The American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) announced the release of the first volume of its Intelligent Automation Playbook. This playbook is designed for agencies considering Robotic Process Automation (RPA), running pilots or accelerating deployment. By automating administrative tasks RPA may also address the shrinking federal workforce and decreasing budgets.
The President’s Management Agenda, Cross-Agency Priority Goal 6 encourages shifting from low-value to high-value work. This imperative challenges agencies to find efficient solutions for administrative processes. These include tasks like data entry, completing forms using information read in a document and extracting then processing data. In addition to improving efficiency, accuracy, auditability and compliance, RPA adoption should reduce cycle time and increase citizen and employee satisfaction.
The playbook addresses implementation from organizational readiness through operating and maturing RPA. The playbook was preceded by the Intelligent Automation Primer, released in January 2019. This is suggested reading for those unfamiliar with intelligent automation and RPA.
The playbook and primer were developed by ACT-IAC’s Intelligent Automation Working Group. Manish Bhatia, from Karsun Solutions Cloud Practice, is a member of the working group. In May he shared his thoughts on the solutions demonstrated at ACT-IAC’s Igniting Innovation event.
Karsun Solutions supports ACT-IAC’s professional development and working group programs. ACT-IAC programs build relationships between government and industry. Like many Karsun team members, Manish is deeply connecting to the IT contracting industry through ACT-IAC. In March, Karsun Solutions spotlighted his involvement in these emerging technology communities.
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.
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.
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.
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 21st 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.
2025 Update: This blog post was originally published in 2018. Ready to start your journey with the Enterprise Modernization Experts? Find Your Next and learn how you can grow with our professional development programs. If you are a Karsun employee seeking Karsun Academy resources please visit our Employee Resources Page.
HERNDON, VA – Karsun Solutions announces the formation of a new Data Practice within the Karsun Innovation Center (KIC). Leveraging his 20 plus years in Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing, Shaunak Ashtaputre was named the practice lead. This new practice will focus on data modernization, advanced analytics, and data security as key growth areas.
The organization’s continued investment in Data Modernization innovation is an extension of Karsun Solutions’ Enterprise Modernization and Advanced Analytics expertise. Through this new practice the organization will expand its DevSecOps offerings by melding data integration resources into KIC ongoing initiatives. Some key objectives include:
- Building a Data Modernization Innovation Lab within KIC
- Identifying and nurturing partnerships with key vendors and their ecosystems
- Establishing a Center of Excellence (CoE) for Data Modernization and DataOps
- Attracting and nurturing expert-level talent in Data Modernization and Advanced Analytics
- Guiding and assisting with RFP/RFI responses in the areas of Data and Advanced Analytics
- Creating expertise in data migration and modernization related to AWS services
- Creating a cohesive practice and level of expertise across Karsun programs and contracts
With the implementation of the new Data Practice Karsun Solutions continues to establish itself as a one-stop Data-Migration and Modernization shop.
About Shaunak Ashtaputre
Shaunak Ashtaputre has more than 20 years of industry experience, with extensive engagements in Business Intelligence Data Warehousing and other business intelligence initiatives including strategy, architecture, data management, security, design, and delivery across several industry verticals including the Public Sector. Prior to joining Karsun, he ran an analytics consulting small business for several years. Under Karsun Solutions Advanced Analytics practice he currently leads GSA’s analytics, data warehousing, and big data platform. He is responsible for new business across the business intelligence and big data verticals.
About Karsun Solutions
Established in 2009, Karsun Solutions is a premier consulting firm delivering a portfolio of enterprise modernization services to its federal and commercial customers. Its core competencies include Modern Software Development, Cloud Solutions and Advanced Analytics. Its proprietary GoLean® software development methodology combines Agile, Lean, Kanban and DevOps practices throughout the software development lifecycle. The GoLean.io Software-as-a-Service provides a lean management tool-kit combining the best of these practices. Beginning in 2015, Karsun has ranked yearly among the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing US Companies. It was also recognized among the Washington Business Journal’s 50 Fastest Growing Companies. Karsun’s quality, development, and information security practices include CMMI Level 3, ISO 9001:2015, ISO 20000 and ISO 27001 certifications.
