Mission-focused, client-centric, results-driven.
Gautam Ijoor is the President and COO of Alpha Omega Integration.
As a leader in information technology (IT) integration, Alpha Omega serves multiple Federal and Fortune 500 commercial clients in the implementation of modern digital technologies utilizing low code, open source software and serverless, multi-cloud architectures.
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[toggle title='Read the Transcript' state=‘closed’ icons=‘fontawesome-plus/fontawesome-minus’ margin_top=‘20’ margin_bottom=‘20’]0:00
Welcome to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. I'm Josh Elledge, Founder and CEO of UpMyInfluence.com. We turn entrepreneurs into media celebrities, grow their authority, and help them build partnerships with top influencers. We believe that every person has a unique message that can positively impact the world. stick around to the end of the show, we're all reveal how you can be our next guest on one of the fastest growing daily inspiration podcasts on the planet in 15 to 20 minutes. Let's go.
And with us right now, we've got Gautam Ijoor, and Gautam We met at the Inc 5000 conference. You are the President and Chief Operating Officer at Alpha Omega Integration. Thank you so much for joining us.
0:52
You're welcome, Josh. Thank you for having me.
0:54
So we'll start off by talking about what Alpha Omega does and then We'll get into what are you doing that's allowed you to grow so quickly.
1:04
Thank you appreciate that.
1:05
Yeah, so So tell me what Alpha Omega does, please. So
1:08
that, you know, to to do things that we do better than anybody else that we specialize in. One is application development, application modernization, using low code, no code and open source tools. And the second area is cloud engineering. And we implement cloud with different vendors, Google, AWS, and Microsoft. And we provide high end cloud engineering services, and high performance computing. Those are the two areas that we specialize in.
1:45
Just to give people an idea of, of who you serve, now you're outside of DC. So let me just name a couple of clients that a few clients that you've worked with, and I'll see if these sound familiar, the Department of Treasury The Department of Defense Department of State Department of Justice, the Department of the Navy, my favorite, the US intelligence community, the SBA, HUD, health and human services. And then you also have commercial nonprofit customers as well. Instead, American Institute of Architects, Horace Mann. So how are you getting all this business? What are you doing that your competitors or are they just sitting on their hands? Or what are they doing?
2:28
So, Josh, that, uh, two things are two areas when I think we different I mean, where we are different from companies in this business that mean it's a competitive landscape. And there are two things that distinguish us. Firstly, unlike most other small businesses, we have an exclusive merger and acquisition team that constantly look for companies to acquire constantly, you know, research The synergy that you can capitalize on. And and thirdly, the areas in which we think the market grows at a faster rate, right. And so this really helps us kind of stay ahead of the game and to continuously grow. The second area is within the company. Unlike many other companies, we have something called a disruptive innovation group. And as the name sounds, you know, most people would think it's us investing on something that may not be productive. But being an entrepreneur, you want to take risks. This group looks at all our statement of work, and works and talks about how they could do it in a better innovative way, and resulting in savings to the bottom line. So think about this. If you have a $3 million contract and it's a sole source, and you I mean, let's just say it's 100 desk and you implement an artificial intelligence, robotics process automation and reduce the help desk staff by 50%. You see almost a million dollars in labor costs, which directly hits your bottom line.
4:18
Yeah, I would imagine the government contracting world that's pretty attractive if you can come in with a price that is represents that savings.
4:28
Absolutely. And in and if you provide those savings, when you have a fixed price contract, you just pocketing that money and reinvesting it into the company.
4:38
Now, now, one thing you had mentioned was growth through mergers and acquisitions. And so what does you know in terms of what Alpha Omega looks for? What to you represents an attractive company to merge with or acquire
5:00
You know, one of the biggest challenges companies have in the federal contracting space is they either they either know how to grow the business or they either know how to win work, or they don't. The companies that know how to win work sometimes don't know how to retain the work that they've already won. You know, quality about our client services is we have exceptional customer intimacy, because we work on identifying value to our customers, and we implement that value and continuously increase that customer intimacy. Now, when you look at a company that's growing fast, but they're also losing business fast, you know, the sprint versus Nextel syndrome, and those are the type of companies we acquire and implement our processes to improve customer intimacy and thereby start reducing their bs capitalize on synergy. So we look for companies that are growing quickly that are also losing that he competes
6:07
because they are smaller and they may not have the resources that if combined together, you could provide those resources, helping them keep their costs their internal costs down so they can fulfill the contract. And, you know, I would imagine then ultimately when they're up for you know, that contract is up again. Now, they can come with even a potentially even better offer, because of the new strength through unity unity now with, you know, with the larger infrastructure that Alpha Omega provides something like that.
