SE Solutions finds a niche in the homeland security market

by Heather B. Hayes
for Virginia Business
May 2007

You won’t find any mahogany desks or marble floors inside the offices of Strategic Enterprise Solutions (SE Solutions) Inc., a 5-year-old Reston company that provides management consulting and IT solutions to the federal government. That type of mindset would serve only to undermine one of the firm’s long-term strategies for competing effectively in a cut-throat and crowded marketplace.

“We would like to eventually see our people be the highest-paid in the industry,” says CEO John Rothenberger, who started his firm in 2002. “You can’t do that if you’re spending money on high-end office décor or putting your names in lights all along the Dulles Toll Road.”

The company currently has 50 employees and plans to hire 30 more consultants this year. It offers profit-sharing opportunities and high-performance bonuses to its consulting personnel. “We understand very well that this is a people business and that people are our primary asset,” says Rothenberger, who started his first company, Aspire Technology Group (a former Fantastic 50 member) when he was 26, before selling it in 2000. “So our philosophy is really one of sharing our growth and our financial success with our employees.”

Rothenberger, who recently signed on as the first “entrepreneur in residence” at the James Madison University College of Business, has long had a strong sense of community and fair play. He decided to start SE Solutions after 9/11 because he was eager to make a contribution. “It became apparent that the best thing I could do was to deliver high-end business and IT solutions to the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS),” he says.

Five years later, SE Solutions is a small, but key, player in the $60 billion homeland security market, performing work not only for DHS but also for the intelligence community, the Department of Defense, the Department of Interior and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

The company grew 2,036 percent in its first four years of operation, making it the fastest growing technology company in the Fantastic 50. SE Solutions grew another 45 percent last year. Rothenberger, who won’t release current revenue figures, says that his 10-year plan is to reach $40 million in revenue and 275 employees.

SE Solutions’ management consulting services include strategic planning, performance management, risk assessment and technology solutions such as enterprise data solutions, information assurance and infrastructure design.

“Agencies today are looking for boutique services, where they can get very specialized expertise in a certain area,” says Rothenberger, noting that although SE Solutions has gone after a wide range of federal business, it still works hard to maintain the bulk of its focus on strategic enterprise solutions in the homeland security arena.

In fact, more than 50 percent of its business is with the Department of Homeland Security.

uring the formation of DHS, for example, SE Solutions worked as a subcontractor to Unisys, designing and helping to implement the Washington-area computer networks that support the 6,000-employee headquarters site. In addition, the company is currently providing information assurance solutions to the Transportation Security Agency (TSA).

Ed Vaccaro, a partner with Unisys Federal and program executive for both the DHS Headquarters and TSA programs, says that SE Solutions has excelled in a very short period of time because of its technical strengths and a can-do attitude.

“They’re always willing to go and do whatever it takes to get the job done,” Vaccaro says. “And they’re very good at being able to quickly respond to specific types of needs, whether that’s for a type of person or a specific technical capability. They work really, really well as a partner.”

SE Solutions, which has also partnered with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman IT, SAIC and the Center for Organizational Excellence, recently won new work providing management consulting and enterprise architecture solutions to the U.S. Army, OPM and the DoD Civilian Personnel Management Service. The total value of these latest contracts is approximately $1 million.