ALEXANDRIA, VA – The General Services Administration (GSA) awarded the Database and Middleware Support Services (DMS) contract to KHS Technologies, an SBA approved 8(a) Mentor-Protege Joint Venture between Karsun Solutions (Mentor) and Mindcubed (Protege). The contract has a value of $13.9 million over three years. Under the contract, the joint venture will provide modernization, enhancement, maintenance and administration services, and program management for GSA’s current and future database and middleware environment.

“We’re excited to continue our long-standing partnership with GSA, delivering innovative solutions for their Database and Middleware environment modernization,” said Jay Kondapalli, Vice President of Karsun’s GSA Portfolio.

KHS Technologies delivers big data/analytics, agile systems engineering and cloud solutions to government agencies. In addition to its listing under the U.S. General Services Administration’s Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), KHS Technologies was also awarded a spot on GSA’s Streamlined Technology Acquisition Resources for Services III (STARS III). As an 8(a) STARS III contract holder, KHS can provide agencies access to its emerging technology capabilities.

About Karsun Solutions (Mentor)

Karsun Solutions modernizes enterprise systems, enabling agencies to make the next technological advancement their next opportunity to elevate mission capability. IT solutions from Karsun are tailored to meet agencies’ unique needs and optimize operations. These solutions adapt and stay relevant with current trends while using secure, digital architecture built to last. It is a proven modernization partner whose expertise elevates agency capabilities and ensures every next opportunity is within reach.

Company Contact: marketing@karsun-llc.com

About Mindcubed (Protege)

Mindcubed is an SBA 8(a) certified information technology software and services company located in the DC metro area. It delivers creative quality solutions quickly and cost effectively in the areas of Big Data Analytics, Mobile Apps Development, Agile Systems Engineering, and Cybersecurity.

Its GRID™ software offering is a cloud and mobile enabled, enterprise-scale Big Data platform. GRID provides a unique combination of agile analytics, business compliance, and statistical simulation capabilities, enabling organizations to understand trends, predict outcomes and make data-driven decisions. 
Mindcubed is appraised at CMMI Level 3 and its Quality Management System (QMS) MindPROVE is ISO 9001:2015 certified. Learn more at http://mindcubed.com/.

HERNDON, VA – Karsun Solutions announced it was awarded a cloud computing services 518210C Speciality Item Number (SIN) by the General Services Administration (GSA). Part of the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), the 518210C SIN enables government buyers to order cloud computing and cloud related information technology (IT) professional services.

Companies awarded this SIN have proven experience delivering large-scale cloud solutions. Karsun Solutions cloud experts serve customers at federal civilian agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Aviation Administration and the General Services Administration. 

“We are excited for the opportunity to bring elevated cloud capabilities into a wider range of government agencies and teams,” said Karsun Solutions President Terry Miller.

Karsun teams deliver cloud migration, platform, and engineering services as part of its cloud solutions offerings. Karsun Cloud Runways accelerate migration with toolkits designed to identify target applications, assess dependencies, and determine suitable cloud migration playbooks and tasks. The ten Cloud Runways have migrated over 40 applications to the cloud.

An AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, Karsun holds AWS Government, Migration and DevOps Competencies. Karsun demonstrated expertise and experience in delivering cloud solutions in the competency area to earn each competency. Learn more about Karsun’s cloud solutions at https://karsun-llc.com/solutions/cloud-solutions/.

HERNDON, VA – Karsun Solutions announced today it is a recipient of the 2024 Top Workplaces for Remote Work award, featured by Monster, a global leader in connecting people and jobs. Energage, a purpose-driven organization that builds and brands employers of choice, determines the awards through an employee survey.  As a government contractor, Karsun Solutions hires technology experts for remote roles nationwide. Karsun teams empower government agencies to meet their mission through modern software development, cloud and data solutions.

“Top Workplaces awards are a powerful tool for companies to attract exceptional talent,” said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. “They showcase distinctive culture strengths and communicate a clear message to potential recruits: This is a place where you can thrive and excel.”

“These awards underscore the importance of listening to employees about where and when they can be their most productive and happiest selves,” shares Monster CEO Scott Gutz. “We know that this flexibility is essential to helping both employers and candidates find the right fit.”

The Top Workplaces employer recognition program has a 17-year history of researching, surveying, and celebrating people-first organizations nationally and across 65 regional markets. 

The 2024 Top Workplaces for Remote Work award celebrates organizations with 150 or more employees cultivating exceptional remote working environments. Karsun earned the award based on employee feedback. The results of a confidential employee engagement survey were evaluated by comparing responses to research-based statements that predict high performance against industry benchmarks.  

Surveys conducted through Energage support Karsun’s initiatives toward building an open, transparent, employee-centered workplace. Karsun is proud to participate in other Energage award programs, including previously receiving Technology Industry Top Workplace awards from the organization. 

“We are proud of this recognition, which represents our ongoing commitment to a remote-flexible workplace where our team members can grow and thrive,” said Kelly Demaitre, Karsun’s Chief People Officer.

Karsun also secured culture awards for work-life flexibility and professional growth. It empowers teams with the flexibility to select the in-person, hybrid or remote approach that works best for them. Most teams choose remote work arrangements while utilizing Karsun’s resources for virtual training, collaboration and innovation. Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, Karsun’s continual investment in employees yielded strong contract growth. As a result, it continues to hire for remote roles nationwide at KarsunCareers.com.

About Karsun Solutions

Transform your career with the company transforming possible for the government. Join the workplace where the only limit on your potential is the limit of your curiosity. Thrive in a community that empowers software development, cloud and data experts. At Karsun, collaborate in a culture that allows you the freedom to explore every possibility and provides support to turn your bold ideas into reality. Expand your career potential with dynamic development resources like Karsun Academy and sponsored technical certification courses. And joining a growing enterprise means as we grow, so do your career opportunities. Take your career to the next level and play your part in powering new possibilities for federal agencies.

Company Contact 

Karsun Solutions
marketing@karsun-llc.com
www.karsun-llc.com

Like many organizations, Karsun transitioned to a remote workforce in 2020. Beginning with that transition and throughout the last three years, it has won new awards for culture, benefits and more. Most recently, it picked up its first-ever Top Workplaces Culture award for Work-Life Flexibility. Karsun received this award in addition to repeat Technology Industry Top Workplaces and Oklahoman Top Workplaces awards. 2023 was also Karsun’s first year receiving a Comparably Best Company Career Growth award. Both Top Workplaces and Comparably are based on independent third assessments of Karsun culture based on feedback from current employees.

Chae Song, the program manager for Karsun’s GSA Fleet Program, received a FORUM IMPACT award from the industry news sites FORUM/g2xchange. Karsun continued to be recognized as a local industry leader. It received a ranking for the fifth year in a row on the Northern Virginia Technology Council Tech 100. 

In addition to industry award recognition, Karsun experts and executives appeared as thought leaders in white papers, panel discussions and industry podcasts. Notably, Karsun released our Design for Every Next white paper detailing our strategy for delivering high-quality UI/UX initiatives on a massive scale and in highly complex systems. Karsun President, Terry Miller appeared on the Federal Tech Podcast to share insights from this new paper. 

Finally, Karsun graduated its eleventh fellow from an American Council on Technology-Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) professional development program. Anu Pajjur, a Portfolio Lead for Karsun’s FAA portfolio, completed ACT-IAC’s Voyagers Program in May 2023. This program pairs up-and-coming leaders from industry and government in an intensive one-year program.

From work-life balance to elevating industry leaders, culture shines here. The Karsun team continues its commitment to an employee-centered culture where everyone can learn and grow. And there are new opportunities to grow as a Karsun expert. We are hiring for remote roles nationwide. To join our team and Find Your Next visit KarsunCareers.com.  

Karsun has an employee-centered workplace that places flexibility, innovation and collaboration at the heart of our business. For most of our team members, that means they work remotely. And while that is the preferred style of work for many, we also know connecting in person is important to many of our team members. That is why we brought back some of our most popular in-person events this year. These included family picnics, team celebrations and community events. The result was new opportunities for team Karsun to connect with each other, within their communities and with our core values. 

One of those core values is fun, and this year marked the return of many of Karsun’s in-person social events. These were opportunities for Karsun families, teams and partners to meet face-to-face while enjoying ice cream socials, farm days and other activities. Additionally, we shared team accomplishments, presented innovative creations and recognized extraordinary work in monthly and quarterly remote events. Nearly 90 people received one of our quarterly employee awards this year alone. While many of these awards celebrated performance, several team members each quarter were awarded for embodying Karsun’s core values. 

The Wellness Team led a Fit for Fall challenge. They also ensured that our team had the resources to spend their time away from work in the way that best supports their needs. For that reason, we announced several new benefits this year. These updated benefits added parental leave, enhanced paid time off, and new employee perks and discounts in addition to the award-winning benefits already enjoyed by Karsun team members. We were honored to receive our first Top Workplaces Culture award for Work-Life Flexibility. These awards came as we renewed our commitment to an open, transparent, employee-centered culture.  

As we prepare for 2024, we are excited to watch our team grow and thrive together. That includes new opportunities to connect and collaborate. We are actively hiring for remote roles nationwide. If you are ready to join us in the new year, check out our open positions and Find Your Next as part of team Karsun.

Karsun Solutions has once again been awarded a Top Workplaces 2023 honor by Oklahoman Top Workplaces. The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by employee engagement technology partner Energage LLC. The confidential survey uniquely measures 15 culture drivers that are critical to the success of any organization, including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few. 

“Earning a Top Workplaces award is a badge of honor for companies, especially because it comes authentically from their employees,” said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. “That’s something to be proud of. In today’s market, leaders must ensure they’re allowing employees to have a voice and be heard. That’s paramount. Top Workplaces do this, and it pays dividends.”

Karsun Solutions previously received a Top Workplaces 2023 Culture Excellence Award for Work-Life Flexibility and a 2023 Technology Industry Top Workplace Award. Both award programs use third-party survey results from Energage. In addition to culture awards from Top Workplaces, it has also received recognition from Comparably, an employee-rating site, for company outlook and career growth. 

“We are committed to a work culture where all can grow, innovate, collaborate and build great solutions for our government customers,” said Kelly Demaitre, Karsun Chief People Officer. “We are honored to see this commitment reflected in this Top Workplaces award.”

Karsun Solutions is an enterprise modernization firm serving government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration and General Services Administration. Most of Karsun’s Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based team serves its FAA customer. This is the second year its team was named an Oklahoma Top Workplace. Learn more about Karsun’s aviation industry careers, including its Oklahoma City team, at https://karsun-llc.com/careers/aviation-industry-technology-jobs/.

About Karsun Solutions

Transform your career with the company transforming possible for the government. Join the workplace where the only limit on your potential is the limit of your curiosity. Thrive in a community that empowers software development, cloud and data experts. At Karsun, collaborate in a culture that allows you the freedom to explore every possibility and provides support to turn your bold ideas into reality. Expand your career potential with dynamic development resources like Karsun Academy and sponsored technical certification courses. And joining a growing enterprise means as we grow, so do your career opportunities. Take your career to the next level and play your part in powering new possibilities for federal agencies.

Company Contact 
Karsun Solutions
marketing@karsun-ll.com
www.karsun-llc.com

About Energage

Making the world a better place to work together.

Energage is a purpose-driven company that helps organizations turn employee feedback into useful business intelligence and credible employer recognition through Top Workplaces. Built on 17 years of culture research and the results from 27 million employees surveyed across more than 70,000 organizations,  Energage delivers the most accurate competitive benchmark available. With access to a unique combination of patented analytic tools and expert guidance, Energage customers lead the competition with an engaged workforce and an opportunity to gain recognition for their people-first approach to culture. For more information or to nominate your organization, visit energage.com or topworkplaces.com.

HERNDON, VA – Karsun Solutions was once again named to the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s (NVTC) annual Tech 100 list. The companies included on the list represent regional leaders driving innovation, developing breakthrough technologies, and contributing to economic growth. This is Karsun’s fifth year ranking on the list. Karsun is an enterprise modernization firm transforming government through modern software development, cloud solutions and data solutions.

In addition to revenue and contract growth, Karsun was named a Technology Industry Top Workplace this year. Apart from this recognition among the best technology employers nationwide, it received additional awards for work-life balance and career growth. Karsun remains committed to fostering a collaborative culture where all can grow and innovate even as most of its team members remain remote. As its Innovation Center continues to lead the way in envisioning an AI-powered future, Karsun teams drive industry-leading best practices. This year, Karsun achieved an AWS DevOps Competency, the company’s third competency. 

The NVTC represents the National Capital Region’s technology community. It presents the Tech 100 to the region’s leading technology companies, executives and next generation leaders. The trade association will recognize the honorees on December 12, 2023, from 6 pm to 8 pm EST at The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner. Attendees at the event will enjoy “A Night at the AI Art Museum.” Learn more about the celebration here.

About Karsun Solutions

Karsun Solutions modernizes enterprise systems, enabling agencies to make the next technological advancement their next opportunity to elevate mission capability. IT solutions from Karsun are tailored to meet agencies’ unique needs and optimize operations. These solutions adapt and stay relevant with current trends while using secure, digital architecture built to last. It is a proven modernization partner whose expertise elevates agency capabilities and ensures every next opportunity is within reach.

