides in making the lives of citizens better through innovation and events of the likes — ACT-IAC Igniting Innovation is encouraging to solve problems like never before! We all have a responsibility to keep igniting the innovations as this is what humans have done from the beginning of evolution and this is what have to do for a better future for generations to come.

Manish Bhatia represents Karsun’s collaborative spirit within the IT contracting industry. Check out the Karsun Innovation Center for the latest on IT modernization innovation at Karsun.

Team members from Karsun Solutions recently joined together to support children’s education at a fundraiser for the Organization to Provide EducatioN (OPEN). Held near its Herndon, Virginia headquarters, Karsun Solutions was the event sponsor for the annual OPEN Rasika concert. Through this event, Karsun enabled critical educational opportunities for disadvantaged children in India. Performing in nearby Sterling, Virginia the Rasika concert brought together musicians from across the United States in support of the non-profit OPEN organization. The program was compered by film star Anu Hasan.

Founded in 2003, the 501(c)(3) charity has granted more than $950,000, benefiting more than 33,000 children and 105 schools. OPEN provides educational opportunities to children and young adults in India. These educational projects include scholastic aid, supplemental classes and the funding of libraries and other extracurricular programs. The organization is primarily funded through individual and corporate donations, employer-matching contributions, and biennial fundraisers. To donate or learn more about the valuable education work performed by OPEN visit openindia.org.

OPEN is one of several organizations regularly supported by Karsun Solutions. Karsun’s support of this event is one of many ways the company strives to connect local IT leaders with the global community. Mentorship within local organizations and schools is part of Karsun’s commitment to developing the next generation of IT leadership.

In addition to outreach organized by Karsun leadership, employees also form their own teams to support charitable organizations. The Karsun Solutions Business Development team regularly supports Bridges to Community. This international development organization supports housing initiatives in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. The Karsun Running Club previously supported AIMS India. Locally, Karsun’s Herndon headquarters hosts a neighborhood beautification/Adopt-a-Highway team.

About Karsun Solutions

Karsun Solutions is a premier IT modernization firm delivering a portfolio of services to its federal and commercial customers. Its core competencies include Modern Software Development, Cloud Solutions, and Advanced Analytics. The organization’s quality, development, and information security practices include CMMI Level 5 DEV, ISO 9001:2015, ISO 20000:2011 and ISO 27001:2013 certifications.

George Mason University students partnered with the Karsun Innovation Center to develop a rapid prototyping tool for microservices. Joseph Oliver, Artin Malekian and Habib Khalid worked directly with the innovation team on the rapid scaffolding tool. The seniors completed the work as part of their Industry-Sponsored Senior Design Project. Now in its second year, the senior capstone project integrates students’ computer science coursework with hands-on work with their capstone sponsor. The course is a unique opportunity to connect students of the Virginia-based university with the local IT industry. Including Karsun Solutions, eight companies sponsored the work of 28 students as part of the project.

The rapid scaffolding tool developed by the students aids in rapid prototyping for both monolith and microservices applications. Rapid prototyping is of utmost importance to enable human-centered design of software-intensive systems. As organizations build Lean teams, they seek opportunities to build minimum viable products (MVPs) faster with reduced initial cost. Quick set-up, using a rapid prototyping tool, gives teams this power. As an IT modernization firm specializing in modern software development, cloud solutions and advanced analytics, this project supports teams across Karsun

JHipster (https://www.jhipster.tech/) lets development teams generate application code for a variety of frameworks and languages. With this project, the intention was to extend JHipster to include support for additional languages and frameworks, so that the development teams get additional choices for building faster prototypes including polyglot microservices. In particular, the team focused their efforts on enhancing GoLang support for backend services.

The project was mentored by Badri Sriraman and Shanmuga Palanivelu. Badri is Vice President, Karsun Innovation Center (KIC) and the Chief Innovator at GoLean.io.  He is an accomplished Senior IT Architect, with over 22 years in developing solutions to modernize enterprise IT systems. Shanmuga has over 14 years of experience in software development doing software design, architecture and full-stack development. He is currently focused on both developing and deploying microservices at scale and implementing DevOps at scale.

