Her nearly 2-year old firm, Future Solutions, Inc., has been named
1998 Small Business Subcontractor of the Year for the six-state region
including Colorado. In May, the Broomfield businesswoman will
compete with nine other regional winners for national awards.
Morganti's "knack for the unusual" is her best business asset, she
says. And her willingness to "go as far as old stone tablets"
to search out recycled or other hard to find supplies for her customers
is the stock in trade of her specialized service, which primarily supplies
Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site, south of Boulder.
One of hundreds of subcontractors at Rocky Flats, Future Solutions "gets
a lot of requests to find oddball products because they know we can
at competitive costs," she says.
Otherwise, her customers "would be stuck trying to track down and
check out hundreds of recycled products on their own. And they
don't have time to do all that research we've already done."
The opportunity to step up to her own business landed in her lap in
late 1996, while she was servicing accounts at Rocky Flats for Laser
Concepts toner cartridge recycler of Broomfield. One day, a Rocky
Flats purchasing agent asked her to help locate some specialty products
he needed and couldn't find, including recycled antifreeze.
Morganti got on the phone and not only found his antifreeze in one day
but also discovered where she could buy the machinery to recycle his
own. Then she tracked down everything else on his list, collected
samples from the manufacturers, boxed and delivered them.
"He was just floored," she says.
In early 1997, the 5,000 employee, five-contractor Rocky Flats operation
joined the federal Affirmative Procurement Program, which mandates purchasing
selected recycled and environmentally preferable products - everything
from concrete to post-consumer content papers.
"They were required to change their purchasing and organize a reporting
system," Morganti says, "and they weren't quite sure how to go
about doing it. APP added a burden onto their hectic daily activities,"
which are aimed at decontaminating and dismantling the former nuclear
site by the year 2006. "I saw the opportunity and jumped on it."
She researched the federal procurement program for which the ultimate
goal is 100 percent purchasing of selected items by December 1999.
She learned the requirements for comprehensive record-keeping and certification
of recycled products. And armed with that expertise, she put together
a program of her own.
Morganti "came into my office with a proposal to assist and monitor
APP," says Willie Franklin, small business liaison officer for Kaiser-Hill,
the integrating manager at Rocky Flats. "We were all at a loss how to
do this. Without her, we wouldn't have known where to start."
They started by awarding her a pilot-project contract to assist Rocky
Flats contractors with tracking and reporting purchasing.
"She helped streamline the whole process by customizing out ordering
requirements and obtaining and ever-growing cadre of suppliers," Franklin
says. "She is superior in obtaining products that fit our criteria.
We're confident we'll be in compliance before deadline."
Morganti's contract includes overseeing the complicated documentation
process, which requires monthly reporting clear up to the Department
of Energy. She also works with manufacturers to certify that the
recycled or environmentally friendly content of their products complies
with Rocky Flats specifications.
In addition, she brokers recycled products, buying them from manufacturers
and reselling them to Rocky Flats and other clients, or sometimes just
putting clients in touch with suppliers directly.
Future Solutions, says Franklin, is "blazing a path in the uncharted
territory of affirmative procurement. Our contract with her is
working wonderfully for Rocky Flats."
The Flats "is really trying hard to meet the 1999 goal for recycle
purchasing," Morganti says, "And that purchasing is growing dramatically.
We're probably at 98 percent now. The federal government figured
it was their job to try and assist the recycled product market through
APP, because it is one of the biggest waste producers, and one of the
biggest spenders. One of the APP goals is to foster the growth
of new businesses and new markets for recycled products."
In the year that she has concentrated her efforts on Future Solutions,
Morganti says, her business and revenues have tripled.
"We've gone from an office in my living room to a 1,000 square foot
office in South Broomfield, complete with 200 items showroom and 1,400
item catalog. We've gone from one person to three, and we're expecting
to add a fourth. We expect sales to exceed $225,000 this year."
Earlier this year she started diversifying out of the Rocky Flats arena
and offering her special services and products to city and county governments,
schools and corporations around the Boulder County area.
"I figure I've got a job at Rocky Flats for maybe another two or three
years," she says. "So I have to phase out there if I'm going to survive."
