The Department of Energy (DOE) has selected a team led by Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) to manage and operate the new Mission Support Contract at its Hanford site in south central Washington State. The latest DOE determination was made following a protest lodged by a competing bidder and a review last fall by the Government Accountability Office.

With a total program value of $3.059 billion over a 10-year period, the contract includes a five-year base contract period and options to extend it to an additional five years. Lockheed Martin is joined in the limited liability company, Mission Support Alliance (MSA) by partners Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc., and Wackenhut Services, Inc. They will also be supported by several small teammates. MSA LLC had been notified in September, 2008, that it had won the contract.

Under the leadership of Lockheed Martin’s Frank Figueroa, MSA LLC President, the team will provide integrated site-wide services to the DOE and other contractors at the Hanford site, such as safety, security and environment, site infrastructure and utilities, site business management, information resources and content management and portfolio management.

The existing Information Resources Management services work at Hanford, now being performed by Lockheed Martin under a subcontract to Fluor Hanford, Inc., will continue under the Mission Support Contract. Frank Armijo, who has successfully led Hanford IRM and other Tri-Cities, Washington-based technology programs, will remain in his role supporting MSA and leading the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Solutions unit in Richland.

“We are gratified that the U.S. Government has made its determination, and we are ready to begin,” Tom Grumbly, Vice President of Lockheed Martin Energy and Security Services in Rockville, Md. “The team has maintained a high state of readiness to effect a smooth transition and an efficient, progressive path forward for the DOE, its contractors, and the community in the Tri-Cities,” he said.

In addition to mission support for energy labs, Lockheed Martin is working with its customers to address the nation’s energy and climate challenges in the areas of energy efficiency, management and storage, next-generation alternative energies, and climate monitoring.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 146,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion. www.lmco.com

On June 15, 2009, the U.S. Department of State awarded DynCorp International (NYSE:DCP) a task order to provide aviation and aviation support services in Iraq. This task order is under the Worldwide Personal Protective Services (WPPS) contract with the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security to provide protective security for U.S. diplomatic personnel. The task order is awarded for a base year plus four one-year options, and has a total potential value of $915 million if all options are exercised.

Under the task order, DynCorp International will provide personnel, ground and flight operations, basing and maintenance of rotary wing and fixed air assets. The award is effective June 15, 2009, with a transition period and then full in-country performance beginning September 4, 2009.

“This award is a tremendously important opportunity for DynCorp International to support the safety and security of U.S. diplomatic personnel serving in Iraq,” said DynCorp International CEO William L. Ballhaus. “It’s an honor to contribute to our government’s efforts to promote peace and stability in Iraq, for us as a company and for every person who serves with us."

About DynCorp International
DynCorp International is a provider of specialized mission-critical services to civilian and military government agencies worldwide, and operates major programs in law enforcement training and support, security services, base operations, aviation services, contingency operations, and logistics support. DynCorp International is headquartered in Falls Church, Va. For more information, visit www.dyn-intl.com .

The era of governmentwide acquisition contracts might be coming to a close at the General Services Administration.

Speaking at the Washington Technology Top 100 conference today, Ed O’Hare, assistant commissioner of the Office of Integrated Technology Services at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said the only GWACs GSA will continue supporting are Alliant and Alliant Small Business or vehicles targeted to companies in specific socioeconomic categories, such as minority-owned businesses.

For the long term, GSA will likely merge the GWAC program with the schedules. “But that will take years, not months,” he added.

O’Hare said the merger of the procurement programs became a possibility after GSA combined the Federal Supply Service, which managed the schedules, and the Federal Technology Service, which managed GSA’s stable of GWAC contracts.

The era of governmentwide acquisition contracts might be coming to a close at the General Services Administration.

Speaking at the Washington Technology Top 100 conference today, Ed O’Hare, assistant commissioner of the Office of Integrated Technology Services at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said the only GWACs GSA will continue supporting are Alliant and Alliant Small Business or vehicles targeted to companies in specific socioeconomic categories, such as minority-owned businesses.

For the long term, GSA will likely merge the GWAC program with the schedules. “But that will take years, not months,” he added.

O’Hare said the merger of the procurement programs became a possibility after GSA combined the Federal Supply Service, which managed the schedules, and the Federal Technology Service, which managed GSA’s stable of GWAC contracts.

Phasing out GWACs was partly a response to criticism and a growing sense that there were too many GWACs, he said.

“We know that each GWAC is time-consuming and expensive to respond to,” he said.

GWACs that are expiring, such as Millennia Lite, will not be renewed. Instead, Alliant and Alliant Small Business will fill the void, O’Hare said. Those contracts have a $50 billion ceiling over 10 years, meaning they will still be in use through 2018.

O’Hare was part of a panel at the annual Top 100 conference. Moderated by Bill Gormley, president and chief executive officer of the Washington Management Group, the panel focused on whether the Obama administration is creating a new federal market.

Mike Fox, senior vice president of corporate strategic development at SRA International, voiced support for agency-specific multiple-award contracts.

“Those have real value because they are designed to meet specific agency needs,” he said. “But we don’t need GWACs with 50 or 60 winners. Then it looks just like a schedule.”' Click here original news release  http://tr.im/pSjs

Wanted: A contracting team that can build roads and remote campsites, maintain information technology systems and complex scientific equipment, support laboratory and field research tasks, efficiently transport cargo, fly fixed-wing aircraft, prevent and fight fires, cook meals, cut hair, and plan fun and morale-building activities while working in a sometimes sunless environment at sub-zero temperatures.

Does that sound appealing? Maybe not for everyone, but the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Support Contract has drawn the attention of a large number of traditional defense and IT contractors. The contract is in the competition phase and is scheduled for award in early October.

Although NSF won’t divulge the names of the bidders, Computer Sciences Corp. has formed a joint venture with EG&G to pursue the contract, and incumbent contractor Raytheon Co. is bidding, too. Other major contractors that have expressed interest include Lockheed Martin Corp., Science Applications International Corp., ITT Corp. and KBR Inc.  Read More  click http://tr.im/pSWr

 

QinetiQ North America will supply military first-responder robots to the Navy under a $56.4 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract.

The award from the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head, Md., calls for the company to deliver an unspecified number of Talon Gen IV robots, repair parts, spare kits and other related equipment and services to the Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technical Division, the single-service manager for all EOD equipment.

QinetiQ North America has been manufacturing Talon robots since 2000. More than 2,800 Talon robots are deployed around the world.

“Robots help protect our warfighters, a fact that is demonstrated every day when a robot accomplishes a dangerous assignment while the warfighter controls it from a safe distance,” said William Ribich, president of QinetiQ North America’s Technology Solutions Group, which will oversee the contract.

Work is expected to be completed in early 2010.

QinetiQ North America, of McLean, Va., ranks No. 34 on Washington Technology’s 2009 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors. Click here original news release  http://tr.im/pSbt

One of the perennial issues for contractors in the government market is partnering.

For small businesses it is about connecting with large companies, and for the bigger players it is about finding partners to fill a variety of customer and technology niches as well as comply with small business goals.

I co-hosted a panel on partnering on Tuesday with Shawn McCarthy of Government Insights. The panel at the FOSE trade show in Washington, D.C., (disclosure – Washington Technology and FOSE are owned by 1105 Government Information Group) brought executives from large, small and midtier companies.

The panel consisted of Tracy Denny, vice president of strategic capture management at Serco, Cari Dorman, director of business development, IT infrastructure solutions at CSC, Heidi Gerding, president and chief executive officer, HeiTech Services Inc., and Michael Mullen, vice president, Indus Corp.

Gerding’s company and Serco are in a mentor protégé relationship that Serco inherited when it acquired SI International last year.

While the turnout could have been larger, the advice was stellar.

Here are some highlights.

If you are a small business looking to partner, focus on particular areas of expertise; don’t say you do everything. “You need to be able to say why you are better than any other partner we could bring in,” Denny said.

Small businesses need to be ready to deliver right away, Mullen said.

In looking at both large and small business partners, Gerding said she uses tools such as Dun & Bradstreet. “I check their credit; do they pay bills on time; will they pay me on time,” she said. “I can’t afford cash flow problems.”

For a small business, approaching a large business is similar to approaching a government agency. “You need to understand their needs and their pain points,” Mullen said.

If you can identify a specific opportunity where your small business can help win, you need to highlight that when you approach the large business, Dorman said.

That kind of information is critical in mapping a proposal strategy. Dorman said she maps that information to statements of work in a request for proposals to determine who the best teammates should be.

Some specific technologies the companies are looking at include: Cloud computing, which is big at FOSE this year; cybersecurity; and social media, particularly collaboration tools, which are starting to gain traction.' Click here for original news release http://tr.im/pSiS

Lockheed Martin Corp. has won an Army contract with a potential value of $203 million over five years to provide an array of services to the Field Logistics Readiness Center at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Under the terms of the contract, the company will furnish maintenance, material and logistics services to Army Forces Command units and the Army Materiel Command, which supports troops stationed in the United States and deployed overseas, company officials said June 25.

The contractor will be responsible for maintaining in a state of readiness wheeled vehicles, weapons and power generation and engineering equipment for the Army Sustainment Command and the 406th Training Support Brigade, the officials said.

Lockheed also operates Field Logistics Readiness Centers at Fort Stewart, Ga., and Fort Benning, Ga., the officials said.

The Army awarded the work through the Field and Installation Readiness Support Team indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract. Click here for original news release.

Department taps 35 small businesses to provide professional services. The Homeland Security Department has named 35 winners of its $1.5 billion small-business set-aside contract for professional services that was announced a year ago. Competition was limited to businesses owned by service-disabled veterans.

The Program Management, Administrative, Clerical and Technical Services (PACTS) contract is designed to provide a broad range of professional support services, except information technology services. The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract has a maximum value of $1.5 billion.

Future task orders under the PACTS contract might be among the first to be subjected to the mandatory reviews announced May 28 by Secretary Janet Napolitano, said Jeremy Potter, a senior analyst at Input Inc., a market research firm in Reston, Va.

Napolitano said officials will review all new professional services contracts worth $1 million or more to determine if the work was inherently governmental or involved core functions that government employees should perform. PACTS is one of the largest professional services contracts expected to generate task orders in the coming months, Potter said.

On June 19, DHS published a list of “apparently successful” offerers that responded to a solicitation issued in June 2008. The 35 winners include eight companies in Functional Category 1-Program Management, 10 companies in Functional Category 2-Administrative, seven companies in Functional Category 3-Clerical and 10 companies in Functional Category 4-Technical Services.

The winning companies in the four categories are:

Category 1-Program Management

• Best Value Technology
• Klett Consulting Group
• Loch Harbour Group
• Longview-FedConsulting
• Markon Solutions
• Savvee Consulting
• Teracore
• Winbourne and Costas

Category 2-Administrative

• CTI Resource Management Services
• DS3 Computing Solutions
• HCI
• Kingfisher Systems
• Longview-FedConsulting
• Patricio Enterprises
• Strategic Alliance Enterprises
• Veterans Enterprise Technology Solutions
• Vet-Fed Resources
• Winbourne and Costas

Category 3-Clerical

• Addx
• Centuria
• imPACTS
• Kingfisher Systems
• Szanca Solutions
• TAPE
• Winbourne and Costas

Category 4-Technical Services

• Best Value Technology
• EmeSec
• imPACTS
• KMEA
• LRS Federal
• Serrano IT Services
• Solute Consulting
• Strategic Alliance Enterprises
• Ursa Navigation Solutions
• Vetco

Original article via WashingtonTechnology.com: DHS Awards PACTS Contract

People, process and attitude are the keys to better partnership
Government and industry need to take partnership to the next level.

Yes, I’m a hockey fan. Living and working in the Washington, D.C., area, it was great to see the excitement around the Caps this spring — and I don’t think it’s just because they were the only D.C. team that was a playoff contender. There’s something about hockey — about the intensity, complexity and strategy of a winning hockey team, which scores goals most often as a result of great assists. In fact, it’s that combination of intensity driven by a strategy of collaboration that makes hockey the perfect metaphor for government/industry teamwork.

Public/private partnerships are by no means a new concept — think of the Erie Canal, interstate highway system and Apollo program. The most important challenges of the 21st century — from the economy and cybersecurity to national defense and environmental protection — will require the thinking and resources that only public/private teamwork can provide.

Although government officials clearly need to set policy, be in command and carry out inherently governmental functions, industry teammates can bring innovation, specialized expertise, and value to help win the peace and prosperity that citizens want and expect from government. Unfortunately, the current debate over what the government should do and what industry should do is putting public and private sectors on opposing teams.

I firmly believe that it's time — and it's imperative — that we take teaming to a new level across government and industry. With a new mindset focused more on goals and less on the penalty box and who’s to blame, we can gain the power of collaboration, deep expertise and broad understanding.

So how do we take this deep commitment to our collective mission and shared goals across government and industry to a new level?

I see the way forward in three dimensions: people, process and attitude. In keeping with the hockey analogy, it’s about having the best athletes who understand multiple positions and roles, it’s about improving the rules of the game, and it’s about having spirited, passionate and well-behaved fans on the sidelines.   Read the full article    tr.im/ryUu

 

GovPartners is proud to sponsor The 5th Annual National Veteran Small Business Conference and Expo July 20-23, 2009, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This conference will bring together business owners, both small and large, and Federal Government representatives to share best practices of how to do business together. The conference will also include sessions on Federal Contracting for small businesses that are just breaking into the public sector.

The comprehensive conference agenda will include sessions that take attendees through the life cycle of small business Federal contracting. General sessions and breakouts will be led by small business owners as well as representatives from various Federal Agencies. Topics will include:

• Contracting 101 and 201
• Marketing and selling to the Federal Government
• Legislation affecting small businesses
• Legal issues with Government contracting
• Managing small business finances
• Successful business strategies
• Subcontracting
• And more!

This conference is an ideal mix of learning and networking opportunities. Registration is limited so early registration is highly encouraged.

The conference is open to both government and non-government personnel. Find out more here!

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates commended Army Gen. David D. McKiernan’s leadership at every military level during a retirement ceremony for the former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan here today.

McKiernan returned the favor, calling Gates “the finest secretary of defense in my lifetime.

Gates replaced McKiernan as the commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan after the general spent less than a year in Kabul. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal now holds the position.

McKiernan addressed this early in his remarks. “If you had asked me 30 days ago if I would be here at my retirement ceremony, I probably would have said no,” the general said. “Make no mistake I was dismayed, disappointed, more than a little embarrassed. But, as so often in life … I received some candid coaching that said, ‘McKiernan, this is not about you. It’s about paying respect to your profession and those around who know you.’”

Gates said it was an honor to be asked to participate in the ceremony marking the end of McKiernan’s 37-year Army career.

“He has handled everything the Army and his commander in chief have thrown at him with supreme professionalism, intelligence and dedication to our nation and the men and women under his command,” the secretary said.

The general commanded the coalition land forces and launched the attack into Iraq in March 2003. Gates praised McKiernan for having the “skill and the will to keep the march to Baghdad on track through ‘Fedayeen’ attacks and furious sandstorms. [It was] a march that in less than three weeks brought Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime to an end.”

The general’s experience in Iraq served him well in Afghanistan, where he led an international military effort to secure and rebuild the country, the secretary said. McKiernan dedicated himself to recalibrating the International Security Assistance Force’s mission to better protect the Afghan people, the secretary said. He also oversaw a major expansion in Afghan security forces and brought about better coordination between military and civilian efforts in the country.

McKiernan made the NATO force better at counterinsurgency by ensuring its members were better trained. He worked diligently to improve cooperation among Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO, Gates said.

McKiernan believed “the Afghan people deserve better than the last 30 years of conflict,” Gates said. “While the Taliban and other terrorist groups offer only lies and fears, our continued effort promotes freedom and hope.”

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. hosted the retirement review on Summerall Field here and spoke highly of McKiernan’s command and operational experience.

Casey praised the general for his service in the Cold War, during Desert Storm, in the Balkans, as the ground commander of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and finally, as the commander of the NATO in Afghanistan.

“I can’t think of another officer who has contributed so much and given so much to the men and women of this Army,” Casey said.

The general received the Distinguished Service Medal from Casey and the Defense Distinguished Service Medal from Gates. In addition, his wife, Carmen McKiernan, was presented the Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Medal.

McKiernan has said that he and his wife plan on living in the Boston area and on staying involved in the support of soldiers. Read more tr.im/sx7H

Ready or not, states are getting a tenfold boost in federal money to weatherize drafty homes, an increase so huge it has raised fears of waste and fraud and set off a scramble to find workers and houses for them to repair.

An obscure program that installs insulation in homes and makes them more energy-efficient is distributing $4.7 billion in stimulus funds — dwarfing the $447 million originally planned by Congress this year and the $227 million spent in 2008.

That is enough to weatherize 1 million homes, instead of the 140,000 normally done each year.

President Barack Obama said pouring money into the program would lower utility bills for cash-strapped families, provide jobs for construction workers idled by the housing slump, and make the nation more energy-efficient.

"You're getting a three-fer," Obama said. "That's exactly the kind of program we should be funding."

But some worry states won't be able to keep track of the money.

Leslie Paige, spokeswoman for the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, said the program is open to fraud because of the way oversight is divided. The federal government passes the money to states, then states pass it to community action agencies, and the agencies pass it to contractors who work with customers.

"It's such a Rube Goldberg operation it should be setting off alarm bells," she said.

Energy Department spokeswoman Christina Kielich defended the program, saying the federal government monitors state operations and does a thorough review at least every two years of the local organizations. In addition, states are getting their money in increments and must demonstrate quality control to get more.

The program helps low-income families take steps to reduce their home energy expenses, from caulking leaky windows to replacing heating and cooling systems. The Energy Department says 6.2 million households have benefited since it began in 1976, saving the average household about $350 a year on energy bills.

In addition to receiving an infusion of stimulus money, the program was expanded to cover families making up to twice the federal poverty level, or $44,100 for a family of four. Also, the average amount that can be spent per house was more than doubled to $6,500.

The funding for New York is going up from $20.1 million last year to $395 million. California's share is soaring from $6.3 million to $185.8 million. Virginia's is going up 23 1/2 times, from $4 million annually to $94.1 million.

"I was stunned," said Shea Hollifield, Virginia's deputy director of housing. "Spending that much money will be a challenge."

In Texas, the state's share is increasing nearly 60 times, from $5.6 million to $327 million. To spend the money efficiently and on time, state officials decided to go beyond the community organizations that normally distribute it and route $100 million to large cities.

"They have experience in administering large, complicated programs," said Gordon Anderson, spokesman for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

States are hurrying to find qualified weatherization workers and caulk-ready homes.

Wisconsin set up weatherization "boot camps" to train workers. West Virginia used to give new workers on-the-job training but is now looking to move to classrooms and online.

Alabama plans to train home builders in how to bid for weatherization contracts. Russell Davis, vice president of the Alabama Home Builders Association, said builders who once had no interest in weatherization contracts now see them as a way to keep their crews busy.

In many states, qualified homeowners are already on waiting lists. But some states don't have enough recipients signed up.

"We are out of clients. We need clients bad," said Cade Gunnells, weatherization coordinator for three counties in central Alabama.

To help find them, states are updating Web sites about the expanded program and working with nonprofit groups, churches and the news media to get the word out. Charles Uptain, a 73-year-old retiree, had his Montgomery home repaired in the weatherized program last year. His utility bills went down by about $60 a month after workers fixed leaky windows, replaced cracked panes, re-taped air-conditioning ducts and blew in new insulation. Uptain's house required 2 1/2 days of work and slightly more than $3,000.

"This wasn't wasteful spending. This was well-spent money," Uptain said.  Read the full article http://tr.im/sxto

The General Services Administration’s SmartBuy program has awarded five contracts for agencies to use to purchase cybersecurity software.

Four of the awards are to resell BigFix’s Platform 7 software. The companies winning those awards were Autonomic Resources, Intelligent Decisions Inc., Merlin International and Patriot Technologies.

The fifth award went to Winvale Group to resell Gideon’s Secure Fusion software.

GSA said a sixth award may be made. The contracts are worth more than $20 million and can be used by federal and state and local government agencies, GSA said in a statement. The Homeland Security Department worked with GSA to make the awards.

The awards are blanket purchase agreements and are for cybersecurity services such as baseline configuration management, network mapping/path discovery and vulnerability management.

“GSA’s new suite of security solutions is aimed at protecting our IT infrastructure from cyber security incidents and other vulnerabilities, while providing maximum value for taxpayer dollars” Jim Williams, GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service commissioner, said in a statement. Read entire article  tr.im/sBRy

Four contractors will compete for $389 million in task orders over five years to support the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Cybersecurity and Communication.

Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., General Dynamics Corp., Science Applications International Corp. and SRA International were picked to compete against one another for tasks to enhance and maintain the National Communications System, according to a July 10 award notice on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site.

Under the contracts, the companies will provide scientific, engineering and technical assistance. The scope of work also includes project planning and program management support.

NCS is the cornerstone of the country’s ability to provide key communications services to support government functions during emergencies. The system comprises the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service and Wireless Priority Service, which give authorized users top priority on congested networks during national emergencies. Reference Article tr.im/sBVl

Three contractors will compete for $600 million in software support and information analysis tasks to support the National Air and Space Intelligence Center over five years, the Air Force has announced.

Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems Inc., and Northrop Grumman Space and Mission Systems Corp. were selected by the Air Force to compete against each other for tasks to support the center’s Advanced Technical Exploitation Program under the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, Air Force officials said July 8.

The contractors will compete for tasks such as intelligence analysis, software systems development and support, and research and development of space-based and airborne sensor data, according to a General Dynamics statement on June 9. The tasks will support contingency operations in the war on terror, missile defense and similar initiatives.

The National Air and Space Intelligence Center processes, analyzes and disseminates measurement and signature intelligence data collected from radar, electro-optical sensors and infrared sensors. The information collected is provided to the Defense Department and intelligence agencies.

Tasks include intelligence analysis, software systems development, and sensor data analysis.  Original Article posted at tr.im/sDkl

The agency wants to broaden the base of small businesses awarded contracts, subcontracts. The General Services Administration has started its mentor-protégé program to include more small businesses in GSA contracts, the agency announced today.

Officials want to urge companies to help small businesses in establishing themselves in the federal marketplace and then foster long-term relationships between small and large companies, which often are prime contract-holders, according to a Federal Register notice.

The program includes contracts awarded under GSA’s Multiple Award Schedules program, the notice states.

The program will allow small businesses to become protégés and receive help in their development as federal contractors from large-business mentors. Mentor companies can offer business guidance and share with their protégés lessons they’ve learned along the way. GSA also will allow small businesses that want to mentor other small businesses, the notice states.

A mentor is an established company offering to help small-business subcontractors in being more successful.

GSA expects the program to increase the overall number of small businesses receiving GSA contracts and subcontracts. However, GSA won’t measure the program's success on the basis of awards and dollars alone. Officials plan to consider success as an increase in the number and value of subcontracts awarded to protégé companies by mentors. They also want to see expanded expertise by the protégé firms by seeing them enter industries that have they’ve not traditionally worked in, the notice states.

To encourage companies to be mentors, the program allows contracting officers to look more favorably at bids from mentor/protégés, and they can consider prime contractors' compliance with its subcontracting plans as a factor in evaluating the company’s past performance, the notice states. Read More http://tr.im/wBF7
 

22 Aug 2009, Avon, OH - GovPartners was proud to sponsor a hole and a four man team at the First Annual Greg Shannon Memorial Golf Outing. A loving Father and dedicated husband, Greg passed away suddenly on January 31, 2009 after suffering a “silent” heart-attack attributed to Sugar Diabetes.

Amongst some rain drops and unseasonably cool August weather in Northeast Ohio, spirits of the near 200 golfers were high. Proceeds from the event will be placed in scholarships to be awarded to outstanding athletes in the Avon/Avon Lake area as well as one to an outstanding athlete from Greg’s hometown of Defiance, OH.

The four man team of: Team Captain Vin Karnik, Vince Karnik, Kevin Karnik and Troy Bunner were proud to be a part of this event and look forward to next years outing already, with hopes of improving on their score. Although slightly soaked at the end of the event, Kevin Karnik (COO) was thrilled with the dedication of the event organizers, saying “I’ve been involved in several golf scrambles, and this was by far the best!”
 

The Department of Defense (DoD) is one of the largest purchasers of products and services in the world. The DoD awards contracts valued at $5 million or more each business day (source: www.defenselink.mil )If you are a small business looking to capture government opportunities, the DoD is a good place to start.

Government contracting can seem like a intimidating business development strategy for many small businesses. Many often mistakenly believe that only the top prime contractors can really compete for DoD business. The old saying is always true, if you can’t beat them, join them. But, in this case, you can beat them and join them.

The reality is that the government designates a significant amount of procurement contracts to small businesses each year. In fiscal year 2009 (Oct 01, 2008 -Sep 30, 2009) the DoD set aside over 22% of its prime contracts to small business and over 37% of its sub-contracting opportunities (source: www.acq.osd.mil/osbp/statistics/goals.htm ). This doesn't include funds set aside for small businesses owned by veterans, women, minorities and disadvantaged businesses.

That's a BIG revenue opportunity! How do you get in on the action?

Whether you are selling a service or a product to the federal government, the procurement process can be challenging for a small business to navigate. Many times, the procurement process allows 30 days or less for the vendor to respond to the request for proposal and it may take the majority of that time for a small business to understand the requirements, terms and conditions.

Defense contracting can be a viable long term business strategy. However, there are many other considerations that you will need to work through on the way to getting your share of what can be a very profitable line of business. It is important that small businesses understand the overall government contracting process. Partnering with other prime and subcontractors can help ease the pain. Sign up for SubTeamPartners to find your DoD teaming opportunity govpartners.com

A sample or recent awards:

Raytheon is awarded a Navy Research Contract. Raytheon Co. won a $7 million follow-on contract from the Office of Naval Research to continue work on a project to develop a new semiconductor for the Defense Department. Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems is partnering with Raytheon Systems Limited, Glenrothes, Scotland; Soitec, Bernin, France; Teledyne Scientific Imaging Company, Thousand Oaks, Calif.; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.; Paradigm Research LLC, Windham, N.H.; IQE, Bethlehem, Pa.; and Silicon Valley Technology Center, San Jose, Calif.

Black Construction Corp., /MACE International Joint Venture, GMF Barrigada, Guam, is being awarded a $19,180,000 firm-fixed price contract for upgrades to the existing air ops water treatment plant and air ops wastewater treatment plant, and to construct a one-story warehouse and wharf utility improvements at Naval Support Facility, Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory. Work will be performed in Diego Garcia, and is expected to be completed by July 2011.

Ikhana/Choate -1 LLC, Mt. Pleasant, S.C., is being awarded a $13,385,855 firm-fixed price construction contract for the construction of two child development centers at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, N.C., and is expected to be completed by June 2011.

Consigli Construction Co., Inc., Milford, Mass., is being awarded $9,039,438 for firm-fixed price task order for construction of a consolidated emergency control center at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The work to be performed provides for the construction of a three level, steel framed reinforced concrete facility with the ground level located below grade to directly support radiological emergency response as required. This facility will house the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard radiological emergency response organization and will serve as its command and control center during an emergency.

Head, Inc., Columbus, Ohio, is being awarded a $6,783,933 firm-fixed-price construction contract to repair Runways 13L/31R and repair taxiways at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi. Work will be performed in Corpus Christi, Texas, and is expected to be completed by August 2010.

Air BP a division of BP Products North America, Inc., Warrenville, Ill. is being awarded a maximum $112,125,808 fixed price with economic price adjustment, indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity contract for fuel. There are multiple locations of performance. Using service is the Defense Energy Support Center.
Frank Gargiulo & Son Inc., Hillside, N.J., is being awarded a maximum $13,050,000 fixed price with economic price adjustment, total set aside contract for full line fresh fruit and vegetable support.

Terex Corporation, Fredericksburg, Va., is being awarded a maximum $5,624,730 fixed price with economic price adjustment contract for rock crusher jaw plant. 

GovPartners News Brief: 31 Aug 2009: By Cynthia Karnik

The Defense Department will launch a new homepage Aug.15 that incorporates Web 2.0 technologies as part of a militarywide and governmentwide effort to use new media capabilities, a DOD official said today.

The Web site, at www.defense.gov, will be a complete overhaul of the site that now exists, said Les Benito, public Web director at DOD’s Defense Media Activity office. The site will include new modes of user participation, and interactivity will be a driving factor in the site’s shaping, he said. Benito outlined the plans for the new site at the Open Government and Innovation Conference in Washington.

Users will be able to post questions for high-ranking military officers or the defense secretary, give their own feedback about DOD services and take advantage of other similar interactive features, he said.

“We’ll be basing a lot on things like user feedback and search results,” Benito said. “It’s like a portal to the Defense Department – how to do business with us, how to get involved. Some of it will be similar to Google monitoring,” a feature that tracks Internet traffic.

Benito hopes the new features will tap into the social media’s explosive popularity and help capture the coveted demographic of persons ages 18 to 24 years that has eluded DefenseLink, DOD’s current departmentwide homepage. Users in that age group account for only about 4 percent of DefenseLink’s visitors, while most fall into the age range of 48 to 5.  Full article published at tr.im/ueye

The General Services Administration is looking for Internet-based IT services to offer federal agencies through a proposed cloud-computing storefront service. Last month, the agency issued a Request for Quotation for providing cloud services to government agencies.

The document describes a GSA-run storefront portal in which government agencies can purchase commercially offered infrastructure IT services using a credit card or other approved payment option. Specifically, the GSA is looking for three broad categories of services to offer through this portal: Storage services, virtual machines and Web hosting.

To serve the government, service providers will need to have the following in place:

* The ability for customers to procure and provide service without vendor review.
* Two separate facilities within the continental United States that offer the service. Internet bandwidth for each location should be no less than 1 Gigabit per second.
* Virtually unlimited storage.
* The ability for the customer to scale up or down service on an as-needed basis.
* A dashboard for each customer to convey usage, as measured on a weekly basis.

Each service will be accessible remotely by dual-factor authentication. Trouble tickets should be able to be submitted by application programming interface (API), and all services should be maintained at 99.95 percent uptime. For outages lasting longer than one hour a month, the provider must provide a written description of the cause of the outage.

Federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra has stated that GSA is planning to set up a cloud-computing "storefront," that federal agencies can use to procure IT services.

For the RFQ, GSA adopted the definitions of cloud computing that were authored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Read full article...Washington Technology  tr.im/vJFA

A construction company has an immediate opportunity and is looking for teaming partners with healthcare design/construction experience to respond to the bid!

A veteran design/builder that provides healthcare preconstruction/construction services throughout the western U.S. Their experience includes ground up construction of hospital facilities, major multi-story additions, MOB's, Surgical Suites, Diagnostic Imaging, ER's, OR's, ICU's, Patient Wings, Parking Structures, and complex T/I's; and is looking for small businesses to team with.  They are currently working on an RFP and need subcontractor support. 

Professional services include:

Single Source Responsibility
Integrated Project Delivery
LEED AP professionals
BIM Modeling
LEAN Construction
Architectural/Engineering Design Services
Preconstruction/Planning Services
Conceptual Estimating. 
 

Find out more about this opportunity and how to contact them.

Like it or not, contractors are an integral part of government operations. The pendulum might be swinging against their use, but they will always play an important role in how the government gets things done.

The following 10 companies are at the leading edge of technology and business trends, and their impact will resonate throughout the government market and beyond.

1. Vangent and Booz Allen Hamilton
An initial public offering might seem like a remote possibility in today’s market, but that’s the direction Vangent is headed.

Owned by Veritas Capital, Vangent already acts like a public company — it’s been issuing quarterly revenue and earnings reports. What better way to pique the interests of potential investors and analysts ahead of your IPO than to dangle financial insights?

Another company to watch in this category is Booz Allen Hamilton, which is owned by the Carlyle Group. An IPO is likely the only way the company can satisfy Carlyle’s expectations and hang onto its unique corporate culture.

2. General Dynamics
Any company that’s about to lose its chairman and chief executive officer to retirement must prepare for big changes.

Nicholas Chabraja has led General Dynamics on an amazing journey of growth, which has included building an information technology business from scratch through a series of blockbuster acquisitions. Chabraja turned over the CEO title to Jay Johnson July 1, and by May 2010, Chabraja will step down as chairman, too.

3. Science Applications International Corp.

A similar process is under way at Science Applications International Corp., where Walter Havenstein will become CEO on Sept. 21 as Ken Dahlberg begins his move out of the executive suite. By SAIC’s annual meeting in June 2010, Dahlberg will resign as chairman.

Both companies bear watching to see where the new leaders will take them.

4. Lockheed Martin
Its position at the top of the government IT contracting world puts all eyes on this company. Despite its size — nearly $15 billion in government IT contracts in 2008 — Lockheed Martin continues to find itself near the front of innovative government trends. A recent example is how leaders have positioned the company for the smart-power initiative that the Obama administration is advocating. The idea is to stabilize countries to avoid situations in which military operations seem unavoidable.

When Lockheed Martin acquired PAE in 2007, it expanded its expertise beyond that of a Defense Department supplier by adding mission readiness, global infrastructure support, peacekeeping and disaster response to its repertoire.

5. Cobham
Cobham is the latest British entrant into the U.S. market, and it has made a series of acquisitions to build a business with more than $1.5 billion in U.S. revenue.
With the acquisition of Sparta, Cobham grabbed significant prime-contracting work in the intelligence and missile defense market. The acquisition was part of the company’s strategy to move up the government contracting food chain.

6. Deloitte and Touche
The accounting and consulting firm made two bold moves this year. First, it hired former Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) as a director in its federal business unit. Then it acquired BearingPoint in that firm’s fire sale. The $350 million acquisition more than doubled Deloitte’s federal business.
The two major investments sent a clear signal that the company wants to be a major player in the government market.

7. Acquisition Solutions
As pressure grows to address organizational conflicts of interest in the government market, large companies will be forced to get out of the acquisition support business. Thanks to a 2008 investment by private equity group Excellere Partners, Acquisition Solutions is well positioned to acquire business units that larger prime contractors might need to jettison.

Look for increased merger and acquisition activity in this area by Acquisition Solutions and other like-minded companies.

8. Pragmatics
This former 8(a) small business proves that it is possible to be a long-term success after graduating from the set-aside program. Part of the credit goes to founder Long Nguyen’s ability to recruit a management team that has experience building billion-dollar businesses. Of Pragmatics’ 12 senior executives, four are alumni of SRA International, and three come from Titan.

9.TASC                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The big question raised by Northrop Grumman’s plan to sell off its TASC unit is who the buyer will be: another large private equity group or an existing company. But with the deal having the potential to reach $2 billion, it’s also worth asking what Northrop Grumman will do with all that cash and whether the TASC sale will prompt other large defense contractors to divest themselves of valuable businesses.

10. EDS and HP
The combined companies are entering the second year of their merger, so the evidence of an integrated operation should move from the marketing materials to the field. And with the follow-on contract to the Navy Marine Corps Intranet looming, the stakes are high for incumbent EDS and its parent company. Read Full Article p://tr.im/yEzp

Over $3.5B total awards were made. UNITED STATES TRANSPORTATION COMMAND (USTRANSCOM) awarded the FY10 contractor teams to provide airlift support for the Civil Reserve Airlift Program (CRAF).  The teams are awarded business based on the Mobilization Value Points (MVP) of the aircraft committed to Stages I, II, and III of the CRAF program.  In order to participate in the CRAF program, carriers must hold an FAA Part 121 certificate and undergo an audit conducted by the DoD Air Carrier Survey and Analysis Office and approved by the Commercial Airlift Review Board. Participants can either team with the current primes as a "point seller"  meaning they will get credit for their MVP points and CRAF committments, or they can be be a designated "operator" for their category of business. The following teams and independant operators received awards:

Alliance Contractor Team of Leesburg, Va., is being awarded an estimated $1,580,619,789 firm fixed-price contract for international airlift services with a minimum guarantee of $327,824,214. Team members include: American Airlines, Inc. of Ft. Worth, Texas, Arrow Air, Inc., of Miami, Fla., ASTAR Air Cargo, Inc., of Florence, Ky., Delta Air Lines, Inc. of Atlanta, Ga., Evergreen International Airlines, Inc., of McMinnville, Ore., North American Airlines, Inc., of Jamaica, N.Y., Northwest Airlines, Inc., of St. Paul, Minn., United Airlines, Inc. of Elk Grove Village, Ill., US Airways, Inc., of Phoenix, Ariz., and World Airways, Inc., of Peachtree City, Ga. Work will be performed at worldwide locations, and is expected to be completed September 2010. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Electronic proposals were solicited and 30 proposals received. The contracting activity is USTRANSCOM, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. (HTC711-09-D-5004).

Federal Express Charter Programs Team Arrangement of Memphis, Tenn., is being awarded an estimated $1,510,516,838 firm fixed-price contract for international airlift services with a minimum guarantee of $222,565,273. Team members include: Air Transport International LLC of Little Rock, Ark., Atlas Air, Inc. of Purchase, N.Y., Continental Airlines, Inc., of Houston, Texas, Federal Express Corporation of Memphis, Tenn., Omni Air International, Inc. of Tulsa, Okla., and Polar Air Cargo Worldwide, Inc., of Purchase, N.Y. Work will be performed at worldwide locations, and is expected to be completed September 2010. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Electronic proposals were solicited and 30 proposals received. The contracting activity is USTRANSCOM, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. (HTC711-09-D-5005).

Lynden Air Cargo LLC of Anchorage, Alaska, is being awarded an estimated $51,739,903 firm fixed-price contract for international airlift services with a minimum guarantee of $3,700. Work will be performed at worldwide locations, and is expected to be completed September 2010. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Electronic proposals were solicited and 30 proposals received. The contracting activity is USTRANSCOM, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. (HTC711-09-D-5009).

Miami Air International, Inc. of Miami, Fla., is being awarded an estimated $38,232,127 firm fixed-price contract for International Airlift Services with a minimum guarantee of $1,003,700. Work will be performed at worldwide locations, and is expected to be completed September 2010. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Electronic proposals were solicited and 30 proposals received. The contracting activity is USTRANSCOM, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Ill., (HTC711-09-D-5010).

The UPS Contractor Team of Louisville, Ky., is being awarded an estimated $331,662,972.56 firm fixed-price contract for International Airlift Services with a minimum guarantee of $74,394,266.69. Team members include: ABX Air, Inc., of Wilmington, Ohio, Alaska Airlines, Inc., of Seattle, Wash., Kalitta Air LLC of Ypsilanti Mich., National Air Cargo Group, Inc, dba National Airlines, of Ypsilanti, Mich., Northern Air Cargo of Anchorage, Alaska, Ryan International Airlines, Inc., of Rockford Ill., Southern Air, Inc. of Norwalk, Conn., and United Parcel Service Company of Louisville, Ky. Work will be performed at worldwide locations, and is expected to be completed September 2010. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Electronic proposals were solicited and 30 proposals received. The contracting activity is USTRANSCOM, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. (HTC711-09-D-5006).

What is CRAF and how do you become a CRAF carrier?  GovPartners personnel has over 9 years of experience leading, managing and/or sourcing teaming partners for the largest CRAF team. Please contact us today to find out how we can help you become a CRAF carrier. 

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) submitted its annual "Report
to the Congress" on the "Status of Telework in the Federal Government" on
September 16. In February 2009, seventy-eight Executive Branch agencies submitted data on their
telework programs to the Office of Personnel Management. These data represent
telework participation and related activities between January 1 and December 31, 2008.
Agencies have been submitting these reports to OPM since 2001, tracking the progress
of telework implementation as the agencies have created and refined their programs
and policies. Trends have remained relatively stable over time, with incremental
increases and occasional decreases showing overall slow but steady growth.

For 2008, agencies reported that:
• 102,900 employees were teleworking
• 64% of these employees were teleworking relatively frequently (either 1-2
days a week, or 3 or more days per week)
• Almost half of the agencies had not fully integrated telework into their
Continuity of Operations (COOP) planning
• Office coverage and management resistance were considered the largest
barriers to implementation

Data are reported for each of the agencies, and the large Cabinet-level agencies also
report data at the sub-agency level. A closer look at the agency and sub-agency data
allows us to break down the overall numbers to identify organizations that have
experienced relatively large increases or decreases, either in actual participation or
possibly in their capabilities to effectively track participation.

OPM continues to use these results and other information to support agency staff with
their telework programs by convening regular meetings of telework coordinators,
meeting one-on-one to provide consultation and support, maintaining the
comprehensive www.telework.gov website, and connecting agency staff so they can
learn from each other’s challenges and successes.
The Big Picture: Telework in 2008
• 78 agencies reported a total of 102,900 out of 1,962,975 employees teleworking
- 5.24% of the total population reported as teleworkers
- 8.64% of the eligible population reported as teleworkers
• 48 agencies (61%) reported an increase in their overall telework numbers
• 78% of agencies provide formal notice of eligibility to their employees
• 35% track the number of telework requests that are denied; 33 cases were due
to performance or conduct issues, 160 were due to type of work
• 38% track the number of agreements that are terminated; 108 of these
terminations were based on the employee’s decision, 31 were based on the
supervisor’s decision due to a performance/conduct issue, and 78 were based on
a supervisor’s decision due to a change in work assignments
• 23% of agencies use electronic tracking to count teleworkers, 83% use telework
agreements, 53% use time and attendance (NOTE: agencies may select more
than one category due to difference in tracking mechanisms at the sub-agency
level, so the total exceeds 100%)
• 44 agencies have fully integrated telework into COOP (56.41%)
• 27 agencies reported cost savings/benefits as a result of telework; of these, the
greatest benefit was to morale (24 agencies), then productivity/performance and
transportation (22 each), then human capital (21) (note: agencies could select all
that apply). See tr.im/zwQ7

Register for the Telework Exchange Town Hall Meeting in Washington, DC, on
September 24, at   http://www.teleworkexchange.com/townhallmeeting/ to hear
John Berry, OPM Director, deliver keynote remarks along with Aneesh
Chopra, Assistant to the President and Chief Technology Officer.
Government employees may attend this program at no cost. But, private
sector employees are also welcome to attend. The U.S. General Services
Administration is a sponsor of this telework education program.
 

Have you noticed that the scopes of work in recent government solicitations are increasing in size? Many services and products are all part of one request for proposal. This can be considered good or bad. Requirements once performed by separate contract vehicles may be consolidated under only one. As a result, teaming is becoming more popular and necessary, especially among qualified government contractors. For many companies who are regularly too small to win or perform these large contracts alone, teaming has become a fundamental part of their strategic planning. A successful prime/subcontractor partnership can be as rewarding as a successful contractor/government relationship, and it can be a great way to enter into the market successfully.
It seems with the shift of multiple contract vehicles to consolidated ones, the government is promoting teaming arrangements. Not only does it help them reduce costs, it streamlines the communication and project management. The prime contractor is customarily the liaison for the team which reduces the workload for the government contracting team.

Teaming - Defined
FAR Subpart 9.6- Contractor Team Arrangements defines the term "Team Arrangement" (i.e., teaming) to mean:
(1) Two or more companies form a partnership or joint venture to act as a potential prime contractor; or
(2) A potential prime contractor agrees with one or more other companies to have them act as its subcontractors under a specified Government contract or acquisition program.
9.602 - Contractor team arrangements may be desirable from both a Government and industry standpoint in order to enable the companies involved to--
Complement each other's unique capabilities; and Offer the Government the best combination of performance, cost, and delivery for the system or product being acquired.
Companies normally form team arrangements before submitting an offer. They may enter into an arrangement later in the acquisition process, however, only after a contract has been awarded.
9.603 - The government will recognize the integrity and validity of contractor team arrangements, provided the arrangements are identified and company relationships are fully disclosed in an offer, or, for arrangements entered into after submission of an offer, before the arrangement becomes effective.

The above FAR provisions can be interpreted to mean teaming is encouraged when it is in the best interest of all parties.
The most familiar type of a teaming arrangement is a prime contractor/ subcontractor partnership. The prime/sub approach works well for both parties as long as the roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. In all cases, the prime contractor is in control and the subcontractor must follow this structure.
Usually prime contractors select subcontractors and make them a part of their proposals. A subcontractor can often be a key selling point in a prime contractor's proposal, and this should be used in negotiating the teaming agreement. 

What's in a Teaming Agreement
When entering into a teaming agreement, your company should consider the following:
1.  Is the subcontractor exclusively with the prime?
       - If so, is this in your best interest? Or, can the subcontractor be a part of other competitor's proposals? This is a very important clause depending on the type of contract vehicle and the volume of business associated with the clause. Some teaming agreements may prohibit you to execute teaming agreements with other prime contractors prior to award. This could hurt your competitive chances of winning.
2. Does this prime offer the best teaming solution for the requirement? 
3. Is the subcontractor part of a minimum guarantee of revenue? 
4. What are the performance clauses? 
5. Will the subcontractor be required to participate in negotiations with the government? 
6. What is the pricing structure for the contract? Is it cost plus, firm fixed price or time and materials? How and   when will the subcontractor be paid?
7. Are you the only subcontractor providing the service/product? If not, how will the work be awarded? Will your company have first right of refusal?
8. What FAR’s are passed on to the subcontractor?
9  What is the scope of work and has your company been provided with terms and conditions related to your service/product offerings?                                                                                                                                                           
If you are new to the government market, try to become a team member. Subcontracting is a great introduction to the government market. It is also a great way to build the experience needed to become a competitive government contractor. and can reduce time and investment required to enter the market as a prime contractor.
Sign Up for SubTeamPartners today to form your FY10 contractor team.  GovPartners News Brief: 01 Oct 2009: By Cynthia Karnik

The National Contract Management Association (NCMA) is proud to announce its newly established collaboration with GovPartners, LLC. This union will provide members of GovPartners with an exclusive opportunity to receive a complimentary one-year subscription to Contract Management magazine. This highly regarded monthly publication ranks as the number-one benefit among NCMA’s membership of 19,000 contracting professionals.

“GovPartners, LLC is excited to enter into a partnership with the leader in contract management, NCMA,” said Cynthia Karnik, GovPartners, CEO. “As a service provider, we share NCMA's vision that enterprises will succeed through improved buyer–seller relationships based on common values, practices, and professional standards. We believe our partnership will provide a full service solution to our members.”

NCMA Executive Director Neal Couture noted, “NCMA is pleased to extend Contract Management magazine to GovPartners members. This is a great opportunity to provide their members with inside access to the issues and concerns of the people who manage their relationships with the federal government, provide long-term value to their members, and enhance the professional development of these industry professionals.”

GovPartners connects businesses with prime contractors and subcontractors that are approved to work for the U.S. federal government. They support the needs of small and large businesses that need assistance with proposal writing, GSA supply schedule contracts, and formulating contractor teaming agreements with approved government contractors. Read more about GovPartners at www.govpartners.com

About NCMA
Founded in 1959, NCMA is the leading association in the field of contract management. The organization is dedicated to the professional growth and educational advancement of procurement and acquisition personnel worldwide. NCMA strives to serve and inform the profession and to offer opportunities for the open exchange of ideas in neutral forums. For more information, visit www.ncmahq.org.

Referenced press release can be found at www.ncmahq.org/News/PRDetail.cfm

# # #
 

Other Defense Agencies/United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) has posted the  International airlift notice for the FY11 Civil Reserve Airlift Program (CRAF). This solicitation is for international long-range and short-range passenger and cargo airlift services, as well as aeromedical airlift services. Period of performance is for one year with no option periods - from 1 Oct 2010 through 30 Sep 2011. Offeror must be certified under Part 121 of the Federal Aviation Regulation (14 CFR 121) and willing to commit aircraft to the CRAF. Awards will be based upon offeror's aircraft commitment to the CRAF and past performance.

Request For Proposal will be released on or about 1 April 2010.NAICS codes 481211 and 481212 apply. Ombudsman for this solicitation: Mr. Dale Huegen, USTRANSCOM Command Acquisition, 508 Scott Drive, Scott AFB IL 62225-5357, (618) 256-4300, fax (618) 256-4702, email: dale.huegen@ustranscom.mil

Contracting Office Address:
508 Scott Drive
Bldg 1900
Scott AFB, Illinois 62225
United States

Primary Point of Contact.:
Neal Newberry,
Contract Specialist
samuel.newberry@ustranscom.mil
Phone: 6182292503
Fax: 6182562804

Secondary Point of Contact:
Lucy Hitsman,
Contracting Officer
lucy.hitsman@ustranscom.mil
Phone: 618-229-2511
Fax: 618-256-2804

Follow this opportunity www.fbo.gov/

The United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) is the Department of Defense’s (DoD) command responsible for land, air and sea transportation. With its people, trucks, trains, aircraft, ships, information systems and infrastructure USTRANSCOM provides the most responsive strategic mobility capability the world has ever seen. USTRANSCOM currently controls a fleet of military assets valued in excess of $52 billion, including: 87 ships; 1,269 aircraft; 2,150 railcars and assorted equipment, and $1.4 billion in infrastructure, as well as access through commercial partners to more than 1,001 aircrafts and 360 vessels in the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) and Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement (VISA) programs.

To give you an idea of the size and scope, USTRANSCOM conducts more than 1,900 air missions, with 25 ships underway and 10,000 ground shipments operating in 75% of the world's countries. The command has moved more than 1.9 million passengers; 1.1 million tons by air, 3.7 million tons by sea; and delivered more than 53.7 billion barrels of fuel by ship.

What does this mean for transportation contractors? USTRANSCOM, like all other federal agencies, need to meet their small business goals. Currently, these goals are not being met. Why? Most of the requirements are being filled by large businesses because small businesses are not responding to request for information (RFI) postings, sources sought notices, market research notices, and/or request for proposals (RFP).

USTRANSCOM Directorate of Acquisitions: Who are They and What do they Do?

USTRANSCOM's Directorate of Acquisition mission is to provide acquisition capability to include contracting and program management functions in support of transportation and distribution for the DoD. They act as a business advisor to their commander. USTRANSCOM's Acquisition division has recently gone through a reorganization. Their direct customers include UNSTRANSCOM, Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC), Military Sealift Command, Air Mobility Command (AMC), and Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). Below is a summary of each division and what they do.

 TCAQ-R National Transportation - provides responsive contracting and business advisory support for the national and regional transportation programs serving the DoD customers worldwide.

 TCAQ-I International Scheduled Services -provides procurement of international multimodal transportation services in support of DoD's peace and wartime worldwide movement of cargo.

 TCAQ-M Program Management - provides expertise on acquisition program management policies, procedures and strategies to the commander, staff and components.

 TCAQ-C International Charters - provides procurement and worldwide administration of international charter airlift requirements supporting DoD passengers and cargo during war and peace.

 TCAQ-P Business Support/Policy - provides expertise on acquisition policies, procedures and strategies. They ensure that USTRANSCOM maintains the highest ethical procurement standards while achieving world class, global warfighter support.

 TCAQ-SB - Small Business Programs - provides advices and counsel to commander on small business matters. Assist in developing strategies to ensure maximum participation and opportunities for small business concerns.

 TCAQ-S Specialized Services - provides responsive contracting and business advisory support for specialized services and research and development programs serving DoD customers worldwide.

 TCAQ-D Distribution Process Owner (DPO) Support - provides responsive contracting and business advisory support for USTRASNCOM DPO support services, as well as contracting support for SDDC national level transportation systems requirements.

Small Businesses: USTRANSCOM WANTS YOU

If you are a small business and want to do business with USTRANSCOM, contact Michelle Mendez, Director of Small Business Programs immediately at (618) 256-9619 or michelle.mendez@ustranscom.mil. Be sure to have a capabilities brief ready to reference for talking points and follow up with an email. USTRANSCOM is interested in learning of all small qualified business, the more information you provide before an RFP is constructed, increases the chances of having small business set-aside requirements. Do not be afraid to request a face-to-face meeting. The small business program office will always be able to meet with contractors and will include contracting officers for specific contracts of interest. However, they are unable to discuss open solicitations.

ALWAYS respond to request for information, sources sought and market analysis so USTRANSCOM is aware that there are qualified small business vendors. Never assume the requirement is already earmarked for a specific contractor. The more information USTRANSCOM is provided, the more they are able to set-aside requirements for small businesses.

USTRANSCOM is a very lucrative customer. Significant programs (awarded to contractors) include:

Defense Personal Property System (DPS): Joint end-to-end web based IT System managing over 500,000 personnel property movements annually. Contract value is in excess of $50 million annually.

Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF): Provides worldwide movement of troops and cargo- Valued at $2.5 billion annually.

Hero Remains (HR): Provides movement of HR from the continental United States CONUS to final destination for fallen service members and is valued at $24 million annually.

Universal Services Contract (USC): Single point, door-to-door cargo transportation, service via ocean carriers and is valued at $1 billion annually.

Defense Transportation Coordination Initiative (DTCI): Provides transportation coordination services to improve the reliability, predictability, and efficiency of DoD material moving throughout the CONUS. After Phase III implementation, this contract is valued at $258 million annually.

Need Help? GovPartners can be your advocate. We can put together a comprehensive capabilities brief and connect you with USTRANSCOM decision makers. Our team has a long standing relationship with their team. Contact us today to get started. Alternatively, connect and team with contractors with existing contracting vehicles.

Useful Links:

http://www.transcom.mil/
Quick Search for business opportunities HTC711 @ https://www.fbo.gov/
USTRANSCOM Directory and Phone #s http://www.transcom.mil/pubs2/pubs/2598-VA33-1.pdf
 

According to Washington Technology and research by Input, this list ranks the 20 largest and most important contracts that will hit the market in 2010. The services range from information technology to satellite communications to research and development to logistics support. Many contracts are valued in the billions. These contracts will be highly sought after by a variety of government contractors. Look for more coverage and teaming opportunities as the year unfolds. Contact the incumbents (when applicable) and submit your interest and capabilities brief.

1. Criminal Justice Program Support
2. Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading Edge Solutions II
3. Connections
4. Strategic Services Sourcing
5. Communications and Transmission Systems Program
6. Chief Information Officer Solutions and Partners 3
7. NetCents II
8. Compass DOD Enterprise Software Initiative
9. Future Commercial SatCom Acquisitions
10. Common Hardware Systems 4
11. System Engineering and Technical Assistance Research and Development
12. Defense Information Systems Network Global Services Management
13. Special Operations Forces Information Enterprise
14. Design and Engineering Support Program 3
15. Information Technology Support Services IV
16. Support Services
17. Continental U.S. Support Base Services II
18. Field Training Systems Support III
19. Global Combat Support System
20. Information Assurance Support Services

For a brief of the top 20 contracts and full article tr.im/DUwU

United States Africa Command, AFRICOM, one of six of the Defense Department's regional military headquarters, was declared a fully unified command on October 1, 2008. As such, Africa Command has administrative responsibility for U.S. military support to U.S. government policy in Africa, to include military-to-military relationships with 53 African nations. The other five regional commands and their locations are: U.S. Central Command, Tampa, Florida; U.S. European Command, Stuttgart, Germany; U.S. Northern Command, Colorado Springs, Colorado; U.S. Pacific Command, Honolulu, Hawaii; and U.S. Southern Command, Miami, Florida.

Commander: General William E. "Kip" Ward, United States Army
Deputy to the Commander for Military Operations:
Vice Admiral Robert T. Moeller, United States Navy
Deputy to the Commander for Civil-Military Activities:
Ambassador Tony Holmes, United States Department of State

Chain of Command: The commander of Africa Command reports to the U.S. Secretary of Defense, who reports to the President of the United States. In individual countries, U.S. Ambassadors continue to be the President's personal representatives in diplomatic relations with host nations.

AFRICOM Mission: United States Africa Command, in concert with other U.S. government agencies and international partners, conducts sustained security engagement through military-to-military programs, military-sponsored activities, and other military operations as directed to promote a stable and secure African environment in support of U.S. foreign policy.

Partnering with African Nations: Through strong and lasting strategic partnerships with African partners and by delivering sustained, effective, and coherent security cooperation programs, U.S. Africa Command helps foster a more stable and secure Africa:

* where military organizations perform professionally and with integrity;
* that promotes legitimate and professional security institutions;
* that has the will and means to direct, dissuade, deter and defeat transnational threats;
* and whose militaries and governments are increasingly capable of supporting continental and international peace efforts.

U.S. Africa Command's theater strategic objectives:

* Defeat the Al-Qaeda terrorist organizations and its associated networks;

* Ensure peace operations capacity exists to respond to emerging crises, and continental peace support operations are effectively fulfilling mission requirements;
* Cooperate with identified African states in the creation of an environment inhospitable to the unsanctioned possession and proliferation on WMD;

* Improve security sector governance and increased stability through military support to comprehensive, holistic and enduring USG efforts in designated states;

* Protect populations from deadly contagions.

Personnel: U.S. Africa Command projects a staff of 1,300 personnel for its headquarters and joint subordinate activities, half of whom are civilian employees, including representatives from non-military agencies of the U.S. government. As of September 1, 2009, more than 1,200 personnel were assigned.

Location: Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart-Moehringen, Germany. In the near term, AFRICOM will focus on working with Embassies, Country Teams, and Offices of Defense Cooperation to strengthen existing military-to-military relationships. If our African partners and the U.S. government agree that further cooperation would benefit from a more robust Africa Command presence, we will consult accordingly and determine the best way to proceed.

Funding: The U.S. Africa Command transition team was budgeted for approximately $50 million in Fiscal Year 2007, and the command received $75.5 million for Fiscal Year 2008 and $310 million for Fiscal Year 2009. The Obama administration has requested $278 million for U.S. Africa Command for Fiscal Year 2010.

Supporting the U.S. Department of State: U.S. Africa Command supports the U.S. Department of State in the achievement of US foreign policy objectives in Africa. In addition and where appropriate, U.S. Africa Command provides personnel and logistical support to State Department-funded activities. Command personnel work closely with U.S. embassies in Africa to coordinate training programs to improve African nations’ security capacity. Read full article.

In a survey of government contractors, Deltek Inc. has found some faults in the conventional wisdom about today’s market.

The survey covered questions about growth, business strategies, policy issues and operational issues facing contractors in the government market.

Nearly 250 people completed the 60-question survey, which will be presented at Deltek’s Clarity ’09 conference in Tysons Corner, Va., to be held Nov. 17.

5 Myths Busted

Myth 1: The government contractor growth rates are decreasing.
Reality: The sector is still growing, with larger firms in the survey are experiencing better growth rates than expected, on the order of 10 percent.

Myth 2 : The merger and acquisition market is active and vibrant.
Realtiy: More than 85 percent of large firms surveyed did not indicate any definite M&A plans for 2010.

Myth 3 : Project management is a mature discipline among large firms.
Realtiy : The discipline is less mature than one would think. Only 11 percent of large companies thought that their project management was very mature, and the larger the company, the more likely they were to report a lower level of confidence in their project status confidence.

Myth 4 : Big firms do things faster and more efficiently.
Reality: The industry average invoicing cycle of a large firm is 12.6 days, while the cycle of a smaller firm is four times shorter.

Myth 5 : In this new age, the Defense Contract Audit Agency has adopted a more confrontational stance with contractors.
Reality: Surprisingly, the survey found that not to be the case, with more than 83 percent of contractors that were recently audited saying that the relationship was “good” or “excellent”. The vast majority said it was actually improving.  Read full article washingtontechnology.com/articles/2009/11/16/5-myths-busted.aspx

 

Five-year task order is worth $38 million to Melbourne, Fla., contractor. Harris Corp. will continue working with the Army to improve command security and operations in Central America under a five-year task order worth $38 million.

The Information Technology Enterprise Solutions-2 Services (ITES-2S) award calls for Harris to assist the U.S. Southern Command’s Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems (C4S) operations and maintenance program for Joint Task Force-Bravo at Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras.

JTF-Bravo is the commander of all U.S. military operations in Central America.

Under the contract, Harris and its team will continue to service JTF-Bravo’s C4 systems and networks, including supporting network and telecommunications help desk customer services, a Nov. 17 company announcement said.

The contracting team also will provide C4S installation and upgrade services, information assurance and computer network defense, telecommunications and circuit management, as well as manage microwave communications systems, including power production at remote microwave sites.

This critical infrastructure program supports the commander of JTF-Bravo in the execution of USSOUTHCOM’s strategy to build partner-nation capacity. It is intended to bolster security, stability and prosperity in the Americas, the announcement explained.

The contracting team consists of Harris’ IT Services unit, Harris Communications Honduras, Charter Trading Company, STG Inc., and Smartronix.

Harris, of Melbourne, Fla., ranks No. 13 on Washington Technology’s 2009 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors. Full Article: washingtontechnology.com/articles/2009/11/17/harris-wins-new-southern-command-support-tasks-in-honduras.aspx

Contract will cover 10 task areas, including biomedical and health care IT support. The National Institutes of Health is preparing a solicitation for a small business contract to buy a broad variety of information technology services for health care and biomedical research.

The NIH Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center posted a draft request for proposals on Nov. 16 on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site for a small business set-aside governmentwide acquisition contract.

The contract would be among the successors to two current GWACs expiring in December 2010: the Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 2 Innovations (CIO-SP2i) and to the Image World 2 New Dimensions. Vendors are invited to provide comment on the draft RFP by Nov. 30.

The government is not soliciting proposals from vendors at this time. However, the agency will consider comments for developing the final RFP for the CIO-SP3 Small Business set-aside GWAC.

The procurement vehicle will cover 10 task areas, including support for bioinformatics, electronic health records and the Federal Health Architecture. Details on each of the task areas are published in the 137-page statement of work.

The 10 areas are IT services for biomedical research and health care; chief information officer support; imaging; outsourcing support; IT operations and maintenance; integration services; critical infrastructure protection and information assurance; digital government services; enterprise management systems and software development.

NIH has several other IT projects in the works. The National Cancer Institute recently advertised for an informatics expert to harmonize cancer data, and the National Library of Medicine is distributing a mapping tool to standardize electronic health data. Full Article washingtontechnology.com/articles/2009/11/18/nih-preparing-small-business-gwac-for-it-services.aspx

But it is good to review the basics. So attention is required to understand how Veteran Owned Businesses can grow by leveraging your commanding position in the government procurement process.

All Veteran Owned Small Businesses are included in large corporations’ small business plans under FAR 52.219.9. Why is that important? Ninety-five (95%) percent of all large businesses sell to the U.S. Government. As part of the government procurement process, the large prime contractors are required to submit and negotiate a subcontracting plan that separately addresses subcontracting with small businesses specifically Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB) and Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB). The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) expressly states that this plan shall be included in and made a part of the resultant prime contract that the large business enters into with the U.S. Government. Failure to submit and negotiate the subcontracting plan shall make the large business offeror ineligible for award of a contract. This plan shall include goals expressed in terms of percentages of total planned subcontracting dollars. This subcontracting plan must be flowed down (incorporated in the subcontract to their subcontractors) to second tier contractors that are also large businesses if the contract from the prime contractor is in excess of $550,000 ($1 million for construction). Remember the FAR governs all federal agencies, hence the large corporations must make a good faith effort to comply.

Another regulation, FAR 52.219-27 – Notice of Total Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Set-Aside reads more like orders, than direction.

The government “may” set aside certain contracts for SDVOSBs. Only SDVOSBs are allowed to compete for these “set aside” contracts. Even though the decision to make a SDVOSB set aside is discretionary (not required), the Comptroller General has given the statute a broader meaning by applying SBA regulations that direct the contracting officer (“should”) to consider the propriety of a SDVOSB set aside before proceeding with a small business set aside (13 CFR 125.19). One can safely assume that the “may” is not entirely permissive, and the Contracting Officer must consider setting an acquisition aside for SDVOSB before setting it aside for small business in general (MCS Portable Restroom Service Group, Comp. Gen. Dec.B-299291). FAR 19.1405 further instructs the contracting officer that in order to set aside these contracts for SDVOSB companies, he must have a reasonable expectation that offers will be received from two or more SDVOSBs and the award will be made at a fair market price. However, if the contracting officer receives only one acceptable offer from SDVOSB in response to this set-aside, the contracting officer should make an award to that firm. The Comptroller General reaffirms the sole source award even when the contracting officer does not have a reasonable expectation that two or more SDVOSBs would submit a bid, by stating “FAR should be read consistent with the SBA regulations” and to find otherwise would frustrate the intent of the Veteran’s Benefits Act of 2003.

FAR 19.1406 codifies sole source awards to SDVOSB with certain caveats: (1) the requirement can be satisfied only by one SDVOSB, (2) the award will be less than $3 Million ($5.5 Million for manufacturing), (3) SDVOSB is a responsible contractor (the SDVOSB can perform the contract), and (4) the price is reasonable.

The element requiring the contracting officer to determine that only one SDVOSB can fulfill the contract can be successfully established by the contracting officer by documenting the unique characteristics of the firm itself. True, this write-up is an added requirement for the Contracting Officer beyond that outlined in the 8a sole source program, but not a deal breaker!

The government buys unique parts and services all the time. I am certain an SDVOSB business can assist the government in understanding what makes his/her company’s goods or services unique from other competitors by writing a short narrative for the file. Whenever there are set-aside contracts, there are rules. The Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business concern agrees that in the performance of the contract, in the case of a contract for:

(1) Services – at least 50% of the personnel cost will be spent by SDVOSB awardee or employees of another SDVOSB company.

(2) Manufactured Supplies – 50% of the cost of manufacture (excluding materials) will be performed by SDVOSB firm (awardee) or other SDVOSB firms.

(3) General Construction – 15% of SDVOSB (awardee) personnel cost or other SDVOSB firms.

(4) Special Trades – 25% of SDVOSB personal cost.

(5) Dealers, distributors, or wholesalers can offer a product manufactured 100% by a small business in the US.

(6) Joint venture rules apply equally to SDVOSB contracts and they are discussed in this newsletter.

The Veterans Administration is an agency that marches to a different drummer. The needs of their clients, the soldiers, demand that they lead in this effort. Their regulations are more inclusive of all Veteran Owned Businesses. The VA requires Veteran-Owned Business to be registered in VetBiz. The VA’s unique regulations allow the VA buyers to sole source to SDVOSB if price is less than $5 Million, with the same requirements of responsibility and the award at a fair reasonable price as in the FAR regulations. However, if no responsible SDV is identified, the VA Buyer may sole source to a Veteran Small Business. That is an incredible opportunity for all who served!

Teamwork, off the battlefield has a different meaning when selling to the US government. When an VOSB bids on a contract, he likes to have his friends covering his back. The soldier’s training, trust and experience ultimately effects the way he does business. The government takes this commonsense approach to surviving and turns it around, so listen-up!

When an VOSB proposes to enlist the assistance of other businesses to perform a set-aside contract, the Contracting Officer must apply the law so that one company is not in a more advantageous position. Let’s say one VOSB would like to team with The IBM Corporation. The other VOSB who is bidding the contract is using a small business with experience, but not on the level of an IBM. That would be unfair! Remember, part of the definition of a VOSB or SDVOSB is SMALL!

The government has rules as to team members, even when the existence of a team is not obvious to all the bidders. The Small Business Administration applies these “affiliation” rules when reviewing joint ventures, teaming agreements, or subcontracts. If the VOSB’s partner or subcontractor performs primary and vital requirements, they can be determined to be acting jointly and thus affiliated. The SBA adds both companies’ employees or revenue together to determine if they are small. Consequently, if the above criteria is met, the Veteran Owned Small Business who teams with the large business is deemed to be affiliated and not small.

This affiliation also could occur when there are two or more small businesses that team for a job. The government would add their revenue (service companies) or employees (manufacturing companies) together to determine if the VOSB bidder is SMALL.

But there are exceptions when two or more small businesses decide to team and the government allows them to compete as small without combining the companies’ revenue or employees.

So long as each concern is small under the size standard corresponding to the NAICS code assigned to the contract, they will remain unaffiliated and small in the following cases:

1. When SVOSB/SDVOSB bids with any other Small Business for a bundled contract, at any dollar value as described in 13 CFR 121.125.2(d)(1)(i).

2. When the dollar value of a revenue-based (services) procurement (including options) is more than half the size standard associated with the NAICS code governing the procurement. Example: A solicition with an estimated value of $4 M. with a NAICS code size standard of $6.5M.

3. For manufacturers (size based on employees), if the procurement exceeds 10 M.

Reference Full article: www.njit.edu/dptac/veterans/index.php

The NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) is performing a technical assessment to form the basis of a possible proposal for the NASA Science Mission Directorate DiscoveryProgram opportunity. This assessment is focused on conducting scientific exploration ofthe planet Mars using ARES, a robotic aerial platform (ARES: Aerial Regional-scaleEnvironmental Surveyor).The purpose of this announcement is to enable LaRC to obtain potential providers toparticipate in the development of the technical concept, proposal, and mission elementimplementation of several mission areas in response to the upcoming NASA DiscoveryProgram Announcement of Opportunity (AO). Specific mission areas where LaRC is seekingassistance include:(1) The ARES Science Team.(2) ARES Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) Team(3) Design and development of the aerial platform structures and mechanisms subsystemincluding the composite airframe, associated hinging and latching mechanisms, and controlsurfaces. (4) Design and development of the liquid rocket propulsion subsystem for the aerialplatform. (5) Design and development of the command and data handling, flight software, and thenavigation sensors (only for entry and flight over Mars). (6) Design and development of the telecommunications subsystem for the aerialplatform and entry system.(7) Design and development of two complete cameras.Discovery Program investigations address NASAs planetary science goals as described inSolar System Exploration, NASAs 2006 roadmap for planetary science. The roadmap may befound at nasascience.nasa.gov/about-us/science-strategy/ . While Discovery investigations may focus on any body in the Solar System, excluding the Earth and the Sun, and including Mars and the Moon, the ARES synopsis focuses on the exploration of Mars. Discovery investigations will be led by a Principal Investigator and will be comprised of scientists in partnerships, potentially involving NASA Centers, academia, and industry.These teams will pursue missions of high scientific value utilizing observation platforms of their choice and design.Release of a draft Discovery AO is expected by the end of CY 2009. It is anticipatedthat approximately two to three Discovery investigations will be selected for 9-month Phase A concept studies.  Read Full Article:www.fbo.gov/index

GovPartners, LLC recently partnered with SRC Group, a Professional Consulting Company which offers Staffing, Resume Sourcing, and Business Development. "GovPartners continues to add services that provide our clients with resources needed to capture and maintain government business. We are excited about our partnership with SRC Group and the benefits they bring to our clients" said Cynthia Karnik, GovPartners CEO. SRC Group is committed to their clients and candidates who trust that they will do a good job for them by delivering truly qualified candidates in a timely manner. They are dedicated to building client and candidate relationships on trust, integrity and dependability. SRC Group represents the best the industry has to offer: outstanding, experienced, high-quality candidates; and innovative staffing solutions and resume sourcing. “SRC Group is excited to enter into a partnership with a quality service provider, GovPartners," said Stacey McKinney, SRC Group, CEO." We believe adding our staffing and recruiting support to their service offerings with provide clients with a proactive and complete solution for government business development. " GovPartners members and clients will receive benefits such as labor pricing for RFP submissions and qualified candidate sourcing. To find out more contact us.

The Obama administration has identified $19 billion in contracting savings for fiscal 2010, which is on track to meet President Obama’s goal of saving $40 billion, White House officials said today.

The savings are coming from 24 agencies—including the Defense, Energy and Homeland Security departments—that represent 98 percent of the federal government’s contracting dollars, according to a new report published by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) today.

Federal Chief Performance Officer Jeff Zients, who also is OMB's deputy director for management, said today in a conference call with reporters that OMB will publish an online dashboard in the spring to track and describe the savings in detail.

For example, the money saved includes $87 million from the Homeland Security Department through consolidating purchases of desktop software and $10 million from Defense for using staff engineers to develop a protective coating for shoulder-fired missiles that protects against expensive repairs, he said.

Also, the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration is saving up to 18 percent on its contracting by holding reverse auctions online, Zients said. Calling it a “reverse Ebay,” he said the bidders are encouraged to lower their bids for performing the contract by watching the other bids, anonymously, in the online reverse auction.

Federal spending on contracts more than doubled to $540 billion between 2002 and 2008. Noncompetitive contracts rose by 129 percent over that period, to $188 billion, according to OMB.

To reverse that trend, Zients said OMB is encouraging the agencies to reduce their use of high-risk contracts such as noncompetitive contracts, identify the right mix of contract and federal employees, and build the acquisition workforce.

“In the last six years, contracting doubled and the workforce was flat,” Zients said. “In that process, there was a rush to outsource, with a marked increase in reliance on cost-reimbursement contracts and sole-source contracts,” he added. “We have a lot of work to do. We will save money by bringing in best practices.”

In addition to their savings plans, agencies have identified initiatives to reduce by 10 percent the money spent on new high-risk contracts, which include non-competitive, cost-reimbursement or time-and-materials/labor-hour contracts.

Each agency also has identified at least one pilot project to find where they might be over-reliant on contractors, and will evaluate the best mix of in-house and contractor skills. Results are due May 1.

Fedeal agencies now are required to submit an electronic contractor performance review to a centralized federal database, the Federal Awardee Performance and Integration Information System. It allows agencies to assess a firm’s track record before signing a new agreement. Compliance and quality assessments will begin in February, the OMB said.

The new database is drawing some criticism. A watchdog group says it should be more transparent, while a contractor organization wants it to be more secure. Both groups said the data may not be reliable enough to guide important contracting decisions. Reference Full Aricle.

Move Will Bring Company Leaders Closer to Federal Government, Key Customers. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) announced a decision to move its corporate office from Los Angeles to the Washington D.C. region by 2011. The company is engaged in a search to identify a specific location within the Washington, D.C. region, including the District, Maryland and Virginia. It plans to complete the search by spring 2010 and open the new corporate office by summer 2011.

"As a global security company with a large customer base in the Washington, D.C. region, this move will enable us to better serve our nation and customers," said Wes Bush, chief executive officer and president.

The new corporate office will include approximately 300 people. Although the company is moving some corporate staff from Los Angeles, the state of California remains a significant location for Northrop Grumman research, development and manufacturing. Approximately 30,000 employees, a quarter of Northrop Grumman's worldwide employment, work in California. Its Aerospace Systems sector is headquartered in Redondo Beach, and each of the company's other four sectors have major facilities in the state.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide. Full Article

“How to effectively sell to the federal government”.

Dealing with the Federal Government can seem like a formidable task at times. However, with a little patience, persistence and perseverance on your part -- your efforts will be rewarded in the long run. To assist you, we developed a series of procedural steps essential for success. Good Luck!

1. Become familiar with the SBA/GC Internet Homepage.

The SBA offers a wide array of programs and “hands-on” assistance to small businesses considering the federal marketplace. Go to our website at http://www.sba.gov/bussinessop/index.html and familiarize yourself with the programs and services we offer. From this site you can identify local SBA contracting experts who can be an invaluable resource to you, whether you are new to government contracting or are currently doing business with the Government and are seeking advice on how to deal with a particular issue. From the “Resources and Opportunities” section on our website, you will find links to additional procurement-related programs and assistance. In addition, this site provides information about other SBA resources including Small Business Development Centers, Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), and Women’s Business Development Centers. Log onto the SBA/GC website today and find out why we believe that it is truly the entrance ramp to the Government’s procurement Super-Highway.

2. Determine if your firm qualifies for one of SBA’s Certification Programs.

Formal certification by small business concerns is not required to bid on Federal contracts. Firms self-certify that they are small at the time of bid/proposal submission. The SBA currently has 3 contracts-related certification programs. Our 8(a) Business Development program assists eligible small businesses to compete through business development assistance. Although primarily a business development program, there are certain contracts restricted to certified 8(a) concerns. Certification in our Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB) and Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) programs entitles qualified firms to special bidding benefits in the Federal-contracting arena.

The SBA offers an on-line application process that makes it easier, faster and less expensive for small firms to apply for 8(a) Business Development, Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB) and HUBZone certification directly from SBA’s website, eliminating the need to download and complete a “paper” application. The applications are 100% Web-based, which incorporates context sensitive help, real-time validation, printer-ready versions and integrates with the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database.

To learn more about these programs and to determine if your firm qualifies for 8(a), SDB, or HUBZone certification go to the appropriate SBA website (http://www.sba.gov/8abd;
(http://www.sba.gov/sdb) and,
(http://www.sba.gov/hubzone)

Although not a formal certification program, in May 2004, the SBA announced a new procurement program that will boost federal contract opportunities for service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) concerns. Under the new rule contracting officers may restrict contract awards to SDVOSBs where there is a reasonable expectation that two or more SDVOSB concerns will submit bids at a fair market price. If the anticipated contract price will not exceed $3 million (or $5 million for manufacturing contracts) the new rules allow for a sole-source award, if there is not a reasonable expectation of competitive bids/offers from 2 or more SDVOSB concerns. The rule allows SDVOSB concerns to self-certify. Any challenge to a concern’s status as a small business or as a SVOSB must be referred to the SBA for resolution. To view the new rule, go to http://www.regulations.gov/fredpdfs/04-09727.pdf

3. Obtain a DUNS Number, and register in the Centralized Contractor Registration (CCR) System.

If you do not already have a “DUNS Number,” contact Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) at http://www.dnb.com/ to obtain one. Your DUNS Number is an important “identifier”, used for a multitude of purposes by the Government in the contracting arena.

The Government’s Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database holds information relevant to procurement and financial transactions. CCR affords you the opportunity for fast electronic payment of your invoices. You must be registered in CCR to be awarded a Federal contract. To learn more about CCR log onto the website at http://www.ccr.gov On January 1, 2004, the SBA’s Procurement and Marketing Access Network (PRO-Net) was integrated into CCR to provide a single portal to assist small businesses with marketing their goods and services to the Federal government. The CCR-PRO-Net linkage is part of a comprehensive strategy to transfer PRO-Net’s functions to the E-Gov Business Partner Network (BPN) in order to simplify government-wide vendor registration. The BPN is part of the Integrated Acquisition Environment (IAE), one of the e-government initiatives to create integrated business processes for buyers and sellers in the federal marketplace. For more information about IAE, visit the website at http://egov.gsa.gov

Effective April 17, 2005, CCR will make changes to firm’s Trading Partner Profile (TPP) to display a firm’s small business size status according to each NAICs code listed (CCR will use 2002 NAICs codes), based on the firm’s inputted revenue and/or employee size information. The SBA’s small business size logic will populate fields indicating if a firm is certified as an 8(a) Business Development, small disadvantaged business (SDB) or historically underutilized business zone (HUBZone) program participant Questions concerning your CCR registration should be directed to the CCR Assistance Center, at 888-227-2423.

The Government has implemented the Online Certifications and Representations Application (ORCA) initiative to replace the paper based representations and certifications (more commonly referred to as “reps and certs”) process required with the submission of each sealed bid (IFB) or request for proposal (RFP). Now using ORCA, a prospective contractor can enter their reps and certs information over the web once and will then be able to submit them electronically from the web. This is a mandatory requirement and firms must review/update their data at least once annually or as circumstances change. The ORCA website can be found by going to http://www.bpn.gov and clicking on “Online Reps and Certs” on the left side of the screen.

4. Identify your product or service.

It is helpful to know the Federal Supply Classification Code (FSC) and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code for your product or service. Many government product/service listings and future procurements are identified by FSC. To identify FSCs applicable to your company log onto http://www.scrantonrtg.com/secrc/fsc-codes/fsc.html. Detailed information regarding NAICS can be found on the SBA website by clicking onto: https://eweb1.sba.gov/naics/dsp_naicssearch2.cfm. NOTE: Small Business Size Standards for all Federal Government programs formerly associated with Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes were replaced by those that SBA has established for industries as described in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). SBA has established a new table of small business size standards based on NAICS www.sba.gov/size/)

5. Identify current Federal procurement opportunities.

Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOps) http://www.fedbizopps.gov/ – the designated government-wide point of entry- is the exclusive official source for public access to notices of Federal contracting actions over $25,000. (Agencies are encouraged to use FedBizOps to provide notices for actions of $25,000 or less). Notices of proposed procurements were formerly publicized in the Commerce Business Daily (CBD). However, with FedBizOps designation as the one-stop Internet gateway to procurement opportunities, the CBD has ceased publication. Once you identify those Agencies and buying offices that purchase your products and services, it’s a good idea to contact them directly to learn more about upcoming procurements (i.e., procurement forecasts) posted on websites or electronic bulletin boards.

6. Familiarize yourself with the Government’s contracting procedures

Be familiar with Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) (http://www.arnet.gov/far) and the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) http://www.acq.osd.mil/dp/dars/. You can also get access to other Federal agency FAR supplements from their respective webpages.

7. Investigate Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts.

The General Services Administration (GSA) manages Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) contracts, also known as Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts. Under MAS/FSS, contracts are awarded to multiple companies supplying comparable products and services at pre-negotiated prices, terms and conditions. Once GSA awards the contracts, Federal contracting officers and other authorized users order directly from the Schedule contractor. Many Federal purchases are, in fact, orders on MAS/FSS contracts. Contact the General Services Administration (GSA) for information on how to obtain a MAS/FSS contract: http://www.fss.gsa.gov/ (Be sure that your marketing information and CCR profile contains information on any MAS/FSS contracts held by your firm).

8. Seek additional assistance as needed in the Federal marketplace.
There are a number of important resources that are available to provide you with “hands-on” assistance in the Federal marketplace:

-SBA Procurement Center Representatives (PCRs) and Commercial Marketing Representatives (CMRs) SBA has a nationwide cadre of procurement professionals who are charged with assisting small businesses and acting as their advocates at both the prime and subcontracting levels. PCRs assist small firms interested in doing business, as prime contractors, directly with Federal agency buying offices. Our CMRs work with those small firms interested in identifying subcontracting opportunities with large businesses that have been awarded a Federal contract. To identify the PCR or CMR located nearest to you go to http://www.sba.gov/gc/indexcontacts.html.

Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (www.dla.mil/db/procurem.htm) are located in most States. Procurement Technical Assistance Centers, while funded by the Department of Defense, provide technical contracting and marketing assistance to small businesses wishing to do business with any federal agencies.
They provide training and counseling on marketing, financial, and contracting issues at minimal or no cost.

-Small Business Specialists are located at each Federal buying office and can provide assistance on how to market to that Agency. An addendum to this document contains a listing of Small Business Specialists (sometimes referred to as SADBUS) in your state. A complete listing of Small Business Specialists can be obtained from each Agency’s website. For example, links to the homepages of every DOD activity can be found on the DefenseLink website: http://www.defenselink.mil/. This information can be invaluable in researching the Federal marketplace and identifying your target market. Links to Agency Procurement Forecasts (http://www.sba.gov/GC/forecast.html) and other program information are available on their individual websites.

9. Explore subcontracting opportunities

Regardless of your product or service it is important that you do not neglect our very large secondary market, Subcontracting Opportunities with Federal Prime Contractors. Be sure to check out our website at http://www.sba.gov/GC/indexcontacts-sbsd.html. The SBA/GC Subcontracting Opportunities Directory lists, by State, large business Federal prime contractors along with the name and telephone number of each firm’s Small Business Liaison Officer (SBLO). We encourage you to investigate potential opportunities with these firms. Many of these firms also have websites that may be useful and we encourage you to contact their respective SBLO for subcontracting and teaming opportunities. The SBA’s SUB-Net (http://web.sba.gov/subnet) is a valuable source for obtaining information on subcontracting opportunities.

[List your company in SubTeamPartners teaming database.  This valuble tool allows you to search, post and capture qualified teaming opportunities.]

10. Investigate other Federal programs.

There are several other programs that may be of interest to you, such as individual Agency Mentor-Protégé Programs, the SBA’s Small Business Innovation Research Program http://www.sba.gov/sbir/indexsbir-sttr.html, etc. Information on these and other programs is available on Agency websites http://www.sba.gov/gc/indexresources.html, and “click on” miscellaneous links to other Federal Government Acquisition sites.

11. Accept credit cards

More than 250,000 Federal employees are using the GSA Smartpay cards. As a vendor you can maximize your ability to capture government sales by accepting credit cards (Visa, MasterCard and Voyager). If you already accept these cards, you have no additional work to do. If you do not accept these cards contact a bank to establish a merchant account. For more information, visit GSA’s website at estrategy.gov/smartgov/smart_card.cfm.

12. Market, Market, Market!

The 3 most important words to remember in order to be successful in the Federal Procurement Arena is market, market, market. Hopefully, this guide will have given you some good ideas on how to market your firm. After you have identified your customers, researched their requirements, and familiarized yourself with the Government’s procurement regulations and strategies, it is time to market your product or service. Present your capabilities directly to those buying offices that purchase your products or services. Realize that, like you, their time is valuable and if the match is a good one and you can provide them with a cost-effective, quality solution to their requirements the contract could be yours. Good luck and remember – you’re not alone.

For additional assistance, contact the following SBA Procurement Center Representatives

Jose Martinez, Colorado – jose.martinez@sba.gov
John Bagaason, Montana - john.bagaason@sba.gov
Tracie Brown, Wyoming and Utah - tracey.brown@sba.gov
David Turner, North Dakota, South Dakota - david.turner@sba.gov

Full Article: www.sba.gov/localresources/regionaloffices/region8/REGION8_CONTRACTING_LIST.html

As we enter a new year, we find ourselves cleaning out our file drawers getting ready for a brand new year. It is also an excellent time to start preparing marketing strategies for those markets will allow your company added growth and prosperity for the coming year.

GovPartners, LLC is excited about the company’s growth in 2009, and expects to be even busier in the coming year as the government market continues to explode with new opportunities. Government business is an excellent vehicle to expand your market share, even in tough economic times.

For those of you who are uncomfortable flying solo, GovPartners may be your answer. Our team is experienced with the government procurement processes (FARS and DFARS), and can be your champion in either beginning business with the government, or expanding your company’s role as a government sub-contractor. We are experienced in completing required registrations, adding companies to GSA supply schedules, FOIA requests, gathering custom market intelligence and locating business opportunities through state and federal procurement portals. Once an opportunity is located that makes sense for your company to bid, our proposal writing team can prepare your bid proposal for you, and will assist you through the entire process from start to finish.

For more information on all federal government agencies, opportunities and 2010 forecasts, visit
https://www.acquisition.gov/comp/procurement_forecasts/index.html .

So, as you are cleaning out those old, obsolete files, start your new year off by getting acquainted with GovPartners, LLC. If you would like more information on any of our programs or have questions about our services, email us at info@govpartners.com. We promise to respond within 24 hours.
Have a safe and healthy new year from all of us at GovPartners, LLC.

Arthur: Sabrina Ford, VP Government Affairs
 

The contracting memo influenced much of the procurement policy guidance in 2009, but experts say its effects will be subtle this year. What a difference a year makes, even if in a wholly unexpected way.

On March 4, 2009, President Barack Obama delivered what had the makings to be a game-changing speech for the federal information technology community. The president outlined his agenda for overhauling federal procurement, promising to end wasteful contracting practices and wean agencies off their reliance on government contractors.

The federal market was soon buzzing about fixed-priced contracts, reinvigorated competition, and a pronounced shift from the outsourcing of government work to the insourcing of contractor work.

“The way government agencies acquire the goods and services needed to carry out their responsibilities will take an abrupt 180-degree turn if President Barack Obama gets his way,” Federal Computer Week reported at the time.

However, the buzz generated by that speech and its accompanying memo has grown quiet, and the market is back to business as usual, or nearly so. What seemed like the start a major reform initiative 10 months ago now appears to have been a new president putting his stamp on issues that previous administrations have also tackled.

Contracting policies “have been fairly consistent throughout the years. It’s just good public policy,” said Robert Burton, former deputy administrator at the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and now a partner at Venable law firm.

That’s not to say the speech was empty rhetoric. The administration followed the March 4 memo with additional guidance and initiatives in the areas of cost-reimbursement and sole-source contracting, the acquisition workforce, and workforce management.

Administration officials also have prodded agencies to identify opportunities for saving money through improved procurement practices. Obama predicted that the memo and the governmentwide guidance could save the government as much as $40 billion. On Dec. 21, Jeffrey Zients, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, said the administration was nearly halfway there, having identified $19 billion in potential savings. Read Full Article

10-year blanket purchase agreement calls for systems integration and other IT work.

CGI Federal Inc. will provide systems integration and other information technology services to the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development under a 10-year blanket purchase agreement that could be worth as much as $395 million.

Under its General Services Administration’s IT Schedule contract, CGI also will provide consulting services and operational support for more than 5,000 of the agencies’ users of the Joint Financial Management System (JFMS) at more than 300 posts and missions around the world.

JFMS is a global platform based on CGI’s Momentum software, which is used by State and USAID to conduct domestic and overseas financial management activities.

CGI Federal is a wholly owned U.S. operating subsidiary of CGI Group Inc.  Reference Article: washingtontechnology.com/articles/2010/01/19/cgi-state-usaid.aspx

Purchase expands company's worldwide offerings. DynCorp International LLC has acquired Casals & Associates Inc., an international development company, through the purchase of 100 percent of the company’s stock. Precise financial terms were not disclosed.

Casals, a private company in Alexandria, Va., helps to achieve U.S. foreign policy and international development priorities by assisting in the development of stable and democratic governments, implementing anti-corruption initiatives and aiding the growth of democratic public and civil institutions, according to a DynCorp statement today.

With more than two decades of experience supporting the initiatives and programs of the U.S. Agency for International Development and international organization, Casals has developed significant expertise in the areas of democracy and governance, conflict management and recovery, rule of law and access to justice, strengthening civil society and public outreach.

The acquisition brings together the complementary skills, experience and capacity of Casals and DynCorp International to strengthen the strategic expansion of DynCorp International into the international development field, the statement said.

Casals will be integrated within DynCorp International’s Global Stabilization and Development Solutions division.

“This acquisition addresses our goal of creating value through continued growth and business diversification, and furthers our alignment with the Obama administration’s emphasis on the application of ‘smart power’ to global challenges,” DynCorp International President and CEO William Ballhaus said in the company statement.
In October (20) DynCorp International , a wholly owned subsidiary of DynCorp International Inc., acquired Phoenix Consulting Group Inc., expanding the company’s services to the intelligence community and national security clients. Full Article

Businesses electing to get into the government market are abundant, but most stop at the initial briefing when the business owner or manager finds out that the cash register does not automatically fill up after the initial registration processes.

The government market rewards are plentiful if you have the desire AND the patience to navigate through the various entry points and are diligent with your marketing efforts. Whether you are a product provider or service provider, there are key elements necessary in order to be successful in the government market.

First you need to plan your strategy. Decide whether you are going to go through the process with your internal resources or hire an experienced team to help you get introduced to key players, buying agencies and prime contracting partners. Most companies experience serious growing pains if there is not a clear understanding of the landscape before getting started.

Ask yourself some key questions. Does the government buy what I sell? How often? Who are my competitors? What value-added services do I bring to the table? What does my company do differently to set me apart? Once you can clearly answer these initial questions, you are ready for next steps. Here are some examples of what government contracting officers are looking for.

1) Quick delivery
2) Quality –strong technical capabilities
3) Customer Service – good past performance
4) Company reputation

Next, define your position for your product or service. Remember the US Government market is 25% OF THE GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT AND HAS OVER 20 MILLION EMPLOYEES. You need to know WHO in government are your significant buyers and influencers, and specifically target these people. Incremental growth is recommended and it is sane and doable. Spending money on prospecting new agencies before your foundation is laid is risky at best.

Develop relationships. Like in any business, people do business with people and companies they know and trust. Government business is no exception. Establish and maximize the value of relationships. Remember the “R” word. Understanding that federal employees take pride in their work is key when formulating new RELATIONSHIPS. Knowing and understanding simple things like “on-time, on-budget” makes your client – your government customer- a star. If you can deliver, they will remember.

Proactive marketing – Intelligent and proactive marketing makes the difference. Identifying the prospects, creating the opportunities, developing the relationships and developing the right niche for your company based on customer feedback will allow you to win major government market share.
There is no one pathway for doing business with the government. It requires dedication, patience, due diligence and thoroughness of work performed.

Ready to get started? Here is a summary of helpful hints for small businesses looking for government contract opportunities.

1. Do your homework and check out the competition competition.
2. Get ready. Make sure you have all the registrations complete such as a federal tax ID # and DUNS number.
3. Get the necessary classifications. Are you a veteran-owned, women-owned, small, and/or disadvantaged company? If so, it pays to get classified as such in order to take advantage of set-aside contracts.
4. Build a Central Contracting Registration (CCR) profile
5. Consider subcontracting and teaming. Identify large firms that hold contracts and determine how your product or service would be a value addition to their offerings to the government. Subcontracting is an excellent way to gain exposure to the government market. New help? Click here to get started
6. Attend small-business conferences
7. Visit a local Small Business Administration (SBA) office.

Still got that itch to enter the government niche? GovPartners, LLC is a minority, woman-owned firm that works with small businesses to help streamline the government process. Our cradle-to-grave approach includes government registrations, opening doors to prime contractors, researching government opportunities, proposal writing and submission and business development efforts. If the above efforts are overwhelming for your existing resources to handle, GovPartners will expand your current team to develop and execute a comprehensive government business development plan specifically tailored for your company. Contact us today for a successful tomorrow.

Arthur: Sabrina Ford, GovPartners
 

AGENCY SPOTLIGHT: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

WHO is USAID and what do they do?

USAID is the US agency for international development and they provide economic, development and humanitarian assistance in support of the US Foreign Policy goals. The USAID Congressional Budget Justification contains information on the foreign assistance programs and activities implemented by the USAID. They receive their overall guidance from the Secretary of State.

WHAT do they buy?

USAID has partnerships in Africa, Asia, Europe and Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East. They procure technical assistance, commodities, equipment, transportation and construction. There are detailed financial reports available on the USAID website and a forecast of opportunities available at http://www.usaid.gov/business/business_opportunities/forecast/forecast.html.

Fiscal Year: 2009
Total dollars: $5,170,748,552
The amount is 1.0% of all awarded dollars for the fiscal year.
Total number of contractors: 1,365
Total number of transactions: 5,698

WHERE is USAID located?

USAID's headquarters is located in Washington, DC at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The main telephone number is (202) 712-2000.

WHEN does the USAID office purchase most of their products and services from small businesses?

Since the USAID agency is responsible for worldwide services and operations, they are always purchasing. The main website for USAID opportunities is located at www.fbo.gov. The USAID offices also purchase from GSA schedules and Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC). There is also information on the USAID website for small businesses at http://www.usaid.gov/business/small_business/.

HOW do I become a vendor for USAID?

USAID requires all of the initial registrations as other government entities. You must be registered in the CCRs and ORCA and must acquire a DUNS number if you do not already have one. The OSDBU/MRC (Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Minority Resource Center) is the initial point of contact for small businesses wanting to do business with the USAID agency.

WHY? USAID is heading up the recent Haiti earthquake response teams. Be a part of the solution and find out how you can help.
 

The Obama Administration announced on 12 Feb 2010 a multi-agency initiative to spur regional economic growth while making buildings more energy efficient. The effort will create jobs and llower utility bills through innovative technologySeven federal agencies today issued a combined Funding Opportunity Announcement of up to $129.7 million over five years to create a regional research center that will develop new building efficiency technologies and work with local partners to implement the technologies in area buildings.

Buildings account for nearly 40 percent of U.S. energy consumption and carbon emissions. Improvements in building efficiency will provide significant benefits – reducing energy use, lowering utility bills and decreasing carbon emissions.

The agencies are working together to leverage funding and resources to promote regional growth through an Energy Regional Innovation Cluster (E-RIC) that is centered around an Energy Innovation Hub focused on developing new technologies to improve the design of energy-efficient building systems. This Energy Innovation Hub, one of three proposed by the Administration and funded by Congress in the FY10 budget, will bring together a multidisciplinary team of researchers, ideally working under one roof, to conduct research and work to solve priority technology challenges that span work from basic research to engineering development to commercialization readiness.

The E-RIC will work to disseminate new technologies into the local marketplace and share best practices with the public and private sectors. It will be supported through agency investments in technology and business development, and will include support for workforce education and training. By linking researchers at the Hub with local businesses and supporting specialized workforce education and training in the area, the initiative will create an economically dynamic region focused on building efficiency technologies. Read full article

WHO? The United States Department of Energy (DoE) is concerned with the U.S. policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material. Its responsibilities include the nation's nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy, energy conservation, energy research, radioactive waste disposal, and domestic energy production. DOE also sponsors more basic and applied scientific research than any other US federal agency; most of this is funded through its system of United States Department of Energy National Laboratories.

WHAT do they buy? The DoE spends most of its resources on Government Owned-Contractor Operated facilities, Research and Development, and Construction.

WHERE? The U.S. Department of Energy is located at 1000 Independence Ave., SW Washington, DC 20585. Their phone number is 1-202-586-5000.

WHEN? Due to the size and scope of the DoE, you will find that the Department issues solicitations on a daily basis. Most of these can be found on FBO.gov, as well as Government Acquisition Contracts like GSA.

WHY? Just last Friday, the DoE signed 26 renewable-energy service contracts that are expected to result in an initial investment of about $277 million and generate 466 megawatts of power. The push for green powered initiatives has been one of the DoE's recent major focuses.

An annual Small Business Conference will be held in Atlanta, GA on May 10-12, 2010. For more details, click here.

An NASBC meeting will be held on March 29, 2010, spotlighting the U.S. Department of Energy. For details and registration information, click here.
 

10. The U.S. Government is the largest company in the world. Approximately $1 billion in new opportunities in the services sector of Government contracting are available to bid on by private business each day.  

9. 95% of federal contracts are awarded to small and medium sized businesses.

8. There are 2,000 to 5,000 new government contracting opportunities in all industry categories.

7. A Small Business Set-Aside Program (SBSA) was developed to assure that small businesses are awarded a fair proportion of government contracts by reserving certain government purchases exclusively for participation by small business concerns.

6. Contracts that have an anticipated value between $2,500 and $100,000 are reserved for small, small disadvantaged, women-owned, and small veteran-owned businesses.

5. The Small Business Association (SBA) administers a business assistance program for small disadvantaged businesses called 8(a) which helps small businesses compete in the American economy and access the federal procurement market.

4. Less than 5% of the businesses in the United States do business with the U.S. Government? WOW!

3. America's 9.1 million women-owned businesses employ 27.5 million people and contribute $3.6 trillion to the economy.

2. Minority-owned businesses have nearly doubled in the past two decades. A report from the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration shows that minorities own nearly 15 percent of American businesses.

And...the number one and "OMG why haven't you been working for this customer" reason IS...

1. The government procures services ranging from smaller scale Food Services and Janitorial projects to complex space flight systems development.

What are you waiting for? Find out how you can start selling your products and services to the government today!

The Tri-County area is facing unprecedented demographic changes resulting in increased community diversity and entrepreneurial opportunities. The growth in the region is increasing the demand for a new array of goods and services addressing the needs and interests of a more diverse community.

Additionally, the Governor’s commitment to support small businesses, combined with changes in local contracting demands due to BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) and the consolidation of larger companies is forcing small businesses to become more competitive in their service offerings, marketing plans and capabilities. In short, time is of the essence for minority/women owned businesses to position themselves to benefit from the opportunities present within the Southern Maryland and surrounding areas. Thus, these businesses require support developing their capacity and accessing opportunities.

"Leveraging partnerships are keys to bringing business resources into the Southern Maryland region. The Tri-County Council's (TCC) Regional Director of Economic Development, the TCC's Minority Business Opportunities Task Force, and stakeholders in the Southern MD region will take the results of the report to maximize and provide tools to assist small, minority, and women owned businesses build capacity to take advantage of the business and economic development projects coming to Southern Maryland. Planning and information are what small business owners need to be successful. Success means winning contracts, growing their customer base, and ultimately providing jobs in the local community." Dawn Tucker, President Calvert County Minority Business Alliance.

Milligan & Company, LLC in partnership with BITHGroup Technologies was engaged by the Tri-County Council of Southern Maryland to collect and analyze minority/women owned firm data, build a web based tool to support the County’s outreach efforts and provide recommendations for a sustainability and capacity building initiative.

The outcome findings identified through the survey responses, stakeholder engagement, secondary research, and general business development knowledge are:

• Minority/women owned firms lack certification and/or business registration. Of the businesses that responded to the survey, 41 percent do not maintain minority certification status.
• Under representation of minority/women owned firms due to businesses operating “under the radar.”
• Firms unable to compete because of an inability to adequately market and position their service offerings. Survey results identified that 37 percent of the businesses require market/new business development assistance and 66 percent reported a need to focus on revenue growth.
• Many firms reported limited financial expertise and access to capital.
• There is a need for business capacity building. Of the businesses that responded to the survey, 22 percent plan to focus on talent and operational issues.

"The report confirms what we in Charles County have experienced with our rapidly growing minority business community. Our challenge is identifying resources that will assist these businesses and help them grow. The formula for success is having the data we need to target these resources. The TCC has done a great job in gathering the data," said Jeff Nixon, Minority Business Enterprise Chief, Charles County.

Copies of the report may be downloaded from the Council’s website at www.tccsmd.org under the Economic Development/Economic Diversity section. Reference Article

DoE Small Business Conf & Exp: Registration Now Open!

Are you a Small Business? Check out the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization 11th Annual DOE Small Business Conference & Expo, at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA, May 10-12, 2010.

The event will feature plenaries, educational workshops, an Exhibit Hall with 200+ exhibitors/sponsors, as well as business matchmaking sessions. Over 1,600 attendees will represent all levels of federal, state, and local government agencies, the small business community, large/prime contractors, and many more!

Please review the conference site at: http://smallbusinessconference.energy.gov

You can also call the Conference Hotline at 1-877-837-9147 or email ExpoDOE@aetherquest.com

Proposed rule is designed to help agencies award 5 percent of federal contracting dollars to women-owned small businesses.
The Small Business Administration proposed a procurement set-aside rule that would give women business-owners more opportunities in federal contracting.

The intent of the rule is provide more opportunities for women-owned small businesses to compete for federal contracts, while helping agencies reach the existing statutory goal of awarding 5 percent of federal contracting dollars to WOSBs, SBA said. According to figures, the government exceeded its 5 percent goal in 2002, but otherwise hasn't reached it. The level has usually hovered around 3 percent since 1999, when SBA first started tracking the numbers.

A set-aside rule would reserve some contracts for the businesses, ensuring that those contracts will count toward the goal no matter which competitor wins. SBA’s proposal finds that women are underrepresented in 83 industries in the federal marketplace, according to the agency. Officials used the analysis in a 2007 study commissioned by SBA from the Kauffman-Rand Foundation to determine where women are underrepresented.

“Women-owned small businesses are one of the fastest growing segments of our economy, yet they continue to be underrepresented when it comes to federal contracting,” said SBA Administrator Karen Mills. Reference article.

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The Institute for Defense and Government Advancement (IDGA) welcomes the Association of Naval Aviation as an official association partner for its upcoming Military Air Assets Exhibition and Conference. The event will take place this March 30–31, 2010 in at the Prime F. Osborn, III Convention Center in Jacksonville, Florida.

The Association of Naval Aviation is an advocate group for all aviation forces in the US Navy, US Marine Corps, and US Coast Guard. Most of its members are affiliated with the over 50 squadrons (chapters) of varying size in the U.S., UK, France, Italy and Australia. ANA’s influence reaches beyond its base in Alexandria, Virginia. These squadrons interface, insofar as possible, with active duty personnel, tour military facilities and ships, and hear presentations from key members of the military establishment, civic authorities and related government officials.

For more information, please visit http://www.idga.org.

Acquisition provides AAR with robust capabilities to provide
worldwide aviation services to government agencies.

•  Supports the U.S. Government’s requirement for critical airlift services
•  Enhances AAR’s engineering and modifications capabilities
•  Leverages AAR’s existing aircraft maintenance and supply chain/logistics businesses

WOOD DALE, ILLINOIS (March 25, 2010) — AAR CORP. (NYSE: AIR) announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire Aviation Worldwide Services (AWS), a leading provider of expeditionary airlift services and aircraft modifications to the U.S. and other government customers, from Xe Services LLC. AAR is acquiring the business as part of its long-term strategy to expand its products, services and capabilities in support of government customers in the United States and abroad.

AWS, through its operating subsidiaries, Presidential Airways and STI Aviation, provides fixed- and rotary-wing flight operations, transporting personnel and cargo in support of worldwide U.S. Department of Defense and Department of State deployments, and performs engineering and design modifications on rotary-wing aircraft for government customers. AWS operates a fleet of 58 customized aircraft, of which 17 fixed-wing and 21 rotary-wing aircraft are currently deployed and 20 rotary-wing aircraft are available for future deployment.

The purchase price of the acquisition is $200 million, funded through a combination of available cash, a new 270-day syndicated credit facility and a five-year term loan secured against certain aircraft. Based on the current operating fleet, the business is expected to generate approximately $175 million of revenue on an annual basis and be accretive to earnings and margins within its first year of ownership. The Company expects the acquisition to be completed during the month of April, subject to customary closing conditions. Read Full Press Release.

GSA Administrator Martha Johnson announced yesterday that her agency will experiment with using wikis to help develop the requests for proposals (RFPs) on two new acquisitions.

The idea for this actually emerged from the dialogue on procurement innovations GSA has conducted (in cooperation with the National Academy of Public Administration) on the Web at a site called BetterBuy. At the BetterBuy website, there is now a link presenting information on two acquisitions that are in the development stage -- one for hosting the Data.gov website and the other (unexplained and as yet not up at the site) for an acquisition called Clearpath. GSA is asking members of the public to provide advice for features and performance requirements for these applications, as well as other elements of the RFPs. Specifically, GSA is asking for members of the public to point out mistakes and engage in "meaningful technical debate."

Given the endemic problems government has developing good requirements for IT acquisitions, the idea of drawing on the public for suggestions is in principle a great one. Reference Article.

Every year since 1963, the President of the United States has proclaimed National Small Business Week to recognize the contributions of small businesses to the economic well-being of America. As part of National Small Business Week, the U.S. Small Business Administration recognizes this special impact made by outstanding entrepreneurs and small business owners. In 2010, National Small Business Week will honor the estimated 27.2 million small businesses in America. Small businesses are major contributors to the strength of the American economy. More than half of Americans either own or work for a small business. They also create 60-80 percent of new jobs in the country. Small businesses drive innovation, create 21st century jobs and increase U.S. competitiveness. More Info

Joanne Woytek, the head of the NASA Scientific and Engineering Workstation Products governmentwide acquisition contract, wrote on my Facebook wall – wow, what a way to communicate this message! -- that an official from the General Services Administration (not Administrator Martha Johnson) plans to meet next week with Dan Gordon, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, to request that Gordon deauthorize the governmentwide Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners contract run by the National Institutes of Health.

Woytek believes that if CIOSP is put out of business, GSA’s next step will be to put SEWP out of business as well.

I am a big fan of GSA and its own governmentwide vehicles, including the schedules, but I strongly believe GSA’s effort to put competing governmentwide contracts out of business is seriously mistaken.

The basic reason is simple: Competition among contract vehicles (including the default alternative of using one’s own contract shop) promotes customer service and innovation, just like competition in other markets. When GSA last monopolized governmentwide vehicles, up through the early 1990s, it provided poor customer service, poor pricing and little innovation. GSA’s loss of its monopoly during the Clinton administration was actually the best thing that ever happened to the agency – they came up with new contract vehicles, much faster service, and other innovations and in the process ended up doing much more business than before.  Read Full Article.

Last year, the GSA Centralized Household Goods Traffic Management Program (CHAMP) created a committee consisting of Federal agencies to conduct an annual review of the GSA01 Domestic Tariff and the International provisions of the Household Goods Tender of Service (HTOS). The purpose of this review
is to identify any domestic and/or international provisions that may need modification and/or clarification.

The next committee meeting will take place the first week of May, 2010. At this time, GSA CHAMP is requesting comments from both Federal agencies and household good transportation service providers in regards to any Tariff and/or HTOS provisions that may need clarification or updating. When commenting, please provide a detailed description as to the issue and please include the proper tariff item or HTOS reference number.

Please sumbit your comments to Brian Kellhofer at brian.kellhofer@gsa.gov no later than April 23, 2010. Comments will be reconciled and a response will be provided prior to the release of the 2010-2011 Household Goods Request for Offers, scheduled for release the latter part of August, 2010.

No. 10. General Atomics wins Air Force UAS support contract. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. won a $266 million contract for program and technical support for the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial systems.

9. SAIC captures $351M Navy contract for technical and engineering support. Under a five-year, $351 million Navy contract, Science Applications International Corp. will support the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane Division and the Joint Special Operations Response Department.

8. General Dynamics wins $387M Army contract. General Dynamics Corp. will provide a variety of technical support and training advisory services to the Army under a five-year contract that could be worth as much as $387 million.

7. CGI Federal wins $395M follow-on State Department contract. Under a $395 million, 10-year blanket purchasing agreement, CGI Federal Inc. will provide systems integration and consulting services and support for more than 5,000 State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development users of the Joint Financial Management System at more than 300 posts and missions around the world.

6. SRA wins $500M contract to modernize farm programs. SRA International will work with the Agriculture Department under a $500 million contract to help the agency modernize the technology and business processes it uses to serve farmers across the country.

5. SAIC secures $625M Navy award. Science Applications International Corp. won a $625 million contract from the Navy’s Program Executive Office of Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence. The contract calls for the company to develop software as well as modify and enhance existing C2 systems.

4. Raytheon wins $886M award to boost GPS accuracy.  Raytheon Co. has won a contract from the Air Force worth $886 million to develop a new element of the Global Positioning System that will improve the accuracy of information from GPS satellites.

3. Lockheed scores $940M anti-IED award.  Lockheed Martin Corp. will produce Improvised Explosive Device jammers for the Navy under a indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract that has a ceiling value of $940 million.

2. Lockheed, Northrop win CANES contracts worth nearly $1B.  Defense contracting giants Northrop Grumman Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. will assist the Navy with its Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services program known as CANES. Each won separate contracts. Lockheed Martin’s has a ceiling of $937 million and Northrop’s is worth $775 million.

1. CSC, Stanley share $2.8B State Department contract.  Computer Sciences Corp. and Stanley Inc. each won a prime contract to run non-immigrant visa application processing for the State Department. The Global Services Strategy contract is worth $2.8 billion over 10 years and the two companies will compete for task orders for work around the world.

Read full article.

TeleCommunication Systems Inc., founded in 1987 as a small wireless systems provider, could be a role model for how to succeed in government business by really trying.

The company’s 23-year history includes a stint in the 8(a) certified small-business program, an initial public offering, conducting triage on a moribund government business, making several acquisitions and, last year, reaching $300 million in annual revenue.

TCS has more than 1,000 employees, and company executives say they expect TCS' combined commercial and government revenues to be between $430 million and $450 million this year, which would mean a 50 percent growth rate.

“We are a growth company. We’re not stopping,” said Drew Morin, TCS’ senior vice president and chief technology officer. As the third employee hired by company founder Maurice Tose, he knows TCS’ history first hand.

The Annapolis, Md., company’s first major contract came in 1989, the same year that TCS entered the 8(a) program. The $1.75 million award called for designing and building a local-area network for the Special Operations Command's headquarters at McDill Air Force Base, Fla.

That award led to further work from military special operations clients.  Read Full Article.

The Air Force is looking to improve its acquisition activities, starting immediately with the impending contract awards for the KC-X tanker, the F-35 joint strike fighter and the Network-Centric Solutions-2 Enterprise Integration and Service Management program (NETCENTS-2), according to a top Defense Department official.

“Recapturing acquisition excellence in the Air Force is a top priority,” David Van Buren, Air Force assistant secretary for acquisition, said today at an AFCEA Nova luncheon. In particular, “our acquisition cycle times are horrible," he said. FULL ARTICLE

President Barack Obama has formed two interagency working groups that will look for ways to award more federal contracts to small businesses.The president has created task forces to focus on small-business contracting problems and opportunities for companies owned by service-disabled veterans.

Obama signed an executive order April 26 that established an interagency task force that will seek to develop opportunities for veteran-owned small businesses. He also signed a memo establishing an interagency task force to help small businesses overall win more federal contracts.

In addition, the memo directs Federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra to build a Web-based dashboard by July that will illustrate how many contracts agencies award to small, disadvantaged businesses. FULL ARTICLE

Comments are to be submitted no later than May 3, 2010.
After more than a decade of waiting, the SBA has finally published a set of Proposed Rules to implement the Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contracting Program that, with some refinement, will serve to implement a strong program enabling restricted competition for certain women-owned small business on contracts within selected NAICS codes. This program should help the federal government to meet their mandate for providing a fair portion of Federal contracts to women-owned small businesses. LEARN MORE

The US DOT/OSDBU ihas issued the Spring 2010 edition of the DOT Biz Journal and it is available for download. In this issue the DOT/OSDBU highlights the recent OSDBU Small Business Summit attended by over 700 individuals from across the nation who came together to learn strategies from industry and government leaders to meet the demands of the competitive small business environment in the transportation industry. Also included in this Spring edition is a summary of DOT's proposed funding under President Obama's 2011 budget.

You will also find information on the Small Business Administration's proposed rule to expand access to federal contracting opportunities for women -owned small businesses and will learn about a Short Term Lending Program success story on HydroTech, Inc, a Nevada based woman-owned 8(a), HUBZone certified company. In addition, the DOT includes their regular features including Follow the Recovery Money and the upcoming Calendar of Events.

Click the following link to download the DOT Biz Journal (PDF)

The Department of Defense Mentor-Protégé Program assists qualifying small businesses (Protégés) to successfully compete for prime contract and subcontract awards by partnering with large companies (Mentors) under individual, project-based Agreements. http://www.americansecuritychallenge.com/

• Power- batteries, fuel cells, energy scavenging, renewable, etc
• Communications- signals, wireless security, obfuscation, unattritable systems, encryption, etc
• Sensors- CBRNE, camera, biometrics, etc
• Software- data analysis, pattern recognition, network security, etc

The Department of Energy (DOE) is working tirelessly to address the oil spill in the Gulf. At the request of President Obama, Secretary Chu traveled down to Houston to work closely with a team of top scientists from academia and the U.S. government, with support from more than 200 personnel from DOE's national laboratories, to analyze the response efforts and recommend additional options for stopping the leaking oil.

DOE would like you to share your ideas on how to stop or contain the oil spill and mitigate its impact on the environment. The Deepwater Horizon Response has an online form available to collect your suggestions here: http://www.horizonedocs.com/artform.php

As small business owners, you know that innovation comes from many sources. We need to tap into the spirit of American entrepreneurship to learn as much as possible. So far over 20,000 ideas have been sent to BP since the Gulf of Mexico incident from oil industry experts, small businesses, and everyday Americans.

The online form, entitled "Alternative Technology Response," collects detailed information about your idea, including the materials, equipment and resources required to put your idea into action. Your idea, once you fill out the form, will go to a team of 30 technical and operational BP personnel for evaluation

Submit your ideas here.

We encourage you to be part of the solution and submit any ideas you have to the Deepwater Horizon Response, and to share this message with others who might be able to help. For more information on the Deepwater Horizon Response suggestion form, visit this link.

Thank you,

Bill Valdez, Acting Director, Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization

THE Business-to-Government Event of the year, "GSA Opening Doors 2010", will be held in Los Angeles, California on August 9th through August 11th 2010.  

The sixth annual conference will connect small businesses in all categories with multiple agencies at all levels of government for big opportunities in a recovering economy.

Through networking and buyer/seller matchmaking, workshops and exhibits, engaged participants will make lasting connections leading to more business and stronger partnerships in the pursuit of the billions of dollars of government contracts awarded.

For more information, click here: http://www.gsaopeningdoors.com/default.shtm

White House Interagency Task Force on Federal Contracting Opportunities for Small Businesses

June 10, 2010- The U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (DOT/OSDBU) is pleased to announce that DOT has joined the Executive Committee of the White House Interagency Task Force on Federal Contracting Opportunities for Small Businesses.  OSDBU has been tapped to represent DOT.  The Task Force was created as a result of the President’s Memorandum dated April 26, 2010, and whose mission is to coordinate the efforts of Federal agencies to improve capital, business development opportunities, and pre-established Federal contracting goals for small business concerns.

This announcement is part of an ongoing effort to improve coordination between Federal agencies that provide contracting opportunities and technical assistance to small businesses.  President Obama and Secretary LaHood have made small businesses the cornerstone of the nation’s economic recovery, and DOT continues to take the lead in promoting the opportunities and necessary resources to get the job done. 

The initial meeting was held in the Roosevelt Room of the White House and was  Chaired by the Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke; Administrator Karen Mills of the Small Business Administration; and Peter Orszak, Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

OSDBU Director Brandon Neal will co-chair, along with Ginger Lew of the White House National Economic Council, a working group entitled “Enabling Small Business Contracting through Training, Outreach, Bonding, Access to Capital.”  The working group will move forward to ensure that small businesses, including firms owned by women, minorities, socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, and service-disabled veterans, have fair access to Federal contracting.  The group will also take on challenges that include building small businesses capacity though better outreach and training. 

“This Task Force will allow small business issues to command the attention they deserve and reach the key decision makers in each agency.  We are very excited to be part of the Executive Committee as well as the working group responsible for making sure social and economically disadvantaged individuals receive their fair share of contracting dollars,” remarked Director Neal.

For the full content of the presidential memorandum, please visit: http://osdbu.dot.gov/documents/2010-10174.pdf

New York, NY, June 17, 2010 - Arcadia Aviation has signed a binding letter of intent to acquire certain of the assets and operations of Wayfarer Aviation subject to the execution of a definitive asset purchase agreement by both parties.

Ending speculation about the future of Wayfarer, on Friday, June 11, Arcadia Aviation provided bridge financing to Wayfarer to ensure the continuation of uninterrupted service in advance of the signing of the purchase agreement. Existing clients have been contacted and informed that Wayfarer’s industry leading operations team remains in place and that the new company seeks to preserve and enhance that operation through the combination of the two ARG/US Platinum and IS-BAO registered companies.

“We have closely followed the Wayfarer operation for years harkening back to its TAG Aviation roots,” said Robert Garrett, Jr., President of Arcadia Aviation. “Many of our employees have worked side by side with the Wayfarer team in previous jobs. We view the acquisition as an extraordinary opportunity both for our company to grow but more importantly to preserve one of the industry’s great companies that over the years has come to define the standard of operational excellence and a commitment to safety beyond all else.”

The combined company will be headquartered in New York City, with an operations center in Weymouth, MA, FBO operations outside of New York and Washington DC, and a sales force in New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles. Its fleet of light to ultra long-range aircraft and 24/7 operating platform provide its managed aircraft owners and charter clients with worldwide operational capabilities.

Agencies do not outsource critical work, ODNI says
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has issued a rebuttal to a Washington Post report about the intelligence community’s seeming dependence on contractors to carry out its work.

In a story published 20 July, 2010 and headlined "National Security Inc.," Post reporters write that a two-year investigation concluded that contractors perform inherently government functions all the time and in every counterterrorism agency.

“What started as a temporary fix in response to the [2001] terrorist attacks has turned into a dependency that calls into question whether the federal workforce includes too many people obligated to shareholders rather than the public interest — and whether the government is still in control of its most sensitive activities,” according to the Post.

ODNI disputed that allegation in a fact sheet posted on its Web site.  Read full article.

DOD expects to spend $5.3B annually through program
The Navy has qualified 556 additional contractors to compete for task orders under the SeaPort Enhanced acquisition program.

The new indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract awards are in addition to the existing 1,675 contracts previously awarded under the SeaPort-e acquisition program that covers a wide array of technical and engineering services, the Defense Department said July 15. Each of the awards has a four-year base period.

About $5.3 billion in services will be procured per year via orders issued under the program, DOD said.

Under the SeaPort-e program, contractors provide services in 22 functional areas, including research and development, system engineering, modeling and simulation, information system development and information assurance.

Other areas involve support for analysis, prototyping, technical data, networks, software engineering, test and evaluation, training and logistics.

The services will support the Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Air Systems Command, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, Naval Supply Systems Command, Military Sealift Command, Naval Facilities Command, Strategic Systems Programs, Office of Naval Research, and the Marine Corps.

The contracting activity is the Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, Dahlgren, Va.  Reference Article.

The GSA is preparing to launch FedSpace, its social media platform for federal agencies and contractors in late summer.

The secure intranet collaboration platform will be made available to federal employees and contractors, according to GSA's statement on USA.gov.

FedSpace will provide a usable and accessible platform for accessing resources that Federal employees and contractors need to do their work better, faster, and more efficiently. FedSpace will be "social" in terms of people interacting with other people through the use of social technologies and tools to enhance professional communication and relationships, not "social" in terms of personal social networking. FedSpace will provide netiquette guidelines to help people understand the kinds of behavior that contribute to a collaborative virtual workplace, as opposed to behavior more suited to personal activities. Find out more.

Acquisition will cost defense giant $775 million in cash. The Boeing Co. will acquire Argon ST in an all-cash tender offer and merger for $34.50 per share, or approximately $775 million.

The agreement to acquire the developer of command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and combat systems advances Boeing's growth strategy and expands the company’s capabilities to address the C4ISR, cyber and intelligence markets, according to a statement issued today by Boeing.

Founded in 1997 and based in Fairfax, Va., Argon ST develops sensors and networks designed to exploit, analyze and deliver information for real-time situational awareness. Read full article.

GE Aviation received an award from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as part of the Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions and Noise (CLEEN) program. CLEEN is a joint FAA-industry program to accelerate the development and maturation of aircraft and engine technologies that reduce noise and emissions and improve fuel burn. The program is focused on developing technologies to meet NextGen environmental goals and to enable greater mobility. The goal is to enable the technologies to enter the fleet beginning in 2015. GE and the FAA will share the investment of up to $66 million for a five-year period.

"DOE Announces $30 Million in New Small Business Funding to Help Commercialize Clean Energy Technologies

Washington, DC- U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today that $30 million in funding from the Recovery Act and FY 2010 budget appropriations will be made available to qualified small businesses to support the commercialization of promising new technologies.   Today's funding announcement builds on the Department's existing efforts under the Small Business Innovation Research program (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer program (STTR) to develop near-term clean energy technologies and support American small businesses that will play an important role in building the clean energy economy of the future.  This is the first time DOE has offered Phase III awards under these small business programs.
 
"Small businesses are engines of job creation and innovation, and we need their ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit to drive a clean energy economy," said Secretary Chu. "By helping America's small businesses bring these innovative technologies to market, we will spur economic growth and help reduce the country's energy use."
 
Small companies previously awarded Phase II grants through DOE's Small Business Innovation Research program (SBIR) or the Small Business Technology Transfer program (STTR) are eligible.  Projects that include developed technologies with a strong potential for commercialization and impact on U.S. manufacturing and job creation are encouraged to apply.  Successful applicants may receive up to $3 million over 3 years to research, develop and deploy new technologies." 

To read the entire article, click here.

Myth #1: More specific specifications are always better.

Fact: All suppliers get the same exact requirements in the RFP. The government is not looking for irrelevant information or minutia, so just stick to the facts.

Myth #2: Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis is always the best method on which to base a supplier selection.

Fact: TCO is useful but Value Management (VM) may be more appropriate. VM has emerged as the leading financial analysis for the US Government. VM is especially popular witht he DoD and at one point was mandated.

Myth #3: Privately-held suppliers will never share their financial statements.

Fact: Privately-held suppliers are not required to disclose financial statements and are less visible than publicly-held suppliers. If disclosure of financial statements is a requirement or condition then accommodations must be made between the agency and supplier; this can include a confidentiality agreement or limited access to the statements.

Myth #4: Long-term contracts should always begin immediately after a sourcing process.

Fact: It is normal for a long-term contract to be awarded and for business to start quickly but this may not be the best way to do business. Just like most warranties and guarantees a 30-90 day trial period should be negotiated to make sure the agency and supplier is a good match.

The Federal Government's fiscal year ends on September 30, which gives agencies a "use it or lose it" mentality regarding their budgets. If an agency has unspent dollars at the end of the fiscal year it loses the money and runs the risk of a reduced budget the following year.

Many buyers and credit card holders will spend impulsively to use up the rest of the funds. Procurement Officers have authorization to buy up to $25,000 without needing to put out a competitive bid, those needing to spend over $25,000 will issue a competitive bid.

How do you find these opportunities? Contact us. We will help you find these agencies and point you in the right directions to take advantage of these impulse buys.These opportunities can help you get your foot in the door to do more business with the government in the future.

Federal Govt.'s FY is Coming to an End

The Federal Government's fiscal year ends on September 30, which gives agencies a "use it or lose it" mentality regarding their budgets. If an agency has unspent dollars at the end of the fiscal year it loses the money and runs the risk of a reduced budget the following year.

To learn more about how you can take advantage of the "use it or lose it" opportunities, click here.

The Four Myths to Government Contracting

Myth #1: More specific specifications are always better.

Fact: All suppliers get the same exact requirements in the RFP. The government is not looking for irrelevant information or minutia, so just stick to the facts.

To find out what the rest of the myths are, click here.

GovPartners News:
We would like to welcome our new team members:

Kate Hoyle
Marketing Coordinator
Kate joins us with an undergraduate and an MBA in Marketing. She is familiar with social media marketing, web design, promotional design, and disseminating business updates through multiple media outlets.

Trisha Pinckney
Proposal Writer
Trisha is a professional with 8+ years of experience in proposal development, technical writing, editing engineering, marketing, and business development within federal and state governments and commercial markets.

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MemberSpotlight:

A member of our STP community recently won an award for NASA. They will be responsible for the Communications and Avionics Installation on the NASA GRC T-34 Aircraft.

Click here to learn more.
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New STP Opportunities

Posted today, three new opportunities that may require subcontracting support:

Aircraft Occupant Ballistic Protection System

Strategic Navigation Systems

Ops and Maintenance of Government Fueling Facilities

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Participate in our weekly GovTrivia and win Washington Nationals baseball tickets, complements of Miami Air.

Contact us if you have any questions regarding our GSA, Proposal Services, or Teaming services. Sign up today and make the connection.

There is a rising trend in the number of protested federal contracts. Is this trend due to confusing statistics or just causes? Let’s take a closer look.

Small Business Administration (SBA) released its fourth annual Small Business Procurement Scorecard for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, with ratings for 24 federal agencies in prime and subprime contracting to small businesses.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) has earned an "A" rating for the fourth consecutive year. DOT was also tallied the second highest overall score for accomplishments in supporting small business contracting in 2009. This year's scorecard demonstrates that DOT is supporting the small business community with a consistent commitment.

As Director Neal said, "It takes a dedicated team, led by Secretary LaHood, the modal administrators, procurement officers, small business specialists, and our regional offices to achieve this level of success over the past four years."

The annual Scorecard rates federal agencies in meeting the overall small business goal and the component contracting goals for small and disadvantaged businesses, small businesses in HUBZones, and small businesses owned by women and service-disabled veterans.

The DOT was one of the ten agencies that met or surpassed their goals for four of the five small business categories. These accomplishments reflect the Department’s ongoing commitment to providing the small business community the greatest access to federal contracting opportunities and to ensure that DOT’s procurement officers have the information and tools needed to connect with these innovative small businesses.

DOT's prime contracting achievement for 2009

SBA Administrator Karen Mills said, "Federal contracts awarded to small businesses are a ‘win-win,’ providing small businesses with the opportunity to grow and create jobs, and offering innovative services and essential goods to the government at great value to the taxpayers.”

The Department of Defense has issued an interim rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement section 814 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010. The effective date was July 13, 2010.

WashingtonTechnology ranked the Top 100 Government Contractors who won nearly $130 billion in prime contracts last year.

1. Lockheed Martin Corp
2. Northrop Grumman Corp
3. Boeing Co
4. Raytheon Co
5. Science Applications International Corp

To see the entire Top 100 List please click here.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates today released a 23-point memorandum for reforming defense acquisition processes, aiming for increased efficiency and productivity and proclaiming a new era in defense spending and acquisition strategy.

To read the whole article click here.

Today, the Department of Transporation (DOT) released it's FY 2011 procurement forecast. To view and print the forecast please click here.

The Department of Defense is proposing to standardize the process of distributing orders electronically and posting them on a central site for all contractors to access.

Currently the DoD has this capability and the proposal would officially standardize the process. The benefit and belief is the new rule will help small businesses.

If there are any concerns from small businesses or other parties, officials are taking comments on this proposal until November 30 2010.

For more information click here.

It is first important to know the difference between prime contractor and subcontractor. A prime contractor sells to the government; whereas, a subcontractor sells to who sells to the government.

Prime Contractor
Some small businesses are not aware of what they are committing to when becoming a prime contractor for the government. The government views a prime contractor as the single point of contact, and is accountable for cost and schedule and performance.

One problematic area for a small company working as a prime contractor for the government is payment. A typical company invoices the government 30 days after starting a contract and the government has up to 90 days to respond to that invoice.  The government pays a prime contractor when it sees fit so it could take at least four to five months. Most small companies do not have a cash reserve to put front so much money  and wait months for payment.

Another problematic area is the language and clauses to a contract. Many small companies are unsure of all the terms, acronyms, clauses, references and requirements in a contract. These results in a poorly negotiate contract and the uncertainty of the contract itself.

Subcontractor
In most instances it makes sense for a small business to be a subcontractor. The advantage is the business relationship with the prime contractor and the face to face time.  The prime contractor can also pay invoices within days of receipt and as a subcontractor it will be easier to have access to the information you need to complete the job.

The government has a contracting goal of 5% with women-owned companies and to date the federal government has never met this goal. Starting in 2011, the Small Business Administration (SBA) will have procedures in place to help women-owned companies gain access to more federal contracts.

The program will allow contracting officers to restrict competition in 83 industry categories to women-owned small businesses. When the program was being defined 45 industries were deemed “underrepresented” and 38 industries were deemed “substantially underrepresented” by women-owned companies.

It is believed with this new program with federal government will achieve the 5% contracting goal with women-owned companies.

For more information click here.

There is a small business dashboard which shows all government agencies and their contracting dollars with small businesses and socio economic companies. The dashboard is broken down further into eligible dollars, actual dollars, goal % and actual %. This is a great tool to see which agencies are not fulfilling their goals and if your company can help them. 

To view the dashboard click here.

On Monday September 27 2010, President Barack Obama signed the small business bill into law! The law also sets up a lending fund for small business and $12 billion in tax breaks.

“It was critical that we cut taxes and make more loans available to entrepreneurs.” Obama said in remarks at the White House. “So today after a long and tough fight, I am signing a small business jobs bill that does exactly that.”

There is a new Mobile Gov IT App. Designed by Winvale, this app has the latest Government IT news, CIO blogs, FY2011 IT budget forecasts and GSA’s IT Schedule 70 information. This FREE App is the first of its kind for Government Technology. Download it at the Apple’s App Store.

The Defense Department’s need for unmanned aircraft continues to increase but the technology to operate them is reaching its limitation.

The automation will increase the number of platforms and missions while minimizing the number of personnel. Fewer pilots will be able to manage several unmanned aircrafts on missions using autonomous fight software. The new technology will also allow large amounts of data to be transmitted to personnel in the US instead of needing onsite analysts.

Initial reports estimate total spending over the next 10 years to be approximately $80 billion. 

The military has tested many new technologies in the past and the most recent are iPads and e-books. The main reasons to test these specific types of technologies are for the field manuals. If there any updates in the manuals the iPads or e-books would directly receive the updates reducing printing costs and distribution time.

The military is also testing smart phones. Smart phones have lots of memory, reception, applications and new operating systems. The smart phones are used in during basic training as a learning tool. There are also military affiliated contests for new iPhone Apps. The top 5 winning Apps are: a physical training program, a telehealth mood tracker, a disaster relief application, a movement projection tool for mapping routes and a program to provide information to prospective soldiers.

A huge drawback is the potential risk that the iPads, e-book and Smart Phones could get hacked as other military equipment has in the past.

On November 17th, 2010, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) hosted an event to develop stronger working relationship between OSDBU’s Financial Assistance Division, Participating Lenders and Small Business Transportation Resource Centers (SBTRCs).

“We are very excited to have our SBTRCs and Participating Lenders from all over the country here at DOT Headquarters to learn and share ideas to help small businesses obtain working capital. The energy and enthusiasm of today’s event will be channeled to each region, increasing opportunities for small businesses to grow,” remarked Brandon Neal, OSDBU Director.

DOT OSDBU’s Short-Term Lending Program (STLP) helps small businesses gain access to the financing they need to participate in transportation-related contracts. STLP provides certified DBE's and other certified small businesses short term working capital financing at competitive interest rates for DOT or DOT funded contracts and subcontracts. The loan guarantee provides a revolving line of credit for work on transportation-related contracts.

Apple Corp is taking the beginning steps to formalize relationships with system integrator companies; Agilex Corp and Unisys Corp. Mobile technologies are stirring interest among government customers and Apple’s products can meet this demand. The iPad and iPhone are among the top mobile devices Apple will use in their authorize systems integrator program.  To learn more click here.

The government has a contracting goal of 5% with women-owned companies and to date the federal government has never met this goal. Starting in early 2011, the Small Business Administration (SBA) will have procedures in place to help women-owned companies gain access to more federal contracts. 

The program will allow contracting officers to restrict competition in 83 industry categories to women-owned small businesses. When the program was being defined 45 industries were deemed “underrepresented” and 38 industries were deemed “substantially underrepresented” by women-owned companies.

"Women-owned businesses are one of the fastest growing sectors of our nation's economy, and even during the economic downturn of the last few years, have been one of the key job creation engines in communites across the country," SBA Administrator Karen Mills said.

It is believed with this new program with federal government will achieve the 5% contracting goal with women-owned companies.

For more information click here.

Department of Homeland Security Enterprise Solutions Office - EAGLE (Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading Edge Solutions) contract – worth $22 billion. The EAGLE II solicitation will include two separate source selections – one unrestricted, and one specifically set aside for small businesses. The RFP for this contact is expected to come out during the first quarter of fiscal-year 2011.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) - Chief Information Office Solutions and Partners 3 (CIO-SP3) - worth $20 billion. The RFP for this contract is expected to come out during the first quarter of fiscal-year 2011.

US Army – Program Manager, Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems (PM DCATS) – worth $19.5 billion. The RFP for this contract is expected to come out during the third quarter of fiscal-year 2011.

U.S. Coast Guard – Technical, Acquisition and Business Support Services (TABSS) – worth $11 billion. The RFP for this contract is expected to come out during the first quarter of fiscal-year 2011.

US Army - Computer, Hardware, Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS) – worth $5 billion, with a percentage designated as small business set-asides. The RFP for this contract is expected to come out during the third quarter of fiscal-year 2011.

Teaming Tip:
The dollar value of some of these opportunities may be daunting. That’s where teaming comes in. As a small business in the government contracting world, some of your best opportunities will be through teaming arrangements.
 

The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) is hosting a half day conference on January 12, 2011. focused on helping women and minority businesses understand certifications and procurement tactics that work for them. Hear  from several procurement experts including:

   -Sharon Jackson, MBE Compliance and Outreach Manager, GOMA
   -Shirley Williams, Chief of MBE/WBE Opportunity Office, Mayor's Office
   -Gloria Larkin, President, TargetGov
   -Liz Cullen, WBENC.

Enjoy multiple breakout sessions and a Lunch Panel with success stories and networking.
Location: Sheraton Columbia, 10207 Wincopin Circle, Columbia, MD 21044
Price: $50 NAWBO members/ $65 non-members

To learn more and register click here.

San Marcos-based Berry Aviation Inc. was awarded a $14.16 million (base) government contract.

The charter transportation provider is tasked with providing fixed-wing aircraft, personnel, equipment, tools, material, maintenance and supervision for passenger and cargo transportation services in Afghanistan. The U.S. Department of Defense contract will begin on January 15, 2011 and will run through May 31, 2011, with four year option periods. 

Berry Aviation, founded in 1983, operates 20 planes that complete more than 13,000 flights annually.

The SBA will award $5 million in grant funding to assist undersized firms compete for large contracts. The grant recipients will be asked to find teaming partners to bid on large contracts with them. This will include identifying the team, preparing proposals and submitting the bids.

“The Small Business Jobs Act provides critical resources to help small businesses continue to drive economic recovery and create jobs,“ SBA Administrator Karen Mills said.  “The teaming pilot program will help put contract dollars into the hands of small businesses, create job opportunities through the teaming arrangements, help drive innovation and promote economic growth for our nation’s economy.”

The SBA is projecting to make 10 – 20 grant award of $250,000 - $500,000 for FY 2011. The awards will have a base project period of one (1) year, with four (4) option 12-month extensions. Applicants must:

• Private entity – profit or nonprofit
•  At least 3 years old
• Must have experience working with small business issues on a national level

The organizations that are awarded the grants will be required to coordinator their own assistance with the agency’s district offices and other federal, state, local and tribal government small business development programs.

All grants proposals must be submitted through the federal website www.grants.gov by Friday, February 25, 2011.

On January 27, 2011 - U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced a final rulemaking that will help economically and socially disadvantaged businesses take advantage of opportunities to participate in federally funded highway, transit and airport projects. This final rule will also hold state and local agencies more accountable for including disadvantaged businesses into their transportation plans.

“When we help small businesses, we’re helping to get the economy going,” said Secretary LaHood. “This rule will help small and disadvantaged businesses get a fair shot at participating in state and local transportation projects.”

The rulemaking also included provisions to ensure that prime contractors fulfill commitments to use Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) subcontractors. Another major change with this rule is all states will be required to accept DBE certifications obtained in other states, unless the state finds good cause to not accept it.

President Barack Obama released a memo in January asking regulators to avoid imposing heavy burdens on small companies and to search for ways to minimize these burdens.  Obama wrote in his memo, “Agencies must carry out the regulatory law by allowing small businesses more flexibility in meeting the compliance requirement. They should take into account the resource available to small entities.”

A couple days later Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said she plans to introduce a bill to require government regulators to consider small businesses as they draft new rules. “I intend to offer legislation in the coming weeks requiring the federal government to fully consider the economic impact on small businesses during the federal rulemaking process,” she said.

The legislation should be introduced in the next couple of weeks and small businesses should keep this on the radar.

Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) announced today that the company has reached a teaming agreement with Boeing (NYSE: BA) to pursue work from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) at its Sandia National Laboratories.

Sandia is a government-owned, contractor-operated facility that is
managed on behalf of the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Sandia has major facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., and an annual operating budget of approximately $2.5 billion. The current contract expires in September 2012.
 

BAE Systems Inc. has completed its acquisition of L-1 Identity Solutions Inc.’s Intelligence Services Group, which comprises SpecTal LLC, Advanced Concepts Inc. and McClendon LLC. The purchase price was approximately $297 million.

Contractors should brace for a government shutdown

Politicians wrangle while pay, people and procurements hang in limbo

By: Matthew Weigelt

Source:  Washington Technology, Feb. 23, 2011

While there is still optimism that a federal government shutdown can be averted, the threat is real and there is plenty of uncertainty over how government contractors will be affected.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) intends to bring a short-term measure before the Senate next week to keep the doors open for another 30 days but Republican leaders in charge of the House have promised to reject a move if the measure continues funding the government at current levels, which the GOP believes are excessive.

Still, the chances are small for a government shutdown on March 4 when the current continuing resolution expires, although the political situation has changed and the reasons for a shutdown have increased, said Barry Anderson, a former acting director of the Congressional Budget Office. He spoke this morning at a conference hosted by the Professional Services Council on the implications of a potential shutdown.

Meanwhile, federal employees and government contractors remain in limbo, on the edge of a rare event that has lots of twists and turns as many decisions depend on answers to other questions.

“You will find there is a maze here. There are no good answers,” said John Cooney, who was the general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget during the 1995 government shutdowns. He also spoke at the conference.

If the government closes, agencies would launch their plans required by OMB and downshift to a skeletal crew of employees. Only a few jobs would be exempt from stopping during a shutdown, for example, those jobs that protect government property, such as federal buildings, or those that protect life, such as health care services or troop support. Often, Social Security Administration offices remain open and operational, as well as offices related to Medicaid and Medicare services.

This time, IT will be a new problem for officials to deal with. During shutdowns in the past — even the most recent in 1995 — the government was not so dependent on the Internet for providing services.

Cooney said the IT function would be critical during the shutdown, even as officials try to draw a dividing line. For example, the same Web server may host a government website offering registration services for Medicare as well as public relations for the agency. Legal officials would have to decide if the server should operate and if the employee who operates it is a necessary employee.

“OMB is going to have to think long and hard about what to do when the same website might be supporting a portfolio of accepted and non-accepted functions,” Cooney said.

For government contractors some contracts may be exempt from the shutdown while others are not.

A company may have to shift employees to avoid working on a project that isn't funded. The government is banned from accepting voluntary work, Cooney said. In fact, agencies are required to keep people from working. He suggested giving employees training that they may need or having them work on another project that isn't affected by the shutdown.

Contracts paid for with fiscal 2010 money are still in operation, but invoices might be paid late because of a shutdown. The government might owe a little more if the payment is late. Yet the contractor would generally be required to continue working and to bill the government according to the terms of the contract, said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel for the Professional Services Council said at today's conference.

Contracts providing products and services won’t be affected in the same way despite using fiscal 2011 money.