Microservices innovation is one of several areas researched within our Karsun Innovation Center. This research and development unit consists of several prototyping teams and Centers of Excellence. These teams also act as subject matter experts, form vendor partnerships, arrange training and host a yearly internship. The innovation center is part of Karsun’s larger mentorship framework which includes industry associations, academic outreach and the Karsun Academy professional development program. We connect with both students and academics through hackathons, talks, and career fairs. The innovation center is still accepting Developer and DevOps interns into their summer program.

Karsun Solutions partners with Virginia Tech this April to host an online webinar for their Master of Information Technology students. Students of that program are invited to join Karsun Solutions leadership for a lunchtime webinar on Tuesday, April 30^th at 12:00 pm Eastern to learn more about the Karsun journey and the exciting IT career opportunities.

Virginia Tech’s Master of Information Technology (MIT) program is a collaboration between the university’s College of Engineering and Pamplin College of Business. Coursework includes Health Information Systems, Software Development, Information Security, Business Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, Networking, and Telecommunications. The 17-year-old program is considered among the best online graduate IT programs. US News and World report rank it the number three online graduate IT program and number two online IT program for veterans.

Karsun Solutions is committed to bridging the gap between technology students and the IT industry. Last fall, Jason Marceau shared his tips for graduate students crafting their work experience story. In addition to virtual events, other academic partnerships include hackathons, senior capstone programs, internships, and traditional job fairs. Their 2019 Innovation Center Internship program is currently accepting applications. A rapidly growing firm, Karsun Solutions has over 100 open positions including Project Managers, Delivery Managers, DevOps Engineers, Security Engineers, Data Engineers, Solutions Architects, Technical Architects, Full Stack Developers, and Business Analysts. They are seeking innovative professionals for their teams in Virginia and Oklahoma.

Team Karsun supports customers in the US government including the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration, and General Services Administration. The innovation and performance-driven culture provide employees the autonomy to innovate, the accountability to take ownership, and advancement opportunities for personal growth. Join the team and “Do Extraordinary” while delivering high-quality software development, cloud, and advanced analytics solutions to Karsun’s customers. Enjoy easy access to decision-makers, with the stability, experience, and scalability of a large firm.

Subscribe to Karsun’s monthly Extraordinary Life newsletter for the latest on career events, openings, internships, and talent news.

In 2018 US federal agencies spent 4.11 trillion dollars. This figure is reported by USASpending.gov, a clearinghouse for money spent by the United States Government. The data provided there represents the complex relationship between the agencies administering spending, the federal accounts that contain those funds, plus the states or other recipients receiving that money. Failure to fully understand this relationship sometimes yields unintended consequences for local policymakers and their affected communities. Where these relationships were previously obscured, data and analytics experts now have the ability to breakdown these relationships and either diagnose or predict spending outcomes.

Karsun Solutions is partnering with graduate students at the University of Southampton to analyze this big data. In our upcoming Making Sense of Government Data analytics hackathon we invite students to take two approaches to breaking down this complex data. In the visualization challenge, we ask students to take a descriptive and diagnostic approach. Alternatively, students may use the data to build useful predictive models.

Visualization Challenge: Understanding USASpending.gov Data

Students participating in our visualization competition explain complex data-intensive processes in a user friendly way. Using the USASpending.gov data students must visually portray information in a manner that’s meaningful to both a government policymaker and the average citizen. Students are challenged with thinking about the relationship between the parties involved versus new insights like highest spend, award or distribution.

Predictive Challenge: Investigating Income

In the predictive challenge we ask students not only to understand patterns and trends, but also to think about the impact of other publicly available data, such as income, on those trends. For instance, they could layer on income information provided by the Internal Revenue Service. Next, they might predict whether income is expected to rise or fall for those areas.  In this track students come away with a clearer insight into building tools for policymakers. These tools have the power to guide the way national policies impact local spending or address shifting neighborhood demographics before they impact national policy.

Clarity through Data

Participants in either track are ultimately judged on their ability to demonstrate original findings in a concise matter while demonstrating technical prowess. Top teams will also demonstrate inference with clear, well thought out claims.

