We were hopeful when writing last year’s review that things would get back to normal this year. The closing
paragraph of that summary read,
As we hear positive news of vaccines, we look forward to a promising 2021—a year in which we hope to re‐connect, in person, with our co‐workers and return to our worksites; a year of continued success in winning new work and maintaining current contracts; a year of health and happiness.
In some cases, that has [sort of] happened. But in many others, we are right where we started in January. So “back to normal” is a stretch. Some of our projects ARE back onsite and those employees have been able to re‐connect in person. But many of our projects, as well as the corporate office, remain remote. The large majority of our employees have received the COVID‐19 vaccine, and many have already received their boosters. And now, as we look toward 2022, we are hopeful that THIS is the year we get back to a “better normal.”
Throughout the year, we continued to bid on, win, and retain work with a number of agencies—including, the
Government Publishing Office, NIH National Cancer Institute, NIH National Library of Medicine, Food and Drug Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among others. We also have
several outstanding bids on which we are awaiting award.
We continue to work within prime/sub partnerships, including with Ivyhill Technologies, LLC, DBG, Inc ., Kern
Technologies Group, LLC, NTT DATA Federal Services, Inc., and TBM Technology Consulting, LLC; and as the mentor in mentor‐protégé joint ventures with MPF Federal and BarnAllen Technologies, Inc.
ZAI also continues to find new and interesting ways to utilize Teams and Zoom. Every day across the company, we are using virtual meetings to review proposals, have staff meetings, solve operations issues, meet with customers, and host team building events.
In 2021, we went through full certification audits and earned two new ISO certifications. ZAI is now certified not only to the ISO 9001:2015 Standard, but also to ISO/IEC 20000‐1:2018 and ISO/IEC 27001:2013. We were also successfully re‐assessed at CMMI Level 3 for Development. Not only do these certifications reinforce our dedication to quality management, customer service, and information security, but they also allow us to bid on work requires one or more of these certifications to pass an initial entry gate to bidding.
As individuals, many of us have celebrated milestones this year—marriages, births/adoptions of children and grandchildren, graduations, significant birthdays, and certifications, among others. Congratulations to all of you who celebrated or achieved one of these events.
It is because of our employees that we are successful, and we never take that for granted.
On to 2022!