6:46
Well, very, very close. But we also look at large businesses or businesses that are larger than us. We if we see that they are growing Get out because they have a great sales team. But they're not very good with Client Services or project delivery. That's an ideal target. Because once we go in our secret sauce is the is how we deliver and and satisfy our customers. Now, I go into somebody who's going quickly, and I'm able to really build a relationship and develop constant customer intimacy with their existing contracts, then I can grow at a faster rate.
7:34
So God damn are a lot of the services that you provide Is it is it labor intensive. So you're looking then to staff out to provide the solutions and so therefore, you know, you may it sounds like you have some good resources to labor that would be much more cost efficient than maybe having a network operators are a big deal. Data Center domestically is it's Is that what you do? Absolutely.
8:05
See all our work is extremely, extremely labor intensive. So being in the services space, but our forte is with providing Intelligent Automation. And I use the word Intelligent Automation. When you bring the two together, what happens is you win a contract, which is labor intensive, and you reduce the labor that is required, or, you know, we don't, you know, let anybody go, we actually train them and move them on to something else. So what happens is, while we train and move employees, we automate a lot of the work that's required. So when we end the contract, we actually end it with almost 20 30% reduction in labor, because of the efficiencies and information technology we've used.
8:57
My goodness, so what would be you know, in the cases if some of your clients that you've been able to serve, what what are these? What's the solution then that they are putting out to better they're looking for what would be some specific examples or applications?
9:13
Great question, Josh. And actually, I can give you a very good example. So, you know, the Small Business Administration, for example, has a 70 loan program, right? We support the 70 loan program in also 40 people 40% 40 seat, helpdesk this 40 seat helpdesk, you know, yeah, basically, you know, being I mean, we inherited it through an acquisition three years ago, in the last three years, we implemented something called our RPC or robotics process automation. And the tools that we implemented there, automatically replaces human interaction with the box are robots, which is how bots are short for robots. And these robots, you know, chat with you, they learn from their interaction, and they give you the answers that you need, and so on and so forth. So we were gradually able to reduce the staff on the Help Desk by about 50%. So the next time we wanted to re compete, our costs was almost 10 million lower than the next competitor, which put us in the first place to win that contract.
10:32
Wow. You know, the SBA is such a great organization. I'm grateful that you have the opportunity to work with them. And, you know, and it's, it's great to see that, you know, we and I think what people need to understand is, when the SBA has more efficient ways of providing solutions, they can in turn provide both a better quality of service, they can serve their clients better The small businesses that rely upon them. And then as well, obviously, they don't need to drain taxpayers as much if they could be more efficient. So, I mean, everybody ought to be celebrating the impact that you an Alpha Omega are having.
11:18
Thank you. Yes, absolutely. Josh. I mean, you know, giving back to this country that's given us an opportunity is the one most most important thing that drives us every day. And there's no better way in in giving back, you know, to this nation there, I mean, then developing a passion for agency missions and implementing it, you know, implementing it in an honest, ethical way.
11:48
Yeah, well, you know, as the recipient and beneficiary of an SBA loan that really helped us grow and scale our business. I'm just thrilled for that. Do you know in a one word answer is fine. Something like this, you know, because you get to work with a department of intelligence and some of these other ones. Does this mean that then you have issues in regards to security clearances? Or is that a concern?
12:20
Yeah, no, all of us are DS cleared. The we are We also the facility also have has a Ts clearance. We have work in I mean, you know, we have ID IQs in the data space and work in the Department of Defense. And, and me. I mean, these Kevin says, help us work. Help us work in these agencies without a problem.