Karsun Solutions is thrilled to be part of this data and analytics hackathon. We are modernization experts serving customers across the federal government. Visit our event announcement to learn more about Karsun Solutions and our partners, the University of Southampton and the Centre for Operational Research, Management Science and Information Systems (CORMSIS.) Join me, Jason Marceau, later this spring as we share our hackathon insights after the event.

Manish Bhatia from Karsun Solutions Cloud Practice joins two communities affiliated with the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC.) A non-profit organization, ACT-IAC connects the IT industry with government leaders. Bhatia will join ACT-IAC’s Intelligent Automation Working Group and the Igniting Innovation selection committee.

Bhatia joined the Intelligent Automation Working Group.  The group is part of ACT-IAC’s Emerging Technology Community of Interest. Group members are charged with assessing the current state of innovation then creating industry recommendations.

Bhatia was also recently selected to evaluate the nominations for ACT-IAC’s annual Igniting Innovation Conference and Awards. The 2019 conference will be held May 23 at the Renaissance Washington, DC and feature keynotes, panels and talks by senior government leaders. Exhibitors are competitively selected by this committee. The 40 exhibitors represent cutting-edge public sector IT innovations.

Bhatia represents Karsun’s collaborative spirit within the IT contracting industry. Karsun routinely participates in ACT-IAC’s fellowship and professional development programs, both as mentee and mentor. Sudhir Duggineni is a member of the 2019 Voyager Class and Shaunak Ashtaputre was recently selected for the 2019 Partner Class. Additionally, Karsun Chief Operating Officer Terry Miller is the industry chair for ACT-IAC’s Partner Program.

The federal IT modernization experts, Karsun Solutions enables enterprise transformation for its government customers. Premier customers include the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration, and General Services Administration. An innovation-based and performance-driven culture, Karsun Solutions delivers extraordinary outcomes for their customers. Karsun Solutions is an established firm, with a DCAA Approved Accounting System, CMMI Level 5 – DEV appraisal, and ISO 9001, ISO 20000 and ISO 27001 certifications. Partnering with Karsun Solutions ensures the nimbleness, agility, and access to decision makers of a small business without sacrificing the scalability, capabilities, and experience in modern software development, cloud solutions and advanced analytics of a large firm.

30 March 2019 – University of Southampton

The Karsun Solutions Data and Analytics practice announces Making Sense of Government Data, an analytics hackathon co-sponsored with the University of Southampton. During the event, students will engage with US Spend Data, in either visualization or predictive analytics challenges. The data, hosted at USASpending.gov, is provided by the United State government to improve transparency for citizens and taxpayers. Spanning agencies across the federal government, these analytics challenges help students learn how to make sense out of large and complex data sets.

Jason Marceau, a Director at Karsun Solutions, returns to the University of Southampton to lead the challenge on campus on 30 March 2019. Jason is University of Southampton Alumnus having studied MSc in Business Analytics & Management Science (BAMS) at Southampton Business School 2015/16, gaining a Distinction. In October 2018, Jason visited Southampton and gave a highly successful practitioner talk to the current student cohort about his role at Karsun and how to leverage internship experience in academic and professional settings.

Bringing the hackathon to the University of Southampton is Dr. Cristian Bravo, Associate Professor in Business Analytics, Programme Leader for Business Analytics and Finance (BAF) and Fellow of the Turing Institute www.turing.ac.uk.  The event is a partnership between Karsun Solutions and the University’s Centre for Operational Research, Management Science and Information Systems (CORMSIS) www.southampton.ac.uk/cormsis/.

CORMSIS is one of the largest Operational Research/Management Science groups in the United Kingdom.  The University of Southampton is ranked in the Top 50 in the World for Operational Research and Statistics, and ranked 7^th in the UK (source QS World Rankings 2019).  CORMSIS helps people and organizations make better decisions through advanced mathematical and analytical modelling. CORMSIS connects MSc students with practitioners, alumni, and high-profile employers, including governmental and third sector organizations, in the UK and beyond.

