Rick Logemann, president of BioImaging Solutions Inc. in Sorrento Valley, makes a presentation to a meeting of the San Diego Supplier Development Council at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley. The council puts small business representatives in touch with companies and government agencies for contract opportunities.

BioImaging Solutions Inc. in Sorrento Valley is like many small businesses in San Diego — lean and hungry. For the past three years, founders Rick and Pam Logemann have sold special digital imaging systems and components to a variety of customers — biotechs, pharmaceutical companies and universities. But in order to grow, they want to engage a broader market: San Diego’s multibillion-dollar defense industry.

Enter the San Diego Supplier Development Council, a 33-year-old organization that puts small businesses in direct contact with representatives from federal, state and local government agencies and their prime contractors. All of San Diego’s large defense contractors are members of the council, including Science Applications International Corp., which heads the list of the top 10 defense firms here with $714 million in annual local contracts.

Defense spending is important to San Diego’s economy, amounting to $18.3 billion or nearly 15 percent of the county’s Gross Regional Product, says the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. That figure indirectly supports 142,530 jobs in the local economy and what the chamber calls a vibrant defense contracting industry. Many small businesses are eager to tap into that market.

The Logemanns attended one of the monthly luncheons hosted by the San Diego Supplier Development Council at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley and met Rachel Powers, small business specialist for SAIC. A few hours later, Pam Logemann was filling out an application to become a subcontractor for SAIC from directions given to her by Powers.

Whether BioImaging Solutions is able to do subcontract work for SAIC remains to be seen, but the Logemanns say the Supplier Development Council gave them the opportunity to meet personally with the company and other prime contractors.

Rosemary Bullen, manager of small business government compliance for Qualcomm Inc. and the company’s small business liaison, is president of the Supplier Development Council for 2007 and presides over its monthly meetings. She says the luncheons and networking sessions give small business representatives the chance to promote themselves to people who make contracting decisions. “It’s an absolute showcase for them,” says Bullen. “That’s the beauty of it.”

Bullen is sold on the idea of small businesses partnering with large companies. But until 2005, her own company did not have any formal relationship with San Diego’s small business community. Now it does. Bullen established a small business program at Qualcomm that enables the company to qualify for certain government contracts. She’s currently working on a plan for Qualcomm to host a “matchmaker meet” where small businesses would be invited to meet company program managers, procurement staff and other key decision makers to see if there is a good match for doing business with each other.

SAIC’s involvement in the Supplier Development Council is a natural outgrowth of its relationship with the small business community. Rochelle Lowe, small business compliance manager for the company, says SAIC awarded $1.2 billion in subcontracts to small businesses across the country during the last fiscal year. “We have contracts and relationships with numerous small businesses in San Diego County,” says Lowe. “We want to be available as much as possible to the small business community.”

Rochelle Lowe, manager of small business compliance for SAIC, says the defense contractor awarded $1.2 billion in subcontracts during the last fiscal year. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

Many of San Diego’s major defense contractors have “mentor-protégé” agreements with small businesses where they take an active role in helping the smaller companies successfully compete for government contracts. These partnerships are monitored by the Department of Defense. The Small Business Administration also has a mentor-protégé program that provides various forms of assistance to small companies.

The Network Communications Division of Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, which is based in Carmel Mountain Ranch, established a mentor-protégé relationship with HiTEM, an electronic manufacturing company in Mira Mesa. The program is in its second year and will run for another year. “Our program is one of the most active programs we have,” says Mikal Aziz, manager of small business programs for the division. “It is extremely successful. Northrop Grumman has several protégé programs corporatewide.”

HiTEM became a primary supplier of printed circuit boards for a Northrup Grumman sector from its participation in the mentor-protégé program. Last August, the company moved into a larger building that nearly doubled the square footage of its manufacturing floor. “The move was necessary because of the phenomenal growth the company has experienced over the past year and a half and positions HiTEM to take advantage of the unique relationships developed with military and aerospace customers,” says Vinh Lam, owner and chief operating officer of the company.

The San Diego Contracting Opportunities Center is an advocate organization for small business much like the Supplier Development Council. Formerly called the Procurement Technical Assistance Center or PTAC, the organization is funded by local government agencies and companies and the Department of Defense. Gunnar Schalin, the program director, says the DOD contributed $150,000 to the center last year while another $150,000 came from local sponsors, including Booz Allen Hamilton, Northrop Grumman, L-3 Communications (Titan) and Qualcomm Inc.

