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From cyber analysts to human rights workers: Kenjya-Trusant Group launches major effort to staff Department of State offices

Columbia, MD. July, 2016
Just months after winning the Domestic – State Technical Administrative Management Professional Services (D-STAMPS) contract, The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC is supplying dozens of expert workers to carry out the mission of the U.S. Department of State (DoS).

In February, Kenjya-Trusant began work as the sole Service Disabled, Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) prime contractor on D-STAMPS – an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract that carries a $103-million ceiling and a lifespan of five years. Under the terms of the contract, Kenjya-Trusant will provide contract employees to deliver a wide range of services in Department of State offices throughout the Continental United States.

“You are talking about everything from administrative assistants and program officers to senior-level consultants, software engineers, digital forensics analysts, writers, videographers, even HVAC subject matter experts,” said Joseph DiGangi, a Principal with The Kenjya-Trusant Group. “The range of subject specialties is extraordinary. We are supporting the work of a wide range of bureaus, including the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, the Office of Medical Services and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.”

Placing those individuals in DoS positions is also proceeding at a rapid pace. In the first three months of the contract, Kenjya-Trusant received more than 120 Task Order Requests for Proposals (TORPs) that requested anywhere from one to 19 employees per TORP. Filling positions with incumbents who are currently contracted through other companies, or individuals referred by the DoS must be completed within five business days. If Kenjya-Trusant has to recruit an employee to fill a position, the company aims to complete that process within 12 business days.

“We are moving fast every single day on this contract,” said Richard Kubu, a Principal with The Kenjya-Trusant Group.

Robust HR, recruiting, finance and project management practices are key to successfully delivering on D-STAMPS requirements, Kubu said.  The project team, he added, maintains a Corporate Application Tracking System (CATS), updates its detailed tracking of D-STAMPS TORPs daily, and conducts a one-hour huddle every weekday about ongoing D-STAMPS work.

Kenjya-Trusant, which began 2016 with about 50 employees, expects to grow to over 200 employees by early next year largely due to D-STAMPS. Consequently, the company is also redoubling its efforts to stay closely connected with all of its employees even though they are scattered throughout client sites. Those efforts include regular, direct contact with Kenjya-Trusant principals and executives, and regular gatherings in the District of Columbia of Kenjya-Trusant employees working in the National Capital Region.

“We are not a body shop type of company,” Kubu said. “We ensure there is constant outreach so everyone feels like a valued member of the team. Happy, engaged employees are essential to making our clients happy and sustaining the success of Kenjya-Trusant.”

“We are very excited to be working for the Department of State through D-STAMPS and proud to be supporting their mission,” DiGangi said. “We intend to prove ourselves as a worthy provider of professional services to the department.”

About The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC

The mission of The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC is to implement, support and protect the nation’s advanced technology systems, business processes and high-technology facilities. Working with the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Intelligence Community, state and local governments, and commercial clients, Kenjya-Trusant provides cyber protection, information technology, engineering, construction management and acquisition-support services designed to protect the nation. A service-disabled, veteran-owned, small business, Kenjya-Trusant was founded by four, former Army officers in 2015 through the merger of The Kenjya Group, Inc. and Trusant Technologies, LLC.  www.kenjya-trusant.com/

Kenjya-Trusant named prime contractor for Defense Intelligence Agency E-SITE contract

Columbia, MD April, 2016
The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC has been selected as a small-business prime contractor for the Enhanced Solutions for the Information Technology Enterprise (E-SITE) program for U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.

E-SITE is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracting vehicle, designed to provide worldwide coverage of IT requirements and technical support services for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Department of Defense, all branches of the military, the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), and related departments and agencies. DIA, which administers E-SITE, selected 25 large businesses and 25 small businesses to serve as primes for the five-year contract vehicle that could award as much as $6 billion in task orders.

“This  is  a  new  competitive  space  for  the  Kenjya-Trusant Group, but it is also a natural progression  in  diversifying  our  client  portfolio,”  said  Tim  Donnelly, Director of Business Development.

Kenjya-Trusant has extensive experience developing and supporting advanced technology systems and facilities for federal clients, including the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and the Intelligence Community.

“We  can  use  our  experience  and  some  of  the  innovation  we  produced  on  other   contracts  to  enhance  services  for  the  DIA,”  said  Nancy  Baldwin,  Director  of  IT  Services   and Lead of the Kenjya-Trusant E-SITE team.

Innovation is a core component of E-SITE which aims to improve integration, information sharing, operational efficiencies and information safeguards. The contract also covers work involved with implementing ICITE – a new Intelligence Community IT Environment designed to improve information sharing and collaboration among intelligence, defense and law enforcement agencies.

Kenjya-Trusant has already been involved with the implementation of ICITE for another client. In addition, the 20-company team that Kenjya-Trusant assembled to bid for E- SITE, includes firms with deep expertise in critical fields, including secure cloud computing, intelligence collection and cyber.

