| Entrepreneurs Angela
Drummond's SiloSmashers helps technology groups communicate Silos
- organizational areas where communication is restricted - are all too common
in technically focused agencies and companies. This fast-growing consultancy,
headed by a Native American, helps break the silos down  | | SiloSmashers'
Angela Drummond: "Owning your own business is the thing to do." |
SiloSmashers,
says Angela Drummond, focuses on the "softer side" of IT. "We use technology as
an enabler to get the business right. We put the business first, then map the
technology to it. Our consultants look at organizations' technology infrastructure
and help them design a roadmap to where they want to be." Focused
for technology
SiloSmashers (Vienna, VA) is a management and technology
consulting firm. Its focus is breaking down organizational barriers so the different
parts of large organizations can do a better job of working together. Angela
Drummond, founding partner, president and CEO, started the company more than ten
years ago. "We've been going and growing like crazy over the past couple of years,"
she says happily. Drummond's
first big contract was with the Department of Defense. Right now the firm is working
for the General Services Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs
components of Homeland Security, and the Department of Commerce. The Social Security
Admin and the Army have also been clients, and the firm does some commercial work. Silos
and stovepipes
Silos and stovepipes are names given to organizational roadblocks.
Each group within an organization, says Drummond, tends to communicate within
its own vertical silo, where the info shoots up and down to people in the same
area, rather than spreading out to other interested groups in the organization. "The
results are disconnects and miscommunication that keep organizations from being
as efficient, communicative and competitive as they could be," Drummond explains. Not
good, especially when the problem is with a government organization. Smashing
the silos
SiloSmashers' consultants help company clients break down the
old practices and find better ways of doing business, says Drummond. The firm
is involved in strategic change, project management and communications, as well
as more specific IT areas like enterprise architecture, Internet security and
data standardization. "There are a lot of tools and technologies we can use,"
Drummond explains, including a company-developed methodology it calls Peak Performance.
The
SiloSmashers workforce includes some seventy skilled professionals - seasoned
folks that were recruited from a variety of fields and experiences. The company
trains its new hires in the specific competency and technology areas it uses.
And since SiloSmashers makes project management a specialty, a large proportion
of the company's professional staff is certified by the Project Management Institute. Getting
ready
Drummond grew up in northern Virginia, assuming that "Owning your
own business was the thing to do." Her father, who ran a construction company,
was a role model for her. So
was Pocahontas. Drummond can trace her roots through the East Coast Powhatan Confederation
of Native Americans all the way back to earliest colonial days. "I think Pocahontas
is a great role model for women. She traveled to England, married outside her
tribe - she was very courageous," says Drummond. Drummond
didn't start out in IT. She received a BS in fashion merchandising from Radford
University (Radford, VA). She learned IT on the job as a technology trainer with
Wilson Hill Associates and the Maxima Corp in the DC Metro area, "setting up networks
and the nuts and bolts of PCs, then moving into an Army contract, helping them
align their business processes for technology." The
stars were in alignment
"I think the stars were in alignment, and I was
in the right place at the right time when I started my business," Drummond says.
"It was a new concept, but I was selling it to key people in the Department of
Defense (DOD) that I had already worked with, and they had faith that I could
do it." Her
first contract was to develop and run a center for process improvement for the
DOD. "I helped them implement collaborative technologies for addressing tough
business issues," she remembers. In
consulting, financing a new venture can sometimes be done bit by bit. "I had $1,000
in the bank and I worked on the new contract for a month and then the first payment
came in," she says. She never looked back. For
the first couple of years Drummond functioned as a one-person organization. "I
worked just about 24/7," she says. "It took all the drive I had, all that sweat
equity to make it happen." As the contracts grew she brought in some consultants
to help her, and SiloSmashers was on its way. Today
SiloSmashers is recognized by Washington Technology magazine as one of the "Fast
50," the hottest up-and-coming small businesses and 8(a) companies in the government
IT arena. Organizations
Drummond
was recently installed as president of Women in Technology, an 800-member networking
group in the Metro DC area that focuses on developing the skills of women, and
encouraging girls to consider technology careers. She's
involved in other groups as well. She's on the board of directors for United Cerebral
Palsy of DC and Northern VA, a founding member of the local chapter of the National
Association of Women Business Owners, and affiliated with the Industry Advisory
Council, the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Organization, the Association
for Federal Information Resources Management and the Northern Virginia Technology
Council. As
she grows her company, Drummond takes care to grow her staff along with it. "We
build collaboration into the culture of the organization, which results in better
efficiency and effectiveness. I want a professional, respectful environment, a
company with strong values," she says. "I want my company to be a home away from
home. "I
am passionate about our work and passionate about the people who come to work
here every day," Angela Drummond declares.
D/C -
Pru Peterson | 
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