12:45
I'm glad to have one one other question I had was the Do you take advantage of or can you take advantage of set aside so as someone who's looked at a little bit into government contracting As a military veteran who also has a disability, although it's still working with the VA on getting that connected. But that's one thing that, you know, we would pursue more government contracting, if we did qualify for the set asides. What what's your current view of the government contracting world in terms of companies that qualify for those set asides? Is that a major advantage?
13:28
Um, you know, not really, Josh, I mean, people think that when you qualify for a satisfied and you actually have I mean, they you know, we are, we are at certified but, you know, a lot of people think having these certification, socio economic certifications, that you could just sit and wait for work to come to you. They are absolutely, I compete more in this competition last Escape, you have to realize, you know, realize I'm providing unique value to your customers. Otherwise, you know, your business will not grow. And if it does, it will, it will start shrinking if you don't continuously think about adding value to your customers
14:19
beyond just being the lowest bidder or having the most attractive bid, what about Are there any other factors that that that you see that go into a decision making process? For example, what I'm primarily curious about is the due diligence that a, say department defense or Treasury would do on the provider themselves. And so if that's the case, what are the things that they look for? I mean, are they searching you out on social media looking for opinions trying to, I mean, is it at that level
15:00
You know that I mean besides price that for other things that almost always get into this due diligence or background checks that go on from the owner procurement. They ask you for a technical solution, which requires you to understand their requirements requires you to understand the challenges requires you to understand the problems they are facing, and so on and so forth. The second is past performance. They would like you to provide past performances, usually it's three or five that are of similar size, scope and complexity to the work that they're asking you to do. Then they have also our C bars, government wide systems system. It's also available in the defense side. B systems basically have a contractor rating on every contract you've provided to the federal government. And we could look at this to find out how well you worked out or did not work out and use that in the decision making process. The last two items are with key personnel. I mean, what are the key personnel you propose? And the management approach? How do you plan to manage your contract? These are the four things that go into every valuation.
16:21
Now, does it matter if and I wonder this just from a consumer standpoint, because one belief, you know, one thing that I believe is, you know, at the end of the day, everyone's a consumer and so we're making consumer decisions as as left brain as we try to be in something like awarding a contract. Yeah, I think a lot of times at the end of the day, there's there's these right brain things that say, you know, I know these guys look better on paper, but these other guys, I just have a better feeling about them. The intangibles, the you know, maybe it's the branding, you know, maybe it's the you know, the thority that they appear to have, you know, when someone does a little bit of investigating into the contractor, any impressions on that?
17:10
You know, branding is an important thing. A lot of small businesses in the federal contracting space do not implement.
17:18
How do I know? I've seen the websites, they're pretty awful.
17:24
Yeah, the left brain, you know, left brain consume consumer dynamics is very prevalent, you know, kind of getting your name out there, giving back to communities, giving back to communities that are associated with agencies, having your people you know, kind of contribute, I mean, contribute to the technical community in terms of white papers or in terms of social media posts. All that is very important. The engagement that works To build your brand is so critical when when people make buying decisions, so many federal employees and procurement decision makers are online on LinkedIn and some other social media sites and they interact with you, when you contribute to the community that gives it gives you value. social media sites shouldn't be used as a news or press release. a press release instrument, it should be used to kind of compliment to give back to the community in terms of technical innovations or technical thought leadership. And then when you do that, that really solidifies your brand.
18:44
God Am I like your approach. I can see why that that's Alpha Omega is experiencing the growth that you are. It's more of a stewardship approach and stewardship both for the community and ultimately you know, I love you for your dedication to disruptive technology in saying, what are some ways that we can solve this problem better than anybody else more cost efficiently? And you know, what, if we don't make as much money on it, it's okay. Because we believe that we're making the world a better place by improving these systems.
19:22
Thank you. Thank you. We totally appreciate you putting it into words. That's exactly how we feel,
19:29
huh? All right. Well go Gautam Ijoor, you are the you're the president at Alpha Omega Integration. You're on the web at Alpha Omega Integration.com. Congratulations on being on the Inc 5000 as well. And thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much, Josh. I really appreciate you taking the time.
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