“We  are  well  positioned  to  compete  for  task  orders  under  E-SITE,”  Donnelly  said.  “We   have a great team and great processes.”

About The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC

The mission of The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC is to implement, support and protect the nation’s advanced technology systems, business processes and high-technology facilities. Working with the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Intelligence Community, state and local governments, and commercial clients, Kenjya-Trusant provides cyber protection, information technology, engineering, construction management and acquisition-support services designed to protect the nation. A service-disabled, veteran-owned, small business, Kenjya-Trusant was founded by four, former Army officers in 2015 through the merger of The Kenjya Group, Inc. and Trusant Technologies, LLC.  www.kenjya-trusant.com/

Lessons from a merger: Exhaustive plans set stage for major growth at Kenjya-Trusant Group

Columbia, MD. March, 2016
One year after executing a meticulously planned merger of their two small companies, Principals of The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC say their new firm is poised to enter a period of explosive growth.

Created from The Kenjya Group, Inc. and Trusant Technologies, LLC on March 2, 2015, Kenjya-Trusant has landed several large, federal contracts within the past year, expanded its service offerings, streamlined and upgraded back-office operations, improved employee benefits, and strengthened its strategic planning capabilities.

“When you start executing a plan, such as a merger, you sometimes discover that the plan wasn’t quite as good as you thought,” said Larry Medler, Principal. “In this case, the plan worked out better than we thought.”

That kind of business success, however, did not happen easily nor surreptitiously. Overcoming the challenges of a business merger required Kenjya-Trusant’s team to master robust business practices and weather months of complex execution.

Plan Every Detail

In August 2014, the Principals of The Kenjya Group and Trusant Technologies – four former Army officers who had known each other for more than a decade – dug into a very deliberate process of analyzing every aspect of both companies to determine how to successfully structure a merged company.

“We held weekly meetings with strict agendas – and homework assignments – that covered everything from how we put together contract proposals to how we handle staff parties,” said Rich Kubu, Principal.

Months of weekly meetings produced an operating agreement that not only outlined accepted operating practices and best-in-breed standards for The Kenjya-Trusant Group, but also determined how to deal with a failed merger. In a corporate version of a prenuptial agreement, the Principals worked out how to handle any potential ‘divorce’ in a manner that would safeguard the interests of the Principals and the company itself.

Leverage Individual Strengths

While structuring The Kenjya-Trusant Group, the four Principals seized on an opportunity to divvy up responsibilities within the new company. Rather than overseeing all aspects of running the firm, each Principal agreed to leverage their individual strengths and focus on one of four areas – finance, business development, internal operations or IT/engineering services.

“Each of us has taken a lane and we are diving in deep,” said Vince Marucci, Principal. “It is producing real benefit. We are becoming more efficient at operating, our pipeline is growing, we are able to forecast and control costs better, and it is because we all became much more focused. We are making better educated decisions and we are analyzing those decisions at a much more granular level and in a much more strategic way.”

Protect Employees

Throughout the merger, the leadership team also focused on keeping their employees happy. The planning included clearly defining the nature of each company and determining if the corporate cultures were compatible. The Principals vowed to “do no harm” to employee compensation and benefits and worked to ensure employees received equal or improved benefits within the merged company.

After announcing the merger, the company also held monthly meetings to discuss details of the merger, the status of various internal changes, the reasoning behind company decisions, and employee questions.

Brace for Complications

Despite the best-laid plans, the Kenjya-Trusant merger still ran into challenges.

“A merger is a strategic move. What gets lost in translation sometimes is the tactical part,” said Joe DiGangi, Principal. “The tactical portion, the day-to-day fixing of things for a merger is probably three times as hard, as detailed, as expensive as you think it will be.”

From migrating e-mail systems to combining 401k plans to novation of federal contracts, the merger required nine months of hard, patient, extremely detail-oriented work to complete. “In a prior company, I was directly involved in an acquisition, and it was much easier than our merger!” said Marucci. “In an acquisition, most of the processes of the acquiring company are just implemented, and the acquired company has to change to assume the processes within their new home. In our merger, we questioned almost every process, vendor, and employee benefit in our past – was yours better, was ours better, can we combine both to make something better, or should we do something completely new? So even though we are much stronger today, it was not without change – and change is just painful, even when it is change for the better.”

Yet all four Principals say the effort is already proving to be an extremely wise investment.

“It was nine hard months, but my goodness, it is going to be an explosive growth year for us, and 100% growth is a very conservative estimate.” Medler said.

