These days, the intelligence and national security communities face challenges in the realm of information: Getting it, understanding it, putting it to use.
“Threat actors have advanced in their ability to conduct cyber warfare. It has become mainstream now,” said RealmOne Chief Financial Officer Pearce Lantzy. “We are competing with them in the way that we gather data, how we act on that intelligence — and all the technology that goes in behind that.”
RealmOne delivers full lifecycle intelligence data management and cybersecurity capabilities in support of critical intelligence community and Defense Department missions.
“The company is on the front line,” Lantzy said. “RealmOne delivers timely, actionable intelligence from the warfighter to the White House. We play a key role in supporting our nation through those intelligence-related challenges.”
There’s competition in the field, “a lot of companies out there attempting to do what we do,” Lantzy said. To keep ahead, RealmOne looks to differentiate not just its offerings but its approach. “We have a customer-centric approach . . . an ability to deliver for our customers and to meet their challenges headfirst,” he said.
RealmOne’s breadth of expertise helps it to make good on that promise.
“We have full coverage of the intelligence lifecycle from end to end: Tasking, collection, processing, exploitation and dissemination,” Lantzy said. “Each one of these plays an integral part in how we support our customers.”
RealmOne has solutions to help the IC collect mission-critical data, along with data scientists who can process that data.
“Then we take that data and exploit it, disseminating it, and getting it into the right hands to make key decisions and real impact on national security,” he said.
Lantzy sees plenty of opportunity for growth here. While some federal agencies anticipate a budgetary pause as the new administration lays out its priorities, things appear to be full-steam-ahead in the defense and intel worlds.
If anything, “the availability of government funding in intelligence-community related activities is going to expand, and we’re very much going to be a part of that,” he said.
RealmOne is taking a multipronged approach to win its share of that business. First, “we are expanding within our current customers, embedding ourselves within those specific agencies that we serve today and strengthening our ability to impact those missions,” Lantzy said.
At the same time, the company is actively looking for opportunities to expand its footprint across adjacent customers.
“A lot of the capabilities and mission-operations support [RealmOne delivers] for our existing customers are things that can be utilized by other agencies,” he said. “Being able to get our footprint into other customers across the DoD and IC is certainly a focus.”
Today, RealmOne primarily supports the IC, “and a lot of the DoD agencies such as SOCOM and CENTCOM have similar mission sets,” Lantzy said. “We would love to be delivering our solutions there and supporting mission operations in total.”
Of course, there are challenges, primarily around the competitive nature of the GovCon space. Plenty of agencies need what RealmOne offers. But in practice, “opportunity can be limited,” Lantzy said. A GovCon needs to consider: “Have you served that agency in the past? What’s your past performance? Do you have relationships? Do you know what’s upcoming? As you think about procurement, can you build solutions to then replace an incumbent?”
In this highly competitive landscape, RealmOne puts a heavy emphasis on supporting its individual team members, so they can deliver at the highest possible levels.
“We’re very much a people-centric business. We have a very strong retention rate here. We recruit very well,” Lantzy said. That approach starts at the top, with leaders who focus on building a strong corporate culture.
Success in the GovCon space “really comes from how you treat your people,” he said. “We know that their work is challenging, and our leadership supports them as people. We think about flexibility, we think about the benefits that we offer and about ‘inclusion’ in general. Everybody wants to be a part of something, so that inclusion piece is important.”
Lantzy is a relative newcomer to the GovCon space. While he previously supported contractors through financial due diligence in mergers and acquisitions, and he only joined the GovCon world himself five years ago. He said he has found a satisfying fit there.
“We’re supporting the nation, supporting those who defend our freedom. That’s become a lot clearer for me,” he said.
As CFO, he sees himself playing an integral role in that effort.
“It’s my job to serve our hardworking, dedicated RealmOne team members. I view them as my customers and it’s very important for me that they are getting paid on time, that things are easy for them,” he said. “That is what keeps me driven.”
In a service-based industry, he said, “you always have to think about how you are supporting your people.”