Research & Analysis

Connington Snow provides in-depth government research, studies, and expert analysis, bridging the gap between archival policy and modern advisory to shape the future of federal procurement and administration.

Research & Analysis

Trust & Confidence Survey: Contractors

Well-designed surveys can reveal valuable insights into market sentiment. While serving as a strategist for NASA, I conducted surveys to evaluate how the marketplace viewed working with the SEWP program compared with alternatives offered by GSA. Although most survey results cannot be publicly shared because they relied on internal program resources, the initial survey leveraged open‑source information. The results of these surveys informed NASA and OMB decision making related to federal contract consolidation.

Trust and Confidence Survey: Contractors – Survey findings on how federal IT contractors assess GSA and NASA SEWP as acquisition partners, highlighting a systemic trust gap and its implications for GWAC governance and market health. (2026)

A second survey was issued to the major OEMs who work with both NASA's SEWP program and GSA. Those results remain in the possession of NASA SEWP and are not for public release.

Standards and Supply Chain Risk Management

These studies began out of spite. I would ask folks involved in the development of Commercial Standards how they map to NIST guidance and was told that they do but never telling me how with any specificity, so I decided to take that challenge on under the simple operating premise that if commercial standards meet NIST guidance and recommendations, then accepting them (self-attested or 3rd party) would meet government needs more efficiently. The outcomes of these studies were inclusion of commercial standards mapping module in MITRE's System of Trust, enhancing governments' cybersecurity posture as a result.

Standards Crosswalk: ISO 20243 & NIST SP 800‑161 – An analysis of how commercial SCRM standards map to federal guidance, and how agencies can use ISO 20243 to partially satisfy NIST 800‑161 and NISTIR 7622 requirements. (2021)

Standards Crosswalk: NIST SP 800‑161 Rev.1, ISO 27001 & 27036 – A follow‑on study showing how ISO 27001 and ISO 27036 align with NIST’s updated C‑SCRM controls, and what that implies for using commercial standards in federal acquisition. (2023)

Secure‑by‑Standards: Government Use of Commercial Standards – A policy‑oriented whitepaper on the role of voluntary consensus standards in federal IT acquisitions, including legislative background, practical use cases, and limitations. (2024)

Mobile Strategy and Category Management

Prior to 2012 the federal government ran through a single mobile device - the Blackberry. With CIO Steven Van Roekel's Digital Government Strategy we were tasked with identifying solutions that would allow for mobile devises built on Android and iOS operating systems. What was initially an effort to "define the category" turned into a dynamic multi-agency team who worked together to advance mobile technology for mission efficiency and effectiveness. Working with agencies across government and the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC) we created these materials that were leveraged throughout government to procure and secure mobile security and application development solutions, while driving down carrier costs becoming the government-wide model for category management.

Mobile Services Category Team (MSCT) Strategic Roadmap – Guiding principles, milestones, and structural recommendations for how the federal government should organize, standardize, and manage mobile services and IT acquisitions. (2016)

Navigating the Future of Mobile Services – A comprehensive, practitioner-focused report on how government and industry jointly shaped the mobile services category, including working group outputs, best practices, and implementation guidance. (2017)

Recent Findings

OCTOBER 2026

NASA SEWP FY 2026 Results

The program had a 20% increase in government usage rather than a 20% decrease that was anticipated at the start of the beginning of the Federal fiscal year. This analysis anticipates what will occur between the other government-wide IT procurement programs, all of which are predicted to have lower federal usage. agencies.

AUGUST 2022

Small Business Impact Study

NASA's SEWP program is known as a success story in small business contracting. The scope of its impact are beyond the contract holders themselves but also includes small businesses who work with them to deliver IT products, services and solutions that meet mission needs.

June 2026

Trust and Confidence Survey

This survey measured the confidence held by contract holders in GSA's ability to effectively manage NASA's Solution for Enterprise-Wide (SEWP) Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC).

Collaborate With Us

We invite agencies, academic institutions, and government professionals to engage with our research initiatives. Together, we can deepen the analysis of procurement frameworks and policy evolution to shape the future of public administration.