Trump seeking to remove China's industrial supply chain

Supply Chain Digital | May 04, 2020

According to officials familiar with US planning, the initiative has been launched in order to punish Beijing for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Trump has long promised to bring manufacturing back from overseas. However, with economic ruin and the increasingly high US COVID-19 death toll, it has led to a drive to transition US production and supply chain dependency away from China, even if it goes to other friendlier nations instead, according to current and former senior US administration officials.

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EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

Second Front Systems and Snowflake Announce Partnership

Prnewswire | April 26, 2023

Second Front Systems, a public-benefit software company focused on accelerating the delivery of mission-critical software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to government, is collaborating with Snowflake to offer a comprehensive DevSecOps capability to organizations serving the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community markets. "Second Front™ is proud to be partnering with Snowflake, the leader in the data cloud industry. This collaboration expands the impact of both company's solutions and positions us to jointly enable secure, streamlined delivery of innovative technology to the DoD, Intelligence Community, and beyond," said Tyler Sweatt, Chief Revenue Officer of Second Front. "By combining components of Data Cloud and the Game Warden® platform, SaaS companies can leverage a best-in-breed offering that positions them for both initial adoption and long-term success with the federal government." Snowflake enables every organization to mobilize their data with Snowflake's Data Cloud. Customers use the Data Cloud to unite siloed data, discover and securely share data, and execute diverse analytic workloads. Wherever data or users live, Snowflake delivers a single data experience that spans multiple clouds and geographies. "Snowflake is excited to be collaborating with our partner and mission-driven innovator, Second Front. Our combined technologies create a unique solution that better serves the federal government by reducing friction around access to and adoption of cutting-edge technologies," said Winston Chang, Snowflake's Global Public Sector CTO. "Working directly with Second Front on this DevSecOps initiative positions Snowflake to continue enabling data as a strategic asset in a variety of relevant national defense workloads." Second Front will continue to expand its partnerships with other defense innovation enablers like Snowflake, AWS, and Carahsoft in order to provide our commercial customers the best available solutions for delivery to the DoD and Intelligence Community market. About Second Front Systems Second Front Systems (2F) fast-tracks government access to disruptive, commercially-proven software as a service (SaaS) applications for national security missions. Leading software providers—ranging from publicly traded defense contractors to startups—and government agencies trust 2F's Game Warden DevSecOps platform and secure cloud hosting environment to accelerate their delivery and harness the cloud revolution at scale. Founded by former U.S. Marines, this public benefit, venture-backed software company is driven by firsthand experience of the dangers outdated technology poses in combat. For more information, visit https://secondfront.com/ About Snowflake Snowflake enables every organization to mobilize their data with Snowflake's Data Cloud. Customers use the Data Cloud to unite siloed data, discover and securely share data, and execute diverse analytic workloads. Wherever data or users live, Snowflake delivers a single data experience that spans multiple clouds and geographies. Thousands of customers across many industries, including 573 of the 2022 Forbes Global 2000 (G2K) as of January 31, 2023, use Snowflake Data Cloud to power their businesses. Learn more at snowflake.com.

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EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

Renovus Capital Partners Announces Formation of Aretum, New Government Services Platform, Following Acquisition of Miracle Systems

Prnewswire | April 19, 2023

Renovus Capital Partners ("Renovus") today announced that its newly formed platform, Aretum, LLC ("Aretum" or the "Company"), has acquired Miracle Systems, LLC ("Miracle"), an Arlington, VA-based prime contractor to more than twenty federal agencies domestically and internationally. Miracle joins existing Renovus portfolio company Panum Telecom, LLC ("Panum") within Aretum, a leading mid-tier organization focused on providing management consulting, mission support and technology solutions. Aretum primarily serves the DoD, DHS and Federal Civilian agencies through a broad array of contracts, contract vehicles and talented resources. "We are excited to bring together a rich and diverse pool of highly talented professionals under one organization," said Dr. Vaikunth Gupta, Co-Founder of Panum. "Our goal is to continue building Aretum into a best-in-class service provider to DHS, civilian and Department of Defense agencies." "The combination of Panum and Miracle under the Aretum umbrella is yet another step in our growing commitment to support the mission of government agencies with technology and management consulting services," said Atif Gilani and Manan Shah, Partners at Renovus Capital. "We are confident that Aretum will bring technology-focused innovative solutions to support our customers while unlocking value for our investors and stakeholders." Sandesh Sharda, Founder and CEO of Miracle Systems, commented, "Renovus really stood out from the other investors we considered. They had already made a significant growth investment in Panum and have great familiarity and understanding of the space where we operate." Aretum becomes the third Renovus platform in the government service space. Renovus will leverage its deep expertise across the broader knowledge and talent space to continue building each platform through a combination of organic expansion and add-on acquisitions. King & Spalding served as legal counsel to Renovus and Panum. UBS Investment Bank served as exclusive financial advisor to Miracle Systems, and Greenberg Traurig served as legal counsel. About Miracle Systems Miracle Systems is an innovative solutions provider bringing an entrepreneurial spirit and thought leadership to the Federal Government. We are an array of program managers, engineers, financial analysts, IT experts, systems designers, security specialists, trainers, and mission support specialists who have joined forces to create timely, tested, and sustainable solutions. Our signature offerings encompass PMO support, engineering services, financial consulting, IT modernization initiatives, mission-critical cyber support, and comprehensive training services. Established in 2003 and headquartered in Arlington, VA, our success has been demonstrated by cultivating long-term employees – and long-term clients. We proudly service over 100 contracts, and prime over 90 – managing over $900 million across civilian and military sectors. Miracle Systems consistently delivers high levels of customer satisfaction through innovation, ethics, and excellence. About Aretum, LLC Aretum LLC is a newly formed holding company that owns Miracle Systems and Panum Telecom. Miracle Systems (www.MiracleSystems.net) provides leading edge solutions and outstanding service to Federal clients, focusing on PMO Support, Financial Consulting, Engineering Services, Training Services, IT Systems, Cyber Mission. Miracle System has 90 active Prime Contracts across the US Government. Panum Telecom, LLC (www.panum.com) offers a broad spectrum of mission services including nutritional health, and management consulting services such as program & project management, acquisition & contract management, business & strategy consulting and next generation analytics, information and communications technology services such as network infrastructure & security, research & analysis, and training to Federal Government agencies. Panum is based in Bethesda, MD. About Renovus Capital Partners Founded in 2010, Renovus Capital Partners is a lower middle-market private equity firm specializing in the Knowledge and Talent industries. Renovus manages over $1 billion including its three sector-focused funds. The firm's portfolio includes over 25 businesses in education and training, healthcare services, technology services and professional services. Renovus typically partners with founder-led businesses, leveraging its experience to make operational improvements, recruit top talent, pursue add-on acquisitions, and oversee strategic growth initiatives.

