Booz Allen has long had a reputation for out-of-the-box problem solving and innovative software development, which has placed it in constant collaboration with multiple government agencies over its 107 years of business. In one such collaboration, the firm obtained a contract with seven agencies to redesign Recreation.gov, a website which helps connect current and potential visitors with public land resources and encourages conservation interest.

This contract, initially established in 2017, broke the mold of traditional contract terms. Instead of charging a set contract fee, Booz Allen established a system that utilizes a transaction-based fee model, in which the company is able to compensate financially based on transactions conducted on the site. This eliminates all government spending for the contract, and provides a lucrative way for both Booz Allen and government agencies to bring in capital.

This is the type of transformative thinking that is synonymous with the Booz Allen name, and hints at the innovation yet to come from the firm. “This was a target procurement for us,” said Booz Allen’s Chief Innovation Officer Susan Penfield. “It represented the shift from Booz Allen’s management consulting heritage to the delivery of modern, large-scale digital platforms.”

The site offers a comprehensive, intuitive, and easy-to-use interface while still accurately conveying the information that one would expect to find on a government website. Within a year of its official 2018 launch, Recreation.com generated $141 million worth of revenue for the government and had over 163 million annual visits.

In 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions created a surprising tidal wave of business for public government facilities and recreational sites, Booz Allen again intervened with ingenuity and created a system for Recreation.gov which organizes visitation time slots and allows patrons to make appointments according to availability. This served as a much-needed crowd control method and helped ensure the safety of both staff and visitors.

Recreation.gov is a perfect example of how the collaboration of public and private sectors can often make way for innovative excellence and new ways of managing prevailing problems. Booz Allen’s initiatives have resulted in saved government money and an increased usability standard for customers patronizing Recreation.com.