SEWP’s Customer Driven Culture

SEWP Contract Holders discuss SEWP’s customer driven culture – and how it benefits you.

By Jeff Erlichman, Editor, On The FrontLines

HP’s Gayle Parman has been the company’s SEWP Program Manager for 14 years, stretching back to SEWP II. James Kman, SoftChoice SEWP Program Manager is a 6 year veteran.

During this time, Parman and Kman have been eyewitnesses and participants in SEWP’s concentrated, coordinated effort to create a customer driven culture. This was just one of the topics Parman and Kman talked about with their peers at a recent Contract Holder Roundtable hosted by On The FrontLines.

So, why is SEWP clearly the standard for customer service?

Steve Charles, Co-Founder & Executive Vice President, immixGroup says the answer lies in the way SEWP is pro-actively customer focused.

“The SEWP 24-hour response cycle is the standard for managing a contracting program from the government side,” declared Charles. “SEWP has a culture of responding to everything in 24 hours. You always get same day response, 24 hour resolution, with few exceptions.”

HP’s Parman has been with SEWP for 14 years. “The biggest emphasis is on customer service and that the government customer has an advocate in NASA,” noted Parman.

“Often times they get frustrated working directly with vendors and NASA will often times get involved and help. So, customer service is their strength and the 1-day turnaround time is huge.”

SoftChoice’s Kman talked about how SEWP program office promotes a one-on-one working relationship by taking the necessary time to work with customers and Contract Holders at the order and RFQ level.

“When it comes to turnaround time and SLAs, you can always guarantee you will have products added or a response within 24 hours,” said Kman. “This makes our job easier. They do a great job of balancing customer and Contract Holder needs.”

Donovan Quinonez, SEWP Program Manager at Merlin explained how SEWP customer service gets granular. “Specifically in the ease of the use of the contract, I’ve heard both from my side and the customer side how easy it is and how fast it is and then keeping both sides informed,” added Quinonez.

Lonnie Landers is the new SEWP PM for Four Points a SDVOSB newcomer to the SEWP contract, but Landers is not a newcomer to SEWP, having worked for Micron (now defunct).

“Having been a PM for both a SDVOSB and a small Women-owned business, I see the RFQs from agencies trying to achieve their different goals. They are using SEWP to get the IT needed by end users and taking advantage of the great diversity they can get through SEWP’s various contracts.”

“The SEWP contract has been a valuable tool in facilitating customer satisfaction and simplifying the acquisition process,” said Jim Binker, president of SGI Federal, which has been a SEWP Contract Holder since the early 1990s.

Any process including customer service can be improved, even if everyone is happy with the status quo,” noted Binker. He said SEWP and SGI share the mindset of always trying to go one step beyond the requirement.

At Presidio Networked Solutions, SEWP PM Stacy Byrd has been providing advanced IT lifecycle solutions to government customers since 2007.

“The Customer Service SEWP offers is by far the best for any contract vehicle,” said Byrd.

“Their vision is ‘to be the premier customer-focused contract vehicle for Federal Government purchase of IT products.’ They really do a great job keeping customers informed.” •