Employee Spotlight
Jeff McCracken
Associate Vice President and Program Manager, GSA
Building a Strong Partnership at GSA
“It’s always been my philosophy to be a partner with your customer,” says Jeff McCracken, Associate Vice President and Program Manager on Catapult’s $200 million General Services Administration (GSA) Infrastructure Technology Global Operations (GITGO) contract.
In December 2006, Jeff got involved in the bid for GITGO, working with the Catapult team to develop a winning proposal. When the person who was designated to be Program Manager left the company, Jeff stepped in. Catapult announced the win in March of 2007, and the initial work began.
GITGO is an enterprise-wide consolidation of GSA’s technology infrastructure that is not only saving the organization money, but making it more efficient. GSA’s new administrator Martha Johnson is pushing new workplace policies and a general culture shift. Catapult provides a range of services that help GSA achieve its objectives. “From an IT and operational perspective is to evolve with that new focus,” says Jeff.
Winning GITGO doubled Catapult’s size overnight. Jeff says that due to some of the requirements, the number of people the contract serves, and the nationwide reach, “Catapult really had to change our corporate processes and grow quickly to keep pace with the demands of the contract.”
He adds, “When Catapult won the GITGO project, we didn’t have a lot of the processes that we have in place now.” This included the processing of new employees hired to fulfill the contract’s requirements. “Winning the GITGO contract sort of forced Catapult to become more sophisticated in how we operate,” he says.
Manual processes have been replaced by automated systems. Today, Catapult has the formal processes and disciplines in place to enable us to rise to the demands of any new contract. But Jeff points out that Catapult has been careful not to allow corporate operations to become too unwieldy. “To stay competitive, you still have to be fairly lean,” he notes.
On GITGO, the Catapult team reacts quickly in light of Johnson’s push for rapid deployment.
Technology initiatives that were once slated for rollout within 12 to 18 months now get implemented in as little as eight to 12 weeks. “The GSA pipeline is a lot more aggressive these days,” says Jeff. “But Catapult is up to GSA’s more rapid implementation methodology. We’re pushing their technology forward quickly.”
Catapult runs the help desk that serves all GSA users, provides local support at all major GSA locations nationwide, manages server and workstation support, and provides LAN, WAN, and security services—everything underlying the IT infrastructure.
Additionally, Catapult communicates about pending technology initiatives and changes to GSA’s 15,000 users. “We must be able to tell users why we’re doing something, how it’s going to benefit them, and how their workflow will change,” Jeff says.
Additionally, Catapult is helping GSA to implement the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), a set of concepts and practices that bring together disparate elements of IT management, development, and operations. “GSA had never implemented ITIL before, so we’re leveraging our expertise and industry experience to bring it to the agency,” says Jeff.
Jeff’s relationship with the GSA OCIO exemplifies his attitude about partnership. He regularly interfaces with Casey Coleman, CIO, and her staff, as well as with Phil Klokis, acting CIO of the Public Buildings Service (PBS), a GSA agency that acts as the landlord for the civilian federal government.
“We’re there to provide a service, to help the client grow their organization,” says Jeff. “GSA trusts Catapult to run things as we focus on the next generation of technology and the culture shift that implies,” he says.
Jeff has nothing but good words to say about the Catapult Team. “The entire GITGO team’s willingness to be dynamic in a dynamic environment and to provide excellent results is what has made the strongest impression with GSA management.”
Jeff has spent 25 years in the technology world, starting out in 1985 as a UNIX specialist. At one point, he took off a year to remodel old homes, a ‘hobby’ he continues today.
In 2005, he added restaurateur to the mix, co-purchasing Eden, a leading eatery in Rehoboth Beach, DE. Today, Jeff and his partner Ron Niemann split their time between Washington, DC and Rehoboth Beach.