Gunnar Schalin is program director for the San Diego Contracting Opportunities Center, which counsels small businesses on how to obtain commercial and government contracts. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

“Everyone who comes in for counseling for the first time is counted as a client,” says Schalin. “We have about 500 active clients every year.” Since 1995, the center’s first full year of operation, its clients have been awarded more than $17 million in government contracts. Schalin says more than 600 jobs have been created or retained as a result of these awards.

Tim Warren, senior procurement counselor for the center, says small businesses that approach the center for help are told right away to consider large prime contractors and government agencies for contract work. “If a small business is looking for work, we’ll tell them the best place to start is at the subcontract level,” Warren says. Since many of the large prime contractors have small business advocates in-house, Warren says it is important for the small business owner to get to know these people. “Personal relationships are important,” he says.

Pacific Microwave Research (PMR), a Vista company that designs and manufactures digital video transmission systems, has won contracts from General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman largely because of assistance it received from another advocate for small business — the San Diego-based Center for Commercialization of Advanced Technology. Sponsored by the Department of Defense, the CCAT program offers funding and business development support to small business entrepreneurs and others to speed commercialization of technologies that can be used in a variety of areas such as homeland security and in war. The nonprofit agency also provides mentoring, market studies and investor information to companies like PMR to assist in getting new technologies into the hands of the military and defense contractors. “Most large companies are flooded with inquiries from small businesses,” says Lou Kelly, CCAT board chairman.“We can stage promising companies for proper entry into the marketplace. We work with the business to insure the product they have is validated.”

Chris Durso and Dave Dirdo, who founded PMR in 1999, developed a digital video system considered to be more advanced than other wireless video transmission systems. The Tactical Video System they developed was used by the San Diego Police Department during Super Bowl XXXVII. Durso and Dirdo lacked the resources to get their system into mass production, so they sought funds from CCAT. Although no money was offered initially, CCAT approved a market study that Durso says validated a need and a market for the system. Later, CCAT awarded PMR $75,000 to develop a prototype of a small transmitter that became part of a complete digital video transmission system. Another $75,000 grant followed.

General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman began using PMR’s equipment for payloads on unmanned ground and aerial vehicles engineered to perform digital video surveillance in Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas with military presence. Durso says he wants to quadruple the size of his 10-employee company during the next five years and has an eye on SAIC and General Atomics, among others, as potential customers.

“We had a product that was field tested when we contacted CCAT, but needed that extra kick that they provided to take it to what it is today,” says Durso. “They’re my best pals.”

Another CCAT success story is Quantum Magnetics in Rancho Bernardo, which developed a technology for rapid detection of explosives and metallic weapons hidden within shoes. The shoe scanner requires an airline passenger to simply stand on a scanner pad for 2-3 seconds. A red light indicates the presence of explosives and/or metallic weapons; a green light signals neither explosives nor dangerous metallic weapons are present. CCAT awarded the company $75,000 in 2004 to develop the shoe scanner. Quantum Mechanics was subsequently acquired by General Electric and its shoe scanner is being tested by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration at five airports across the country.

On March 27, CCAT will present its second annual Technology Showcase at the Radisson Hotel in La Jolla where PMR and 15 other “most promising” small businesses it has helped will be paraded before an invited group of investors, defense contractors and other potential clients.

And on Aug. 14 and 15, the Navy and the San Diego chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) will present the Navy Small Business Opportunity Conference, more commonly known as the Gold Coast Conference. The event at the San Diego Convention Center gives small businesses the opportunity to meet representatives of major defense contractors and government agencies to form potential partnerships. Dwayne Junker, chief operating officer of Epsilon Systems Solutions and San Diego’s NDIA president, says the conference will include a matchmaking session where business deals can be initiated.

Tin Hla, small business administrator for General Atomics in Torrey Pines, recommends another way small businesses can connect with potential partners — the annual High-Tech Small Business Conference put on by Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA and the U.S. Small Business Administration. The March 7-8 conference at the Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel gives small businesses the opportunity to meet purchasing and technical representatives from major corporations and federal agencies to discuss contract opportunities.

Most large defense contractors have people like Hla who are responsible for communicating with the small business community. “We’re like family,” says Hla. “The small business liaison officer is key. If you need anything, you call the SBLO first.”

Rochelle Lowe of SAIC agrees. “The small business officers for the prime contractors are a small community of folks,” she says, “and we share some of our best practices.”