Presented by Inside Business, the Cool Tech Awards program is committed to recognizing the technology industry’s greatest accomplishments, and in so doing, honoring local companies for their innovation and best practices.
MSM Group wins 2013 Cool Tech Award from Inside Business Magazine
November, 2013 - Cleveland, OH
“I’ve met some of the coolest people in the world and worked on some of the coolest projects in the world, so it is fitting to be considered and awarded a Cool Tech Award for the stuff that we create”, said Scott Wickham, Chief Software Architect of MSM Group, Inc.
“It’s just amazing that the work that we do touches industries that many of us have dreamed about as kids. Our software is in use by some of the smartest people to work at NASA, including some folks who were part of the Apollo Moon missions in the 1960’s. To think that our software is relied upon by these folks to manage their multi-billion-dollar contracts just boggles my mind.”
Working on cool technology is not the only perk that Mr. Wickham and the employees of MSM Group, Inc. enjoy. “It’s also the amazing people we have met along the way. I was in attendance for a 50th anniversary celebration of NASA a few years back and in attendance were all of the living astronauts from the state of Ohio, just telling stories about life as an astronaut, their missions, and things like that. These astronauts included John Glenn, Jim Lovell from the Apollo 13 mission, and none other than Mr. Niel Armstrong, the first man to EVER set foot on the moon. I shook the hands of living legends! Come on…does it get any cooler than that?”
NASA GRC Selects MSM Group Inc. as Small Business Subcontractor of the Year
The NASA Office of Small Business Programs presents the Small Business Advocates Awards (SBAA) and the Small Business Industry Awards (SBIA) annually during the NASA Small Business Symposium and Awards Ceremony. These awards recognize the outstanding contributions made by NASA employees and industry representatives in support of the Agency’s small business program.
November, 2009 - Los Angeles, CA
The NASA Glenn Research Center, as part of its 2009 Small Business Industry Awards (SBIA) program has selected MSM Group Inc. as its Small Business Subcontractor of the Year. The NASA program recognizes the outstanding Small Business Prime, Large Business Prime, and Small Business Subcontractor that support NASA in achieving its mission. NASA Glenn’s selection of MSM also means that they will nominate MSM for the 2009 NASA agency-wide award in the same SBIA category.
MSM Group Inc. was nominated by its prime contractor, Sierra Lobo, who performs Test Facilities Operations, Maintenance, and Engineering (TFOME) services at the NASA Glenn Research Center. MSM’s main contribution to TFOME has been the development and implementation of an enterprise approach to integrated business tools and processes for task planning, execution, monitoring, control, and reporting.
“Many contractors employ independent point-solutions for planning, resource allocation, funding, and cost reporting” said MSM Group’s President & Chief Executive Officer Kevin McQuade. “MSM’s end-to-end, fully integrated project management and accounting solution provides anytime-anywhere accessibility to project, task, and contract data and information.”
MSM Group Inc. has been named a 2011 recipient of the Greater Cleveland COSE ``Ten Under 10`` Award
Each year, COSE (Counsel of Smaller Enterprises) recognizes 10 businesses with 10 or fewer employees for their best practices in innovation, growth/success, value to the community and environment, diversity, promotion and customer service excellence. These 10 COSE businesses are small in manpower but mighty in their ability to innovate, grow and reach ambitious goals. They’re thriving and setting the pace for success. They’re the proud COSE Ten Under 10.
An excerpt from the COSE publication:
Launching a Government Contract Solutions
After working around NASA contractors for close to 30 years, Kevin M. McQuade set a big goal for his business—to reinvent the way NASA small business contractors work, and to help the government work better and cost less.
McQuade founded MSM Group Inc. in 1999 and developed project management accounting software called iSite to link contractors’ business processes and information technology so they can better compete for and deliver NASA contracts.
“When you run these contracts, which I did as a business manager [for NASA Glenn Research Center], the accounting background is what you need to deliver the right information to the government, but I always had an IT person who could help me get the data out of the system,” McQuade says, telling how he got the idea to hatch his veteran-owned business. “It dawned on me that we needed the synergies of the accounting knowledge and IT infrastructure.”
iSite is a cloud-based software system that helps minority business contractors working for NASA to manage program resources in a cost-efficient way. Basically, the system lowers the cost on NASA contracts—and NASA is taking notice of this. In 2009, MSM Group was recognized as NASA Small Business Subcontractor of the Year.
To grow the business at the 20 percent annual clip, MSM has expanded its iSite target contractor/customer to larger minority businesses and those serving other NASA facilities. He moved to the beltway a couple of years ago, working there Monday through Friday to develop and deepen NASA relationships. In that time, he expanded his services to include three other NASA centers.
“Part of the challenge has been expanding our products and getting ourselves out there,” McQuade says.
The firm continues to grow: it added two employees in 2010 and secured an SBA line of credit with KeyBank to finance investments in IT infrastructure and software development staff.