The federal IT modernization experts, Karsun Solutions enables enterprise transformation for its government customers including the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration, and General Services Administration. An innovation-based and performance-driven culture, Karsun Solutions delivers extraordinary outcomes for their customers.  Karsun Solutions is an established firm, with a DCAA Approved Accounting System, CMMI Level 5 – DEV appraisal, and ISO 9001, ISO 20000 and ISO 27001 certifications. Partnering with Karsun Solutions ensures the nimbleness, agility, and access to decision makers of a small business without sacrificing the scalability, capabilities, and experience in modern software development, cloud solutions, and data and advanced analytics of a large firm.

For more details about CORMSIS email cormsis@soton.ac.uk

At Karsun Solutions we encourage our teams to Do Extraordinary! Our teams took that message to heart this year. Join us as we look back at some of Team Karsun’s biggest accomplishments in 2018! For the latest Team Karsun news follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

In January, Innov8tiv Magazine named Jyothi Salibindla, a Senior Software Engineer at Karsun Solutions, one of their Top 50 Women in Tech. She also started the year presenting on microservices implementation in Modern Software Development at both Wonder Women Tech and IEEE’s Women in Engineering Technical Talks. As knowledge sharing is built into Karsun’s culture, Jyothi ended the month talking to employees at a microservices brown bag session.

Karsun Solutions leadership celebrated our growing FAA Program at All Hands events in Virginia and Oklahoma. In August of 2017 Karsun Solutions was awarded the five-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with a $145 million ceiling value. By the end of August 2018 the FAA program would add over 150 people.

Karsun Solutions Co-Founder Kartik Mecheri joins Red Hat’s IT Modernization Roundtable in March 2018. This expert panel discussed DevOps, cloud migration, and microservices architecture at scale. Learn more about Karsun’s approach to DevOps, loosely coupled architecture and CI/CD.

The General Services Administration awarded Alliant Solutions Partner (ASP) the Database and Middleware Systems (DMS) Task Order under the Alliant Small Business contract vehicle. Karsun Solutions is the managing partner of this Joint Venture, and will be the only JV member executing on this contract.  This is a single-award contract with a ceiling value of $35 million that spans more than five years.   Under this contract, Karsun will be supporting the General Services Administration (GSA) Office of the Chief Information Officer (GSA IT) by providing IT services to manage, support, and modernize its database and application middleware server infrastructure.

Our Virginia Talent Team wrapped up the first part of their Spring Job Fair circuit. Online we launched our virtual talent events including our weekly Thursday chats. Each month we release upcoming fair appearances, featured jobs and employee stories in our Extraordinary Life newsletter.

In the Spring, Karsun Solutions hosted our annual Take Your Child to Work event. This year children were challenged to budget, schedule and plan a vacation. Meanwhile, Team Karsun led sessions on travel related modernization work.

Our Talent Team reached out to graduating seniors at local universities. Karsun Solutions CEO Sundar Vaidyanathan spoke to students at the University of Maryland. Team leads joined George Mason University’s Just in Time hiring event.

Karsun Solutions was named a Finalist for the 2018 Moxie Award. The program recognizes innovative companies in the DC Metro area. Innovation is a core component of Karsun culture. The Karsun Innovation Center, launched early in the organization’s founding, prototypes solutions and forms partnerships with emerging technology vendors.

Karsun celebrated families at our annual company picnics in Oklahoma and Virginia. Families in Oklahoma took in an Oklahoma City Dodgers game. In Virginia, families traversed a challenge course at an adventure park.

That summer, we welcomed Karsun’s 2018 Intern Class. These students worked directly with our Innovation Center and Program Teams. Like other members of Team Karsun they were tasked with understanding a difficult customer problem and working with their teams to prototype and implement a solution. Karsun Director Jason Marceau summarized the best way to get value from these summer projects here.

Karsun Solutions joins the Inc. 5000 for the fourth year in a row. Only one in six companies make the list four times. Firms are ranked in the Inc. 5000 based on their growth over the past three years. Ranking four times in a row represents a remarkable seven years of growth.

The Karsun Executive Team join host Jason Miller on Federal News Radio’s Views from the Corner Office. The interview is an opportunity to share Karsun’s innovative approach to enterprise IT modernization.

