Indianapolis-based consulting firm lands huge Space Force contract

Indianapolis-based consulting firm Agility Consulting LLC has big hopes that a military contract it recently won will generate millions in additional business for the company. 

Agility was one of 18 U.S. companies awarded a 5-year contract giving it a piece of $900 million in spending on data software services for the U.S. Space Force. The award means that Agility and the other awardees are the only firms who can bid on this work over the life of the contract. The 18 were selected from among 34 firms who had indicated their interest in the contract, the Department of Defense said. 

 “It’s a huge, huge contract,” said Agility’s CEO, Emily Harshman. 

The contract award was announced last week, and awardees can begin bidding on work within this contract starting Saturday.  

Though none of the awardees is guaranteed to win a specific amount of business under the contract, Harshman said she’s hopeful that Agility can win up to $100 million in work—and maybe more—over the life of the contract.  

Established in 2014, Agility specializes in helping large organizations adopt an agile approach to business.  

The term “agile,” which is used in processes including project management and software development, is a sort of plan-as-you-go approach in which teams complete a portion of work at a time, iterating as they go, rather than doing all the planning up front. The process is designed to deliver results faster and remain flexible amidst rapidly changing conditions. 

“That’s what everyone’s moving to,” Harshman said of the agile approach to business. 

Harshman said her firm has worked with clients in a wide range of industries, including manufacturers Ford Motor Co., Boeing Co., Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, Ascension Health and others. The firm has also won previous military contracts, Harshman said, but those contracts were a fraction of the size of the newly-won Space Force contract.  

At any given time, Agility’s workforce fluctuates between about 30 and 50, depending on the firm’s work needs, Harshman said. About a quarter of the firm’s workers are employees and the others are contractors.  

The firm could quadruple in size over the next several years to handle the influx of work it wins under the Space Force contract, Harshman said, and the firm is also preparing to submit bids for four other government contracts within the next several weeks. 

“There’s a lot happening—but we’re here for it,” Harshman said.