Karsun GoLean.io is a lean management toolkit created to address the essential missing link, Continuous Governance (CG) in Agile and DevOps Practices. This solution enables unprecedented facilitation of modern software development with a central focus on continuous governance. Designed with agile approaches (Agile, lean, Kanban and DevOps), Karsun GoLean.io comes preconfigured to enable best practices integrated into its development tool-chain.
Karsun GoLean.io empowers businesses to capitalize on evolving technologies and further develop innovative outcomes to engage with customers and entering new markets rapidly. The solution provides on-the-fly DevOps performance and diagnostic insights at the highest level of granularity. Process visualizations are rendered proactively as Karsun GoLean.io implements its well-orchestrated automations across the delivery pipeline. Gamification tools are also incorporated to establish healthy competition across teams, elevating IT organizational performance.
“Today Karsun is redefining the capability to help organizations become agile by cost-effectively developing and deploying software applications, pushing out new business features almost instantly to their customers as needed” – Kartik Mecheri, Karsun Co-Founder
Karsun Golean.io delivers detailed views of Key Performance, Health, and Diagnostic metrics across the dimensions of Progress, Code, Quality and DevOps. The solution’s visualizations ensure real-time predictive visibility to the code development, deployment, and operations. Using Karsun GoLean.io enables organizations to rapidly develop quality software, minimize failure rates and enable frequent releases with new features.
For more information, visit GoLean.io. Follow GoLean.io on Twitter at @goleanio – https://twitter.com/goleanio.
Join industry analyst Jason Bloomberg and the GoLean.io team for their ‘The DevOps Missing Link: Continuous Governance (CG)’ webinar on June 15th at 1:00pm EST. Register Here!
About Karsun Solutions:
Karsun Solutions was established in 2009 with a dedicated focus on helping organizations achieve true Enterprise Modernization. Its core competencies include Agile Development, Cloud Transformations and Advanced Analytics. Karsun has been recognized as one of the INC 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in 2015 and 2016. Its CEO, Sundar Vaidyanathan was awarded Washington SmartCEO’s ‘Future 50’ and its co-founder Kartik Mecheri was awarded FCW’s ‘Federal-100’. For more information, visit www.karsun-llc.com.
Karsun Solutions announced it received its ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems Certification. The firm is proud to have achieved certification of its Quality Management approach, certified by an accredited certification body against the standards developed by the International Standards Organization. Karsun’s established quality, development, and information security practices, including CMMI Level 3 (DEV), ISO 20000:2011, and ISO 27001:2013 certifications, make them a preferred partner for any organization, be it public sector or private enterprise. View Karsun’s complete list of awards and certifications here.
About Karsun Solutions
Karsun Solutions is a premier IT and consulting services company with a culture of innovation. We offer a portfolio of Enterprise Modernization services to both Federal agencies and commercial clients. Karsun combines years of institutional knowledge, emerging technologies, and customer commitment to ensure delivery excellence.
This year, students will pay $200 million for coding boot camps. That’s an estimated 18,000 students attending camps. Given such boot camps can cost upwards of $10,000, company-sponsored training can be an invaluable benefit for employees.
At Karsun, innovation is a core value. Training teams in the newest technologies and tools is not a matter of simply checking off a contract requirement. This method deepens the knowledge pool of veteran developers and engineers while bringing the newest members up to speed. Every employee is an expert!
As a growing organization, Karsun recently expanded on-site training opportunities. This summer we launched our newest series of in-house training programs – Karsun Academy. We kicked off with an AngularJS program and are developing a series of other programs including Drupal and AWS that will run throughout the year.
If you want to learn more about Karsun’s culture of innovation, connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter. If you’re ready to join a team that embraces personal and professional development visit our job postings, follow our blog for the weekly job opening announcements and connect with our Talent Acquisition Team at recruiting@karsun-llc.com.