In the Fall of 2018, Karsun Solutions is awarded its first full and open contract.  The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded Karsun Solutions, LLC the Federal Emergency Management Agency Grants Management Modernization (FEMA GMM) Program contract. This is a five-year single award BPA with a ceiling value of $80 million.

Karsun SDET Aditi Mulay speaks at SeConfChicago. Her talk explores balancing UI testing with API and unit tests. The event is the official Selenium conference for test automation professionals.

The Securities and Exchange Commission awards the SEC One OIT contract vehicle to several small businesses including KHS Solutions. An SBA approved mentor-protege 8(a) JV, KHS Solutions is a partnership with Karsun Solutions serving as the mentor and MindCubed serving as the protégé. An indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract with a ceiling value of $2.5 billion, the six information technology channels served under the vehicle are Platform and Application Development, Operations and Maintenance, Business Solutions Delivery, Information Security, Data Management and Analysis, IT Governance, and Technology Business Management. Visit our Contract Vehicles section for a complete list of all vehicles.

Karsun Academy finishes the year with presentations from our partner organizations. This training program is one of several professional development opportunities Karsun offered to employees.

Team Karsun finished the year with their annual Holiday Potlucks. With almost 300 employees these were exciting opportunities to celebrate Karsun’s continued growth.

Join us as we look back at some of our biggest corporate accomplishments in our Karsun Solutions 2018 in Review.

In January, Innov8tiv Magazine named Jyothi Salibindla, a Senior Software Engineer at Karsun Solutions, one of their Top 50 Women in Tech. She also started the year presenting on microservices implementation in Modern Software Development at both Wonder Women Tech and IEEE’s Women in Engineering Technical Talks. These events connected presenters with executives, innovators and thought leaders.

Karsun Solutions leadership also celebrated our growing FAA Program at All Hands events in Virginia and Oklahoma. In August of 2017 Karsun Solutions was awarded the five-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with a $145 million ceiling value. By the end of August 2018 the program would add over 150 people.

In February 2018, Chae Song, Director at Karsun Solutions joined the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council’s (ACT-IAC) Partner Program. Members of this 21^st class of ACT-IAC fellows are senior executives rising within their respective organizations. Chae would complete the program and graduate in October 2018.

Karsun Solutions Co-Founder Kartik Mecheri joins Red Hat’s IT Modernization Roundtable in March. This expert panel discussed DevOps, cloud migration, and microservices architecture at scale. Learn more about our approach to DevOps, loosely coupled architecture and CI/CD.

Later that month, the General Services Administration awarded Alliant Solutions Partner (ASP) the Database and Middleware Systems (DMS) Task Order under the Alliant Small Business contract vehicle. Karsun Solutions is the managing partner of this Joint Venture and will be the only JV member executing on this contract.  This is a single-award contract with a ceiling value of $35 million that spans more than five years.   Under this contract, Karsun will be supporting the General Services Administration (GSA) Office of the Chief Information Officer (GSA IT) by providing IT services to manage, support, and modernize its database and application middleware server infrastructure.

We offer a portfolio of enterprise IT modernization solutions across our development, cloud and analytics practices. As an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, Karsun spotlighted this valuable partnership within our Cloud Solutions practice in April 2018. Learn how we Do Extraordinary, Defy Assumptions and deliver customer value with Amazon Web Services.

In May, Sundar Vaidyanathan, Co-Founder and CEO of Karsun Solutions, was elected as a Vice Chair for Finance to the Industry Advisory Council (IAC). The American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) is a non-profit educational organization established to improve government’s service delivery and operational performance through the effective and innovative application of technology. More one ACT-IAC can be found at www.actiac.org.

Karsun Solutions was named a Finalist for the 2018 Moxie Award. The program recognizes innovative companies in the DC Metro area. Innovation is a core component of Karsun culture. The Karsun Innovation Center, launched early in the organization’s founding, prototypes solutions and forms partnerships with emerging technology vendors.

Shan Palanivelu and Badri Sriraman, both part of the Karsun Innovation Center, presented at DevFestDC in June. The event brings together innovative developers from across the DC region. They spoke on their experience building data pipelines in Kubernetes using scalable microservices with architectural patterns like Event Sourcing and Command Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS).

