Newport News, VA – On November 4, 2010 Inside Business ranked Spectrum on their list of finalists for The Roaring 20. The Roaring 20 honors Hampton Road’s most dynamic businesses based on revenue and employee growth. The award recognizes the region’s fastest growing companies that are making significant contributions to the local economy.
With his company poised to join the big leagues, Jeff Wassmer hopes to minimize any growing pains for Spectrum, a Newport News defense contractor that specializes in network security and intelligence systems.
Founded in 1999, Spectrum has gone from a humble operation headquartered in Wassmer’s bedroom to a multimillion-dollar contender with roughly 300 employees, a 20,000-square-foot office and a tougher breed of opponent in its bid for government contracts.
Because of our growth, the way our numbers have been, at the end of this year we’ll no longer be considered a small business when we compete on government business,“ said Wassmer, Spectrum’s president and CEO. “There’s no such thing as a medium-sized business in government contracts – you’re either small or large.
“We’re very, very good at being a small business,“ he said.“We are going to be a viable large business, and so it’s just shifting everybody’s mindset and saying, ’OK, now we’re competing at a whole different level, and we need to find ways to do that.
This new playing field is not entirely unfamiliar. Wassmer said Spectrum has successfully competed with Northrop Grumman in the past. And his first major project – providing information security for classified systems at Langley Air Force Base – wasn’t too shabby.
Still, the defense department has changed its spending habits, and companies like Spectrum must adapt.
“The DOD is definitely shifting the way it does business,” Wassmer said. ”They’re starting to in-source or turn things from contractor back to civil service. But there’s still a lot of opportunity out there for companies that can provide the services, can help realize new savings, design new ways of thinking, new ways of doing things. And so we’re always looking to keep ourselves fresh and crisp to make sure that we remain relevant to our customers.
For example, Spectrum now provides technical and support services for the Air Force’s “dial-a-nurse” program. The company is also developing software to improve how the military handles and organizes intelligence data.
“As DOD evolves, they love a company that’s responsive, on time, and flexible,” Wassmer said. “So if you get that kind of reputation, it certainly helps on both sides.”
Spectrum is a veteran-owned small business that serves the Department of Defense and federal agencies. The company specializes in providing the National and DoD intelligence community with innovative, realistic and affordable solutions in technology. Spectrum also provides full system support from assessment to certification and takes great pride in exceeding client expectations.