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INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: By Light Professional IT Services
Robert J. Donahue
Bob Donahue
By Light Professional IT Services
Army Lieutenant General Robert J. Donahue (Ret.) is chief executive officer, and Bob Donahue is president, of By Light Professional IT Services.
Q: Can you tell us about By Light Professional IT Services and what it has to offer to the military?
A: (Bob) By Light is a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business that is headquartered in Arlington, Va. We provide a broad range of hardware and software engineering services with approximately 100 cleared personnel. Our experienced management team leverages real-world expertise from the commercial, defense and intelligence sectors to provide tailored solutions for the demanding requirements in today’s federal market. Our true strength comes from our people, who are the driving force behind our rapid growth. We have a very strong and experienced management team that enables us to provide tailored support to our customers. By Light’s core expertise includes network engineering design and implementation, software services, contingency communication, and turn-key security solutions. We’re aggressively developing a new security capability within By Light that we see as a tremendous growth area and differentiator. We’re tying in electronic security with the traditional focus on information assurance to deliver a more cost-effective design to meet today’s heightened security requirements.
Q: What unique advantages does your company offer to military customers?
A: (Robert) I think that one of our biggest advantages is that we not only provide an industry-leading engineering staff, but also a seasoned program management capability with the quality that you would typically only find in a large integrator. We have a mature back-office capability with a DCAA-certified accounting system and a full companywide DELTEK automated time sheet implementation.
Q: What was your role in the Global Information Grid-Bandwidth Expansion (GIG-BE) project?
A: (Bob) By Light was an integral part of the engineering design and network installation effort for the GIG-BE program under the DGS contract with SAIC. SAIC partnered with AT&T to deliver a carrier-class solution for the GIG-BE effort, and By Light was fortunate to be selected by AT&T to be their implementation arm. We managed the network installations and provided a significant portion of the engineering design under their direct supervision. At one time we had more then 120 people working on the GIG-BE program performing a broad scope of responsibilities that ranged from the engineering design effort with the production of what we called TSIPS, Technical Site Implementation Plans, to the actual installation, test and turn up of the entire node at over 86 sites worldwide. By Light was able to leverage our senior management experience with the DISN Expansion Program to provide a focused engineering effort as part of the DGS team under AT&T.
Q: What are some of your other projects with the military?
A: (Bob) One of our other real success stories is our work on the SCAMPI program. By Light is providing the network design and implementation for the new Everything Over IP implementation on the SCAMPI Network, which is U.S. Special Operations Command’s C2 network. This project has been a tremendous success story for us because it allowed us to leverage the skill set that we developed on the GIG-BE program to provide a turn-key solution from the design to the implementation and hot cutover. This is one of our big differentiators: We have the ability to not only come in and provide the high-end network design, but also to execute the installation and turn up with carrier class standards.
This includes a turn-key solution from the DC power and BICSII certified installers to the programming of the routers and development of the encryption design. This success is truly a testament to the skill set of the people.
Q: What projects are you working on for the future?
A: (Robert) By Light has a strong focus on contingency communications support and our customer base at Fort Bragg, N.C. We recently purchased a new 8,000 sq. ft. integration facility in Fayetteville, N.C., near Fort Bragg, that we call the By Light Integration Center (BIC). It has enabled us to pre-position our contingency communications packages and has provided us with a state-of-theart facility for maintenance and lifecycle support services. We’re currently pre-positioning our contingency communications support satellite systems out of the BIC, which enhances our ability to support existing contracts with NORTHCOM and DoD that are delivering engineering design and satellite services. We are excited about the opportunities in the Fort Bragg area and feel that it has positioned us for several large opportunities emerging in the next two quarters.
Q: Please tell us more about your work in the security field.
A: (Bob) By Light is focusing on the emerging convergence of physical and electronic information security. Electronic surveillance and access devices will interact with the network as additional IP addresses. It’s the convergence of information assurance and physical security, and we are excited to be out in front of it. ♦