That month, Karsun also announced the launch of their Data Modernization Center of Excellence. The new COE comes as the organization adds a Data Practice to the Karsun Innovation Center. Shaunak Ashtaputre was announced as the new Director of the practice and COE.

Karsun joins the Inc. 5000 for the fourth year in a row in August 2018. Only one in six companies make the list four times. Firms are ranked in the Inc. 5000 based on their growth over the past three years. Ranking four times in a row represents a remarkable seven years of growth.

In September, the Karsun Executive Team join host Jason Miller on Federal New Radio’s Views from the Corner Office. The trio shares their thoughts on the new capabilities oriented proposal climate. Listen in and learn about Karsun’s disruptive approach to government IT modernization.

In the Fall of 2018, Karsun is awarded its first full and open contract.  The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded Karsun Solutions, LLC the Federal Emergency Management Agency Grants Management Modernization (FEMA GMM) Program contract. This is a five-year single award BPA with a ceiling value of $80 million.

Karsun Solutions LLC also completed a novation for the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading-Edge Solutions (EAGLE II) Functional Category 1 (FC1) Unrestricted Vehicle. The organization recently acquired the DHS Software Development Business Unit from EPS Corporation. With this acquisition and the completion of the novation, Karsun is now a prime contractor on the EAGLE II vehicle.

The Securities and Exchange Commission awards the SEC One OIT contract vehicle to several small businesses including KHS Solutions. An SBA approved mentor-protege 8(a) JV, KHS Solutions is a partnership with Karsun Solutions serving as the mentor and MindCubed serving as the protégé. An indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract with a ceiling value of $2.5 billion, the six information technology channels served under the vehicle are Platform and Application Development, Operations and Maintenance, Business Solutions Delivery, Information Security, Data Management and Analysis, IT Governance, and Technology Business Management. Visit our Contract Vehicles section for a complete list of all vehicles.

In October 2018, Karsun Solutions SDET Aditi Mulay speaks at SeConfChicago. Her talk explores balancing UI testing with API and unit tests. The event is the official Selenium conference for test automation professionals.

The Karsun Innovation Center establishes partnerships with key IT vendors. As part of that relationship, Karsun Academy brings in partners to educate Karsun teams on up and coming technology. The KIC finished the year with a series of workshops and brown bag sessions.

BE GREATER is the challenge we give to all employees at Karsun Solutions. Professional development is one of our core values. We offer the Karsun Academy program as part of our commitment to nurturing enterprise modernization expertise among team members. Karsun offers multiple avenues for in-demand IT skills development through this program.

Workshops from the Karsun Innovation Center

Participation in innovation is a pillar of Karsun culture. The Karsun Innovation Center (KIC) is Karsun’s in-house research and development team. KIC team members act as expert resources for teams at Karsun. As part of that mission, team members establish industry partnerships. Innovation partners include AWS, Appian, Microsoft, and Red Hat. KIC also brings in partner experts to host workshops on topics like DevSecOps and data streams in Internet of Things implementations.

Employee Knowledge Sharing

Knowledge sharing is an extension of our continuous learning culture and GoLean methodology. As part of that philosophy, Karsun also hosts a recurring brown bag series. Teams share insights and learning with their peers across the enterprise.  Karsun employees are encouraged to participate in local industry groups. Employees are also encouraged to share their findings through outside organizations. Recent presenters are also invited to present internally at Karsun.  Employees were recently treated to talks on microservices and serverless architecture.

Certification Programs

Karsun Solutions’ AWS certification classes are one of the earliest manifestations of the Karsun Academy program. Today Karsun employees have the opportunity to receive training and support for either their AWS Associate or Professional Certifications. They may also work with their supervisor to seek out IT skills certification opportunities in any of our three practice areas: Modern Software Development, Cloud Solutions, or Advanced Analytics.

We are rapidly growing and looking for team members excited to grow with us. Apply through our careers page to join us in Oklahoma, Virginia or Washington, DC. To learn more about professional development at Karsun, speak directly with one of our recruiters during our weekly Talent Thursdays chats. For the latest job openings and Karsun news follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube.