USFCR Blog

Government contracting is a long-term business investment. The decisions you make today can affect where you are in five, ten, or even twenty years from now. Turning over one small rock can potentially reveal a whole load of opportunities for your business. So in this post, the rock we're going to help you turn over is DIBBS and working with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA).

As a federal contractor, you're going to run into the phrase, "Buy American" a lot. Many government contracts actually feature a Buy American Act clause in them as part of their terms. Naturally, this is going to raise a lot of questions. It may also make international or non-American companies steer away from contracting with the U.S. government as a whole (which it shouldn't).

"Government shutdown" is pretty much a fancy way of saying that the folks on Capitol Hill cannot agree on how to fund federal operations or agencies. It is not an automatic stop work order. Politicians rally, the media gets in a frenzy, and a hot potato of blame usually gets thrown around. Let's forget about the Poli Sci and opinions for a moment. Here, we're just going to focus on one thing:

As a government contractor, how do you handle shutdowns?

Not all contracts are the same. And no, we're not talking about what's actually being purchased. We're talking about how the contract itself functions and how you get paid. There are different types of government contracts for different purposes. You can learn about them by digging through the dense government language of FAR Part 16 or...you can use this simple guide written in plain English.

Government contracts attract every sort of entrepreneur. From the people who get down in the trenches with their men and women, to the ones who can organize a great battle from afar. There is definitely more than one way to get the job done. But, no matter which method you use, you must deliver the required product or service if you want to maintain a favorable rating with contracting officers.

According to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), IT Schedule 70 (which provides federal agencies with direct access to more than 4,700 pre-vetted innovative companies that provide high-quality IT products, services, and solutions) continues to be the largest and most widely used acquisition vehicle in the federal government. The government saw program growth in FY15, after a downturn during previous fiscal years, with the program's business growing by $424 million (or 3 percent) to a staggering total of $14.8 billion. Additionally, also according to the GSA, most of this spending was through three special item numbers (SINs) on IT Schedule 70:

In December 2015, FBO began disabling accounts that have not updated their login password within the previous 90 days.

We've recently had a flurry of questions about how our clients can qualify to receive contracts from the General Services Administration (GSA). The GSA requires any entity that submits an offer to it to meet several qualifications and guidelines. We include below a few mandatory requirements, though please keep in mind that you may be required to submit additional documents and information, depending on the schedule under which you're submitting your offer. The requirements below apply to all schedules.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) earlier this year published a list of steps owners of small businesses can take to increase their chances of winning a government contract.

A Sept. 21 Washington Post article about how a government shutdown would affect the federal contracting community had us thinking — is there anything a contractor can do to better weather a shutdown, or, anything a contractor should do today, when the threat of a government shutdown remains just that — a threat.
Turns out there are a few things you can do.
Nicole Ogrysko, a reporter for Federal News Radio, published a blog post on Sept. 22 in which she outlined what a contractor’s government shutdown plan should include:

The Small Business Administration (SBA) earlier this year published a list of steps owners of small businesses can take to increase their chances of winning a government contract.
The SBA suggests owners of small businesses:

According to the Department of Defense there are a few ways for contractors to create the perfect in-person marketing pitch. Once a business has registered in the SAM registration and started a government marketing program it is time to attend events and/or set up meetings to introduce yourself to government buyers. Before you meet with these procurement officers and contracting officials you should be prepared with the following documents and strategies:

According to the FAR 15.101-2, the lowest price technically acceptable source selection process is appropriate when best value is expected to result from selection of the technically acceptable proposal with the lowest evaluated price. This is a concept that is especially important when you're bidding on a federal contract. 

When using the lowest price technically acceptable process, the following apply: The evaluation factors and significant sub-factors that establish the requirements of acceptability shall be set forth in the solicitation. Solicitations shall specify that award will be made on the basis of the lowest evaluated price of proposals meeting or exceeding the acceptability standards for non-cost factors.

Procure to Pay encompasses all business functions necessary to obtain goods and services using procurement processes and procedures including: executing procurement requirements, strategy, procurement award and management, receipt and acceptance, entitlement, disbursement and closeout.  According to the Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy (DPAP), Procure-to-Pay encompasses all business functions necessary to obtain goods and services using procurement processes and procedures including: executing procurement requirements, strategy, procurement award and management, receipt and acceptance, entitlement, disbursement and closeout.

According to the Department of the Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Invoice Processing Platform or better known as IPP is a Web-based system that provides one integrated, secure system to simplify the management of vendor invoices and intra-governmental transactions.  IPP can help federal agencies avoid Prompt Payment penalties by supporting more efficient invoice processing while automating invoice collection, validation and approval workflows. Vendors can manage their receivables more easily using one system to transact with multiple agencies.  IPP offers five modules federal agencies can adopt together, alone or in phases to achieve more efficient invoice processing. Vendors enrolled in IPP use Payment Notification Service (PNS) to be notified when payments are issued by an even larger number of federal government entities.

Dynamic Small Business Search or better known as DSBS to contracting professionals recently updated their keyword limit from 20 to 50.  With all commas, spaces, and words a vendor can now have up to 1000 characters in their keyword limit area of Dynamic Small Business Search. This increase in keywords will give registered small business government contracts more opportunities to be seen on the government database when searched by federal procurement officers.  Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) is currently used as the 'Google Search'  for small business government contractors. With the United States Federal Government required to spend 23% of their contracting budget on small businesses, Dynamic Small Business Search is used as one of the main sources to find properly registered government contractors. This new update will also allow a Dynamic Small Business Search user to write more for their capabilities narrative.  This narrative acts as a Capability Statement within the small business database. Small businesses are encouraged to use their capability statement when marketing to government buyers and prime contractors to win available opportunities. Dynamic Small Business Search is a key database to registered in when looking to be awarded small business government contracts.

We all know their can only be one winner in every competition. In government contracting a procurement officer will only choose one contractor to fulfill their procurement solicitation.  When businesses bid on government contracts they run the obvious risk of losing to a business that has been deemed more qualified. It is important that contractors do not give up and request a Contractor Debrief in the wake of their rejected bid. Every business should prepare a number of questions for the procurement officer in order to make sure the best feedback possible is given in return.  Finding out every detail to why a business lost the bid can make all the difference in the world for their next bidding opportunity. 

NCAGE Content Updated July 10, 2019

Are you a foreign entity looking to do business with the U.S. federal government? Then it's time that you get familiar with the NCAGE code. Without it, you will not be able to compete or bid on contracts with the U.S. federal government. So in this post, we're going to cover:

• What does it stand for?
• Why are they required?
• How do you get an NCAGE code?

What is FedBizOpps (FBO)?