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EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

ABBYY Expands Strategic Partnerships to Accelerate Modernization of Government Agencies

Businesswire | April 28, 2023

ABBYY today announced it has expanded its partnerships that serve state and local government agencies. Data from the Government Accountability Office revealed that federal IT legacy systems cost over $330 million annually to maintain, while delivering sub-optimal service and carrying risks inherent to older platforms. To address the agencies’ needs to modernize both back-end and consumer-facing IT systems, ABBYY partnerships will expand the accessibility of its intelligent automation solutions to streamline cumbersome processes, enhance citizen experiences and improve the overall ability to meet constituents’ needs. Among ABBYY’s expanded partnerships is MCCi, which was recently named as a company to watch in the annual GovTech 100. MCCi has numerous ongoing initiatives to digitally transform government services, including unemployment and Social Security fraud mitigation and accounts payable automation. The city of Coppell, Texas is among their customers that have successfully automated accounts payable processes using ABBYY intelligent document processing solutions to turn key document insights into efficient outcomes. By leveraging ABBYY technology, Coppell reduced invoice processing time from days to minutes. “Right out of the box, ABBYY intelligent document processing was very impressive,” said Jerod Anderson, director of Enterprise Solutions for the city of Coppell. “We gave it a dozen of our invoices, and it processed with 99% accuracy on 90% of those. It uses machine learning, so once it’s corrected, the next time an invoice from that vendor comes through, ABBYY understands it and will process it with 100% accuracy.” Additionally, MCCi holds a contract with the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) where ABBYY is a part of an approved distributor solution. ABBYY is also approved through several other government contracts, including the State of New York Information Technology Umbrella Contract, the State of California Software License Program, and the NASPO ValuePoint Cooperative Purchasing Contract via Carahsoft. Furthermore, our approval through Carahsoft has enabled state agencies to leverage ABBYY IDP and Proof of Identity in the motor vehicle sector to expedite document review and identity verification and proofing. “Our expanded partnership with ABBYY to serve the public sector is crucial because in many cases paper processes are necessary to provide services to constituents caught in the digital divide,” stated Donny Barstow, CEO of MCCi. “Paper forms do not have to slow modernization efforts. Clients like Coppell, TX are accelerating their adoption of automation technologies because of all the aforementioned drivers and are having proven, repeated success in improving their citizens’ experience.” Bruce Orcutt, SVP of Product Marketing at ABBYY commented, "Agencies in the public sector work with trusted, best-in-breed solutions that are scalable and easy to deploy. We have the expertise to address the growing document-centric challenges of these agencies, especially as rises in unemployment claims increase the need to accelerate processing while mitigating fraud risk. MCCi has deep connections and understands the public sector, enabling them to navigate citizens’ weariness toward poor service experiences. Strategic partnerships like these are instrumental to our growth and contributions in the public sector.” As citizens grow accustomed to exemplary customer experiences provided by Amazon and banking institutions, their expectations of government entities evolve. For example, a recent ABBYY survey identified the top three factors contributing to the public dropping out of registration for government services as taking too much time/too many steps (54%), requiring excessive and repetitive manual entry (50%), and making identity verification too difficult (26%). About ABBYY ABBYY powers intelligent automation. We reimagine the way people work and how companies accelerate business by delivering the intelligence that fuels automation platforms. Our solutions transform enterprise data and empower you with the insights you need to work smarter and faster. We help more than 10,000 companies globally, including many of the Fortune 500, to drive significant impact where it matters most: customer experience, profitability, and competitive advantage. ABBYY is a US-based global company with offices in 14 countries. For more information, visit www.abbyy.com. About MCCi MCCi is a business process automation company that accelerates digital transformation by adding intelligence to your processes. As an IT services company with expertise in delivering end-to-end professional services provider, we provide our clients some of the leading technologies for business process automation, including Laserfiche for content services, Blue Prism and UiPath for robotic process automation, ABBYY for intelligent capture, and One Span for digital signatures. We are a trusted partner to over 1,100 government organizations, including cities, counties, state agencies, special districts, K-12, and higher education and are a proud GovTech 100 company for 2023.

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