Company Contact: marketing@karsun-llc.com

About the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC)

NVTC is the trade association representing the Northern Virginia technology community. As one of the nation’s largest technology councils, NVTC serves companies from all sectors of the industry, from small businesses and startups to Fortune 100 technology companies, government contractors, as well as service providers, academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations. More than 460 members look to the organization as a resource for networking and educational opportunities, peer-to-peer communities, policy advocacy, industry promotion, fostering of strategic relationships, and branding of the region as a major global technology center. Learn more at www.nvtc.org.

Big Bang or waterfall development has long been the standard approach to legacy modernization projects. However, government agencies are increasingly turning away from this approach, finding an incremental, agile approach to suit their missions and goals better. For instance, agencies such as Veterans Affairs stating they are moving away from Big Bang projects.

Issues with the Big Bang

In the Big Bang approach, agencies spent years gathering requirements and awarded projects to a single contractor. The contract was then delivered based on these requirements, leaving little room to adapt to changing requirements and needs. Further, since this frequently tied agencies to a single, large systems integrator, there was little opportunity to introduce small and emerging contractors with specialized expertise. The result was delayed, over budget, and underperforming modernizations. 

Taking an Incremental Approach

Agencies are shifting from Big Bang modernization to agile, incremental, or bit-by-bit approaches. In this approach, they identify a minimal viable product (MVP), ensuring the solution first meets the minimum needs of its users. Then, its agile development teams add enhancements to the solution incrementally. This allows agencies to scale up and down, add new programs and features, and adapt to change requirements.

Modernization to Meet the Mission

The result is modernization that meets the agency’s mission. There are additional strategies teams can employ to ensure mission-oriented development. When experts modernize alongside domain experts, that collaboration supports an MVP that will meet the needs of its users. At Karsun, we use processes like event storming, human-centered design, and others to ensure we receive this feedback throughout our engagement. Moreover, working with a partner experienced in combining public sector experience with modern methodologies and tools enhances this synergy further. 

The Karsun Approach

At Karsun, we take this approach to our modernization projects from the beginning. Critically, we also look beyond to understand the application’s purpose and its users’ needs after our departure from the project. This product mindset, which we call Modernization for Every Next, is an incremental approach that allows us to focus on meeting agency missions, introduce emerging solutions at the appropriate time, build secure architecture meant to last, and accelerate transformation with fit-to-purpose toolkits. Learn more about our modernization successes in the Acquisitions, Aviation, Fleet, and Grants industries.

Large-scale, complex transformation projects can be daunting for any enterprise, doubly so for government agencies. At Karsun, we recognize the mission comes first. We consider the technical requirements of our current modernization efforts and the goals and objectives of our agency customers. That includes envisioning every modernization effort as a product, acknowledging the product’s purpose now and its intended use in the future. We call this Modernization for Every Next. 

Modernization for Every Next includes enhancing our customers’ capabilities throughout our engagement. Our toolkits play a crucial role in that process. These toolkits provide valuable insights into the modernization process, scale to support new objectives, and prepare the way for future initiatives. They ensure our subject matter experts can access the resources they need to introduce best practices and accelerate transformation. Managed and maintained by the Karsun Innovation Center, dedicated practice advocates within the Center ensure toolkits incorporate emerging trends and technologies, utilize proven approaches, and follow industry best practices.

GoLean for Greater Insights

Some Karsun toolkits build comprehensive insights around the development and transformation process itself. As part of a broader change management process, this enables Karsun and its customers to focus on the best practices and approaches for them. It provides a benchmark for future process improvements.

Imagine if you had a dashboard that could tell you if a particular type of testing was more effective, demonstrate the return on investment for implementing a new DevSecOps practice, or simply reveal your team was completing its work faster than ever before. This is the purpose of Karsun’s GoLean platform. This agile platform combines diagnostic and prescriptive metrics with automations proven to accelerate development, testing, and DevSecOps practices. 

We are so confident in this approach that we use this toolkit in-house to identify opportunities to improve our practice. As a result, our software development process was appraised at CMMI v2.0 Level 5 (DEV). At this assessment tier, organizations use data-driven insights to drive their process improvement strategy. Less than a hundred government systems integrators nationwide received appraisal at this level.

Accelerate Migration with Cloud Runways

Another one of our toolkits, Cloud Runways, combines in-depth assessment with repeatable playbooks to accelerate certain migration projects. We begin with an assessment. This includes identifying target applications, determining dependencies, and analyzing available technology. This also includes future state analysis, ensuring the proposed solution can scale with you. Next, we build a “runway” for the project. Each runway uses proven playbooks, tasks, and resources.

