Washington, DC – September 2, 2025 – Customer Value Partners, LLC (CVP) has earned Gold and Silver awards in the 2025 Stevie® Awards for Technology Excellence. This marks the second consecutive year CVP has been recognized for excellence in government technology innovation, highlighting the firm’s achievements in delivering secure, reliable GenAI and technology solutions to federal clients.
Judges awarded Cal Zemelman—CVP’s Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer—with the Gold Stevie® Award for Executive of the Year (Artificial Intelligence). Cal is praised for leading the development of CVP Fifer™ (formerly Franklin), a secure enterprise GenAI solution designed to meet the federal government’s complex security and compliance requirements. Fifer features a patent-pending multi-agent retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) process with hallucination mitigation and a robust security framework—fulfilling Cal’s vision for providing federal leaders peace of mind when using industry-leading GenAI solutions to achieve better outcomes.
CVP’s R&D and innovation team—NextLabs—earned a Silver Stevie® Award for Technology Team of the Year (Government Technology). The team, which was instrumental in developing Fifer, brings together experts in AI, AR/VR, cybersecurity, software development, and UI/UX to build advanced tools for federal agencies. NextLabs’ approach to innovation is customer-centric: the team develops mission-enabling Technology Accelerators and solutions designed to solve real-world problems with a focus on flexibility, functionality, security, and compliance. With a deep understanding of federal challenges, the NextLabs team anticipates future needs and collaborates with federal leaders to develop effective, sustainable solutions.
The Stevie® Awards for Technology Excellence celebrate individuals, teams, and organizations shaping the future of technology across industries. This year, the awards received more than 1,500 nominations from 36 countries, evaluated by over 160 judges across 20 technology categories. Judges shared high praise for CVP’s work: “NextLabs’ patent-pending multi-agent RAG pipeline tackling AI hallucinations, FiferEXPERT’s dynamic knowledge integration, and FedRAMP-ready platform set a new benchmark for secure, effective AI adoption in federal agencies.” One judge noted NextLabs’s breakthrough “within the federal space—an area where innovation has long been stifled by risk and regulation.” The panel recognized CVP’s dedication to “bridging the gap between cutting-edge capabilities and real-world government constraints” through responsible, mission-driven innovation.
“These wins put the spotlight on a mission we work day in and day out to achieve: helping our federal clients do more with less, better,” said CVP CEO, Anirudh Kulkarni. “NextLabs is solving real-world problems with tailored solutions that quickly yield results. With Cal’s vision and leadership, we’re proving that smart, strategic innovation can thrive within strict regulatory frameworks—helping agencies use secure, trustworthy AI to better serve their stakeholders and maximize the impact and value of federal services.”
About the Stevie® Awards
Stevie® Awards are conferred in nine programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Middle East & North Africa Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards®, The International Business Awards®, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Technology Excellence, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations and territories. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies® recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide.
This release was originally published on cvpcorp.com on September 2, 2025.