About The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC

The mission of The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC is to implement, support and protect the nation’s advanced technology systems, business processes and high-technology facilities. Working with the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Intelligence Community, state and local governments, and commercial clients, Kenjya-Trusant provides cyber protection, information technology, engineering, construction management and acquisition-support services designed to protect the nation. A service-disabled, veteran-owned, small business, Kenjya-Trusant was founded by four, former Army officers in 2015 through the merger of The Kenjya Group, Inc. and Trusant Technologies, LLC.  www.kenjya-trusant.com/

Kenjya-Trusant tasked to support U.S. Air Force in Europe, Middle East

Columbia, Md. January 25, 2016
The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC has landed three contracts to support United States Air Force (USAF) operations in Europe and the Middle East.

A veteran-owned firm specializing in cyber protection, information technology, engineering, construction management and acquisition-support services, Kenjya-Trusant landed the contracts through competitions within the USAF’s Global Engineering, Integration and Technical Assistance 2011 (GEITA11) program.

At Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Kenjya-Trusant has been tasked with providing technical
environmental support to the Environmental and Real Property Branch of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center (AFCEC) within the United States Air Force in Europe (USAFE). Contracted workers will manage data about environmental initiatives, including project tracking, training support, cost and scheduling support, and data and analysis support.

Also at Ramstein, Kenjya-Trusant has been tasked to provide administration support to AFCEC, Europe Division.

Gryphon Environmental, LLC – a Colorado-based contractor and a partner in Kenjya-Trusant’s GEITA11 bid team – is leading the delivery of services on both Ramstein task orders. Both are seven-month contracts with options to extend each by an additional three years.

At Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Kenjya-Trusant has been tasked with providing technical engineering onsite support to AFCEC.

“We are providing advisory and assistance services in support of studies, analyses and evaluations of ongoing engineering projects in the region, including utilities, infrastructure and paving projects,” said Joseph DiGangi, Principal at Kenjya-Trusant.

exp Federal Inc. – a Chicago, IL-headquartered member of Kenjya-Trusant’s GEITA11 bid team– is leading service delivery on the one-year contract in Qatar, which could be extended for an additional year.

“Competition for GEITA11 task orders has been intense so we were very pleased to win these contracts,” DiGangi said. “Through GEITA11, we are expanding our ability to serve a new client, the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, and expanding our operations overseas.”

About The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC

The mission of The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC is to implement, support and protect the nation’s advanced technology systems, business processes and high-technology facilities. Working with the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Intelligence Community, state and local governments, and commercial clients, Kenjya-Trusant provides cyber protection, information technology, engineering, construction management and acquisition-support services designed to protect the nation. A service-disabled, veteran-owned, small business, Kenjya-Trusant was founded by four, former Army officers in 2015 through the merger of The Kenjya Group, Inc. and Trusant Technologies, LLC.  www.kenjya-trusant.com/

Kenjya-Trusant named prime contractor for Defense Intelligence Agency E-SITE contract

Columbia, MD April, 2016
The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC has been selected as a small-business prime contractor for the Enhanced Solutions for the Information Technology Enterprise (E-SITE) program for U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.

E-SITE is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracting vehicle, designed to provide worldwide coverage of IT requirements and technical support services for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Department of Defense, all branches of the military, the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), and related departments and agencies. DIA, which administers E-SITE, selected 25 large businesses and 25 small businesses to serve as primes for the five-year contract vehicle that could award as much as $6 billion in task orders.

“This  is  a  new  competitive  space  for  the  Kenjya-Trusant Group, but it is also a natural progression  in  diversifying  our  client  portfolio,”  said  Tim  Donnelly, Director of Business Development.

Kenjya-Trusant has extensive experience developing and supporting advanced technology systems and facilities for federal clients, including the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and the Intelligence Community.

“We  can  use  our  experience  and  some  of  the  innovation  we  produced  on  other   contracts  to  enhance  services  for  the  DIA,”  said  Nancy  Baldwin,  Director  of  IT  Services   and Lead of the Kenjya-Trusant E-SITE team.

Innovation is a core component of E-SITE which aims to improve integration, information sharing, operational efficiencies and information safeguards. The contract also covers work involved with implementing ICITE – a new Intelligence Community IT Environment designed to improve information sharing and collaboration among intelligence, defense and law enforcement agencies.

Kenjya-Trusant has already been involved with the implementation of ICITE for another client. In addition, the 20-company team that Kenjya-Trusant assembled to bid for E- SITE, includes firms with deep expertise in critical fields, including secure cloud computing, intelligence collection and cyber.

“We  are  well  positioned  to  compete  for  task  orders  under  E-SITE,”  Donnelly  said.  “We   have a great team and great processes.”

About The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC

The mission of The Kenjya-Trusant Group, LLC is to implement, support and protect the nation’s advanced technology systems, business processes and high-technology facilities. Working with the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Intelligence Community, state and local governments, and commercial clients, Kenjya-Trusant provides cyber protection, information technology, engineering, construction management and acquisition-support services designed to protect the nation. A service-disabled, veteran-owned, small business, Kenjya-Trusant was founded by four, former Army officers in 2015 through the merger of The Kenjya Group, Inc. and Trusant Technologies, LLC.  www.kenjya-trusant.com/