We have migrated 40+ applications using these runways. These migrations span use cases from low-code/no-code refactoring to container rehosting. As part of our Modernization for Every Next mindset, we offer runways that help you optimize and build new capabilities as you migrate. For instance, our CI/CD for Windows Apps Runway adds DevOps automations when we migrate Windows apps into AWS ECS or Redhat OpenShift. 

While we offer vendor-agnostic solutions, we are also backed by three AWS competencies. To earn these competencies, Karsun proved the expertise of our migration teams through certifications. We also consistently delivered cloud solutions using AWS best practices for government, migration, and DevOps. 

Design for Every Next

Karsun’s Digital Transformation toolkits are among the most recent additions to our toolkit library. Included in this set of toolkits are our UI/UX toolkits. This pairs our human centered design process with a component library to quickly identify and develop user interfaces as part of transformation efforts.

Building on the lived experiences of application users, we apply a domain driven design approach to UI/UX. That includes engaging technical and domain experts in collaboration from the start. We also build in feedback loops throughout application development. This way, domain driven design allows us to model and identify specific aspects of complex systems. For instance, using domain driven design with one grants management customer, we identified opportunities to build eligibility evaluation, fund distribution and reporting as sub-parts of the grants platform. In the next domain driven design step, we take the model one step further. Each of the platform subparts is comprised of the modular building blocks. These include the user interfaces. 

We can then apply resources from our extensive component library to each of these UI building blocks. The resources in this library utilize proven REACT, Angular and other frameworks to quickly create new interfaces. Additionally, a modularized approach lets our teams extend or enhance capabilities as we receive feedback from users as part of the human centered design process. Throughout the design process we are Modernizing for Every Next.

We found using our toolkits dramatically accelerates the digital transformation process. Our experienced technical teams start engagements with proven tools, playbooks and resources. Our data driven processes further empower these teams to receive feedback, adapt and elevate capabilities as they build. Dive into our Innovation Center toolkits to discover how this process gives your agency the power to Modernize for Every Next. 

Karsun was named by employee rating site Comparably among the Best Companies for Career Growth. Key to our commitment to growth is Karsun Academy, our professional development program run through the Karsun Innovation Center (KIC). The Karsun Academy team ensures people of all experience levels, from interns to subject matter leaders, can learn and advance their skills at Karsun.

Growing from the Start

Karsun’s extensive internship program combines codeathons, research, and real-world problem-solving. Likewise, Karsun employees of any tenure can work with the KIC research and development team. Anyone may submit a suggestion for an improved process, new tool or application, or extraordinary idea through the Innovation Radar. Experts in the Innovation Center select submissions each month, work with the submitting teams, and showcase prototypes and their implementation at monthly town hall meetings.

Interested Karsun team members may also participate in different coding challenges, such as those held during Innovation Weeks. Here, they apply emerging technologies to known industry problems. Some Innovation Weeks pair expert panels and certification tracks during these weeklong events.

Growing as Experts

With the many opportunities to experience new technologies, approaches, and tools, Karsun also ensures every team member has the opportunity to earn the professional certifications relevant to them. Karsun hosts various training workshops every month. A combination of external industry experts and Karsun subject matter experts teach these. After training, Karsun employees are eligible for subsidized certification fees. 

Additionally, while many training workshops are taught in a remote-hybrid arrangement, Karsun Academy also provides a virtual training library. These include industry-standard training for key certifications such as the AWS Associate and Professional Certifications. 

Growing as Champions

Karsun team members who are confident in their expertise may also improve their instructional, people leader, and collaboration skills. Weekly brown bags feature employee-to-employee sharing on both technology skills and professional development. Topics range from writing and speaking to emerging AI trends. For team members passionate about a particular discipline, Karsun Practice Areas empower advocates to build resource libraries, connect with technology partners, and introduce industry experts to their teams.

Career Pathing tools transparently reveal the technical and managerial skills required to advance at Karsun. For new and growing supervisors, managers, and team champions, Karsun offers resources and an expanding training library. It also invests in forums, like Brunch Leadership, to receive employee feedback in this career stage.

From early career through established professionals, Karsun has a growth program designed to support their skill development. Each team member has multiple avenues to grow their career through Karsun Academy, the Innovation Center, and other resources. An ongoing commitment to this growth is how every team member can Find Your Next at Karsun.

To learn more about opportunities to grow at Karsun, visit KarsunCareers.com/jobs.