In the government contracting world, program managers often must act as mini-CEOs.
“If you look at a lot of their data needs, their business process and automation needs, their needs for true information and predictive analysis ⏤ they need all of those tools to be able to run their programs effectively,” said John DeVoe, senior vice president for aerospace and defense at Salesforce.
Program managers must ensure they meet contract delivery requirements. They need to drive revenue, reduce risk and reduce program costs. Too often though, in the GovCon space, these same program managers find they lack the tools they need to act with maximum impact.
Salesforce is looking to close that gap. The software provides ready access to needed data, along with analytic and predictive tools to drive practical action.
“We can provide the end-to-end solution . . . to illuminate and free up that data so that individuals can make those data-driven decisions to help move the overall program forward,” DeVoe said.
In the past, it’s been difficult for program managers in the GovCon space to secure investment in these kinds of tools. That’s in part because of how hard it has been to connect the dots between tech spending in the program management space, and bottom-line returns.
To that end, Salesforce can help program managers and chief information officers alike demonstrate the value of such an investment.
“We help them build an overall financial model that shows a three-year or sometimes five-year overall return on investment,” he said. “One of the biggest contractors found that their payback period with Salesforce was a period of just five or six weeks. We help our customers focus on employee engagement and supplier relationship management: When you focus on that, that helps the ROI analysis considerably.”
Once the program managers demonstrate the ROI on a data-driven solution, others within the organization tend to come on board as well.
The contractor “can leverage this across all of their business programs,” DeVoe said. “Salesforce provides complete visibility to data and information from sales, HR, supplier, partner, financial, as well as case and field service management ⏤ so that our customers can more efficiently and profitably deliver on their contractual commitments.”
This broad reach is key to the Salesforce growth strategy. By looking at that wider scope, DeVoe can generate lateral expansion across an organization, to drive expansion for the company in the GovCon space.
“We are always looking to move horizontally by function ⏤ to deliver solutions around business development and capture, employee engagement, supplier relationship management and other critical solutions,” he said. “It’s all about earning the trust upfront, and then maintaining it and strengthening it.”
This represents a net win for the GovCons themselves. In government contracting, where expansion often happens by acquisition, DeVoe uses this strategy to help his clients run their businesses more effectively.
In an acquisition environment, “there are a lot of times where you may have five different business units within the company, and there could be conflicts in the way that they engage their customers,” he said. “Salesforce can help to take learnings from one area to the other, and to provide visibility at the corporate level that they’ve never had before.”
In making this case, DeVoe said, the biggest hurdle he’ll encounter is complacency. Program managers and others may be satisfied with the way things are getting done, only because they don’t realize technology offers a better way.
In fact, “there is no such thing as ‘good enough’ when you’re delivering programs measured in hundreds of millions or billions of dollars,” DeVoe said.
How to awaken program managers to the potential here?
“The best way to do that is through customer stories that demonstrate the value,” he said. “We help the GovCons to tackle some of their most challenging problems, and it really changes the tone when we can share those stories.”
To generate those successes, the Salesforce team works hand in glove with GovCons to develop solutions that meet their very specific business needs.
“We invest with our customers through a process of deep listening and discovery, creating a program delivery roadmap that best meets their needs,” DeVoe said. “That’s attractive to program managers and CIOs alike.”
As a long-time veteran of the GovCon space, DeVoe said he takes special pride in supporting the mission of the contracting community.
“I’ve always enjoyed a great sense of stewardship working for the federal government, and later working with industry to meet our shared customers’ mission needs,” he said. “My teams and I are very lucky to earn the trust of our customers and partners alike. Once you earn trust, you can help in an unlimited number of ways.”