Product sellers wouldn't be hit in the same way as service contractors. Companies offering products will face changes in when and where they would make their deliveries, but the government likely will have already paid the companies for those products. However, services aren’t paid for when the contract is signed, Chvotkin said. Those companies may be paid a number of different ways, from quarterly payments for work to jobs done per day.

As a result, a shutdown would tear into service contractors’ pocketbooks, he said.

To deal with a shutdown, Chvotkin and Cooney both recommend that companies talk with their contracting officers about what’s ahead and share their concerns. In preparation, companies should analyze the possible circumstances and make plans in case of a shutdown. They should document if, for example, employees' job status were changed and account for how the shutdown affected the business, Chvotkin said.

“Make sure you can track the costs as best you can,” he said. “The stronger the documentation, the greater the likelihood of being able to demonstrate the costs incurred.”

Cooney said be patient with the contracting officer, especially if the shutdown goes on for many days.

He said, “The contracting officer may not know and may not have any answer because the decision being made is far above his pay grade and being made on very different grounds.”

The pain may be short lived, depending on whether the shutdown is "soft" or "hard." In a “soft shutdown,” federal employees would come to work but could not do anything “productive,” that is, anything to carry out the central duties of the agency.

“Basically they’re told the clean up their desks and consult with friends,” Cooney said, adding that it’s the flipside of a snow day, where employees come into the office or stay home.

The soft shutdown would occur if the president believes there’s a chance for a rapid compromise with Congress. "We designed it to give the president some other option besides Armageddon,” said Cooney, who helped draft guidance on shutdowns in the 1980s.

On the other hand, a “hard shutdown” would mean employees are furloughed from work.

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By Brian Kalish 03/02/2011

Source:  NextGov

The General Services Administration will discontinue funding for 13 private telework centers in the Washington area at the end of March. About 300 federal employees work at the facilities.

Contracts for the telework centers expired Sept. 30, 2010, and GSA had been working with the center's owners to determine if they would close, or continue to operate under a private sector model. A final decision on the centers' future was due Feb. 28.

According to GSA spokeswoman MaryAnne Beatty, the number of employees working at the centers represented less than 1 percent of the Washington-area federal workforce. The government spent about $3 million annually to operate the centers -- about $10,000 a year per user. Affected employees were notified in December of potential closures.

GSA said in an e-mailed statement that telework is less about where work gets done and more about how it gets done. "Advancements in technology, connectivity and culture have expanded the choices for telework beyond that of home, telework center, or office to include virtually any place at any time," the statement said.

In October 2010, Administrator Martha Johnson announced that GSA was building virtual meeting centers across the country, including five in the Washington area. The high-tech centers, which are expected to be operational in mid-2011, were intended to have people "move off airplanes and on to tele presence," she said at the time.

The telework centers that will close March 31 include Bowie, Laurel Lake and Prince Frederick in Maryland; Fredericksburg and Winchester in Virginia; and Kearneysville in West Virginia.

The centers that will remain open but without GSA funding include Manassas, Fairfax, Stafford and Woodbridge in Virginia; and Hagerstown, Frederick and Waldorf in Maryland.

The College of Southern Maryland operates three of the centers that will close. "The college is extremely disappointed as we have had a longtime association, since 1993, of partnering with GSA to provide this valuable service and convenience to our residents and telecommuting members of our community," CSM President Bradley Gottfried said in a prepared statement.

George Mason University, despite the end of federal funding, will keep its telecommuting facilities open and actually expand the program to operate nine centers across Northern Virginia. The university believes there is a demand for flexible locations among employees for whom working from home is not a great fit, said Keith Segerson, managing director of the Mason Enterprise Center, which runs the facilities. For example, one federal worker told Segerson his wife runs a day care from home, so he cannot work there. Also, the facilities can more easily accommodate work teams than most home offices, he said.

The university will add new features, such as workstations and private offices, Segerson said.
 

By Charles Riley 

Source:  CNNMoney

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The Air Force announced Thursday it awarded a $3.5 billion initial contract to Boeing for the production of 18 next-generation aerial refueling tankers.

That is a down payment on a contract worth about $35 billion for 179 planes.

Aerial refueling tankers allow the military to refuel aircraft in mid flight, greatly extending the range of operation for smaller aircraft, while also providing the capability to carry cargo and airlift personnel.

Both Boeing and the North American unit of EADS -- which owns Airbus --submitted bids for the blockbuster contract and planned to base their planes on popular civilian aircraft, specifically the Boeing 767 and Airbus A330.

"We're honored to be given the opportunity to build the Air Force's next tanker and provide a vital capability to the men and women of our armed forces," Boeing CEO Jim McNerney said in a statement.

Boeing shares jumped more than 3% in after-hours trading.

The announcement is the culmination of a decade-long process that has been fraught with pitfalls and political pressure as lawmakers lobbied to bring the project -- and resulting jobs -- into their districts.

Both companies estimated the contract would support thousands of jobs, with Boeing planning to build the aircraft in Everett, Wash., and Wichita, Kan. EADS would have based its production facilities in Mobile, Ala.

On Wednesday, Gulf state governors sent a letter to President Obama, saying the contract could significantly boost their state economies, which are reeling from natural and man-made disasters.

But on Thursday, it was Govs. Christine Gregoire of Washington and Sam Brownback of Kansas who won out.

They had sent a letter of their own to Obama, arguing, "We believe this tanker will best meet the Air Force's requirements and prove the best value for the American taxpayer."

Gregoire said in a statement Thursday that it was a great day for "the 11,000 aerospace workers in Washington state alone that will play a role in assembling the NewGen tanker."

In a conference call with reporters, Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, said that the program will support more than 50,000 jobs and 800 suppliers spread across more than 40 states.

EADS has the right to protest the Pentagon's decision, but Pentagon officials said Thursday they were confident any appeal would fail. Still, with jobs at stake, there will be political pressure to try and overturn the decision.

"I am deeply disappointed that the EADS team was not selected to build the next air refueling tanker for the Air Force," Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama said in a statement. "In light of today's result, I intend to examine the process carefully to ensure it was fairly conducted."

The contract has had a long and convoluted history.

Northrop Grumman and European partner EADS originally won the contract in February 2008. But Boeing protested and the Air Force reversed its decision and changed the requirements for the plane.

Northrop later said it would not bid on a multi-billion-dollar contract to build the tanker because it believed the rules for the contract favored its competitor, Boeing.

After Northrop dropped out, its partner company, EADS, asked the Pentagon for a 90-day extension to file its own bid.

The tankers will replace the aging Boeing KC-135, which first entered service in 1957. About 100 of the oldest "Stratotanker" models have been grounded since 2006 due to age.

Originally needed to keep B-52 nuclear bombers in the air for long periods of time, the Stratotanker quickly found new missions in Vietnam, where it enabled small fighter bombers to strike targets anywhere in the country. It revolutionized the use of air power, and is continuing to play that role in Iraq and Afghanistan.

3/9/2011 - SINDELFINGEN, Germany (AFNS) -- Members of the Defense Department's newest combatant command bid farewell to their inaugural commander.

Army Gen. William E. "Kip" Ward passed the reins of U.S. Africa Command to Army Gen. Carter F. Ham after nearly three years at the helm.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates officiated at the ceremony and spoke to the audience at the Sindelfingen city hall near AFRICOM's headquarters in Stuttgart. Read full article.
 

Eight companies, including Lockheed Martin Corp., BAE Systems Inc., and L-3 Services, have been named to an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity, performance-based contract that includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the individual contracts to an estimated $183 million.

• Lockheed Martin Corp., $34,670,212;
• Chenega Technical Services Corp., LLC, $36,009,534;
• Dataline LLC, 36,193,425;
• BAE Systems Technology Solutions and Services Inc., $36,194,645;
• M.C. Dean Inc., $35,520,355;
• DRS Technical Services Inc., $34,653,184;
• L-3 Services Inc., $33,489,745;
• Systems Applications and Solutions, $34,864,977.

D.C.-area firms will bid on range of IT services.

Three D.C.-area small-business IT contractors will vie for task-order work under a Defense Department contract that has a maximum value of $495 million.

• Funded and essential
• Funded and non-essential
• Unfunded and essential
• Unfunded and non-essential

A database housing performance reviews of federal contractors is available to the public, beginning 15 April 2011.  But the public won't find much there, at least initially.

“The Government is Open for Business”

A government shutdown occurs when a disagreement occurs between members of Congress. In this instance, Republicans and Democrats could not agree on the amount of cuts that they should implement for the year. Republicans were proposing a $61 billion budget cut while Democrats suggested slashing only
$6 billion of this year’s budget. Less than two hours before the government would have run out of funding at midnight, April 8, Democrats and Republicans finally agreed on a budget. Lawmakers will cut $78.5 billion below President Obama’s 2011 budget proposal and $38 billion below the 2010 budget.

• Army Corps of Engineers: Funding at the President's request level of $4.9 billion, supports existing applications for renewable energy loan guarantees at the Department of Energy, and provides a $697 million (7%) increase for the National Nuclear Security Administration to ensure adequate funding for critical components of our national defense.

• The Continuing Resolution reduces most Treasury and Executive Office of the President accounts.

     o Reduces funding for construction of new federal buildings by more than $800 million.
     o $13 million increase over last year for the Inspector General of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to provide strong oversight of the billions of dollars remaining in TARP assets and continues current funding for drug task forces and programs to assist small businesses.

• Homeland Security: $41.8 billion in discretionary funding is provided for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for fiscal year 2011. This is $784 million, or 2%, below FY 2010, and $1.9 billion, or 4%, below the President's FY 2011 request.

• Department of Homeland Security: All critical frontline operations, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Agency, the Coast Guard, and the Secret Service are sufficiently funded to meet mission requirements and sustain staffing levels. The bill reduces: CBP's Border Security Fencing, Infrastructure, and Technology (BSFIT) account to the President's request; FEMA's first responder grants by $786 million, $264 million in funding previously targeted to earmarks, and $557 million in unobligated and lapsed balances from prior year funds.

• Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD): THUD and Related Agencies section of the CR contains a total of $55.5 billion, a $12.3 billion, or 18%, reduction from fiscal year 2010 levels, and a reduction of $13.2 billion, or 20%, from the President's fiscal year 2011 request.

Award has work across eight primary military operations areas.

Thirteen large contractors and 22 small businesses have been named to the Army’s $2.5 billion Operations, Planning, Training and Resource Support Services prime contract.

OPTARSS II is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity, multiple-award contract from the U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command Center at Fort McPherson, Ga.

The key task-order vehicle for the Army Forces Command calls for support services across eight primary military operations areas: operational planning, training, modeling and simulation, flight operations, mobilization planning and execution, deployment operations, force protection, and transformation.

Large contractor winners are:

* Alion Technical Services
* Booz Allen Hamilton
* CACI International Inc.
* CSC
* Cubit Corp.
* Eagle Support Services Corp.
* General Dynamics Information Technology
* L-3 Services
* Lockheed Martin Corp.
* Northrop Grumman Corp.
* Raytheon Co.
* SAIC
* Stanley Associates Inc. (now part of the CGI Group)

Small-business winners are:

* Accent Controls Inc.
* Aegis Technologies Group Inc.
* Ahntech Inc.
* Ahtna Support and Training Services LLC
* Automation Precision Technology Inc.
* Data Solutions and Technology Inc.
* Eagle Systems and Services Inc.
* Enterprise Information Services Inc.
* The Ginn Group Inc.
* HCI Integrated Solutions
* HRJ International Inc.
* Hughes Group LLC
* Janus Research Group Inc.
* Logistics Management Resources Inc.
* Micro Technologies LLC
* Orion Technology Inc.
* Quantum Dynamics Inc.
* Skyline Ultd Inc.
* Strategic Resources Inc.
* TechWise
* Total Consulting Group Inc.
* Unified Consultants Group Inc.

Reference Article

The General Services Administration wants to give agencies three choices to move commodity technology to providers of cloud computing services.

GSA issued a request for quotation late Monday for e-mail, office automation and electronic records management under a five-year blanket purchase agreement contract. GSA and the Defense Department are working together on the BPA through the SmartBuy and Enterprise Software initiatives.

The cloud computing contract has a ceiling of $2.5 billion over five years. Vendors must submit their bids by June 19 through the EBuy system. Questions about the RFQ should be submitted by May 20.

"The objective of this RFQ is to offer five key service offerings through Email-as-a-service (EaaS) providers for ordering activities," GSA states in the RFQ.

GSA is asking vendors to provide three mandatory services and two optional ones. Under the mandatory categories, vendors must provide e-mail-as-a-service, migration services and integration services. Contractors also can submit a bid to provide office automation-as-a-service, which includes word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, and records management-as-a-service, which includes records collection, organization, categorization, storage, metadata capture, physical record tracking, retrieval, use and disposition. Reference Article.

WHO? 

U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) is one of ten Unified Combatant Commands of the United States Armed Forces.  It is responsible for U.S. military operations and military relations with 53 African nations - an area of responsibility covering all of Africa, with the exception of Egypt.

WHAT? 

AFRICOM, in concert with other U.S. government agencies and international partners, conducts sustained security engagement through military-to-military programs, military-sponsored activities, and other military operations as directed to promote a stable and secure African environment in support of U.S. foreign policy.

U.S. Africa Command supports American national security interests by conducting a wide range of programs and activities that help African states—at their request—meet their goals of building capable and professional militaries that are subordinate to civilian authority, respect human rights, and adhere to the rule of law.

WHERE?

Headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany, the territory of the command consists of all of the African continent except for Egypt, which remains under the direct responsibility of USCENTCOM, as it closely relates to the Middle East. USAFRICOM also covers island countries commonly associated with Africa;

• Cape Verde
• São Tomé and Príncipe
• Comoros
• Madagascar
• Mauritius
• Seychelles

WHEN?

2006 – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld forms planning team to advise on requirements for establishing a new Unified Command for the African continent.  A recommendation of their findings are sent to President George W. Bush.

6 February 2007 - President George W. Bush gives authority to create the new African Command and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Robert Moeller, the director of the AFRICOM transition team, arrived in Stuttgart Germany to begin creating the logistical framework for the command.

28 September 2007 - the U.S. Senate confirmed General William E. "Kip" Ward as AFRICOM's first commander and AFRICOM officially became operational as a sub-unified command of EUCOM with a separate headquarters.

1 October 2008 - the command separated from USEUCOM and began operating on its own as a full-fledged combatant command.

WHY?

To bring U.S. military activities in Africa, which have previously been divided among three existing commands (European Command, Central Command, and Pacific Command), under a single one.

AFRICOM was created to counter the growing presence of China in Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, to secure long-term economic agreements for raw materials from Africa in exchange for Chinese aid and production sharing agreements and royalties.

The Federal Government is close to meeting its 23 percent small-business goal.  The percentage of contracting dollars that went to small businesses were 21.5% and 21.9% in 2008 and 2009, respectively.  Small businesses are able to capture about $100 billion a year in Federal contracts, with each percentage point equating to $4 billion in revenue for small firms. 

Every percentage point in small businesses' share of federal contracts approximates to $4 billion in additional revenue for small firms.

More than thirty percent of contracts awarded with economic stimulus funds went to small businesses. 

Getting Back to Business Small Business Procurement Industry Fair, Thursday, June 23, 2011 @ African American Heritage Hall, 1701 Muhammed Ali Blvd., Louisville, KY 40203. For additional information, email: r4smallbiz@sba.gov.
Contracting Office Address:
USACE District, Louisville, 600 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Place, Room 821, Louisville, KY 40202-2230
Point of Contact(s):
Jacque Gee, 502-315-6111

WHO?

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is one of ten Unified Combatant Commands of the United States Armed Forces.  The current commander for CENTCOM is General James Mattis.  He took command from acting commander Lieutenant General John Allen on August 2010.  Lt. Gen. Allen assumed temporary command when the previous commander, General David Petraeus left to take command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan on June 2010.

WHAT?

With national and international partners, U.S. Central Command promotes cooperation among nations, responds to crises, and deters or defeats state and non-state aggression, and supports development and, when necessary, reconstruction in order to establish the conditions for regional security, stability, and prosperity.

WHERE?

Of the six American regional unified commands, CENTCOM is one of three regional commands whose headquarters are not within its area of operations.  CENTCOM’s main headquarters is located at MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Florida.  A forward headquarters was established in 2002 at Camp As Sayliyah in Doha, Qatar, which transitioned to a new forward headquarters at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in 2009 to serve American strategic interests of the Iraq region.

The formal Area of Responsibility (AOR) extends to 20 countries: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Uzbekistan, and Yemen.  International waters included are the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and western portions of the Indian Ocean.  Syria and Lebanon are the most recent addition, having been transferred from the United States European Command on March 2004.

WHEN?

U.S. Central Command was established January 1, 1983. When the hostage crisis in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan underlined the need to strengthen U.S. interests in the region, President Jimmy Carter established the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force (RDJTF) in March 1980.

WHY?

To provide a stronger, more lasting solution in the region, President Ronald Reagan took steps to transform the RDJTF into a permanent unified command over a two-year period. The first step was to make the RDJTF independent of U.S. Readiness Command, followed by the activation of USCENTCOM in January 1983.  Since then, CENTCOM has been the main American presence in many military operations, including the Gulf War, the United States war in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War.  Forces from CENTCOM currently are deployed primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan in combat roles and have bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Pakistan, and central Asia in support roles.
 

The pre-solicitation notice helps government agencies determine if there are qualified vendors to perform the work scope. It provides a “heads up” that the solicitation will be released and solicits capability responses from responsible vendors. The pre-solicitation notice also helps the government determine if the requirement can be set-aside for a small business if capable small businesses respond. The pre-solicitation notice is valuable to a contractor for the same reason and it also provides the contracting office with information on the company if they have never done business with them before.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently made changes to the 8(a) certification program for socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses with hopes to increase the amount of opportunities awarded to small qualified and certified companies.

To qualify, a company can not exceed a certain size limit according to its industry, has to be able to meet certain economic criteria, and must be able to prove that is is socially disadvantaged, such as minority owned.

If you qualify, get your financial statements prepared.  The SBA requires many supporting documents on every qualifying aspect of an 8(a) business and its owners. 

The General Services Administration is considering splitting a small-business contract that brought in $250 million so far but they are trying to figure out what the follow-on contracts should look like, according to a new announcement.

The first GSA IT Infrastructure Technology Global Operations (GITGO) contract was awarded to Catapult Technology in 2007, and the contract ends in April 2012. With that deadline, GSA anticipates awarding the follow-on task orders during the second quarter of fiscal 2012, according to a request for information released June 24. Read the notice.

The GITGO contract has netted $250 million in revenue for Catapult, according to data from Deltek Input.

The scope of the coming requests for proposal would establish efficient managed support of GSA’s IT infrastructure services. At this point though, GSA wants ideas from industry on how to set up orders to match those needs.

GSA plans two separate acquisitions. The task order to get the necessary capability is called GSA Technical Operations, and the order to help manage the global effort is the GSA Independent Program Oversight and Assistance task order.  Read full article

The Navy is awarding IDIQ multiple award contracts to 333 contractors that will compete for service requirements solicited by Naval Sea Systems Command; Naval Air Systems Command; Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command; Naval Supply Systems Command; Military Sealift Command; Naval Facilities Command; Strategic Systems Programs; Office of Naval Research; and the Marine Corps.

The 22 functional service areas within the scope of the contracts include: research and development support; engineering system engineering and process engineering support; modeling, simulation, stimulation, and analysis support; prototyping, pre-production, model-making, and fabric support; system design documentation and technical data support; software engineering, development, programming, and network support; reliability, maintainability, and availability support; human factors, performance, and usability engineering support; system safety engineering support; configuration management support; quality assurance support; information system development, information assurance, and information technology support; ship inactivation and disposal support; interoperability, test and evaluation, trials support; measurement facilities, range, and instrumentation support; acquisition logistics support; supply and provisioning support; training support; in-service engineering, fleet introduction, installation and checkout support; program support; functional and administrative support; and public affairs and multimedia support.

These contracts are in addition to the existing 2,212 contracts previously awarded under the SeaPort Enhanced (SeaPort-e) acquisition program for services procurements. The government estimates a maximum of $5,300,000,000 of services will be procured per year via orders issued under the SeaPort-e multiple award contracts. The awards have a three-year base period with one five-year award term. The award of these contracts is a result of the SeaPort-e Rolling Admissions solicitation. The SeaPort-e acquisition is comprised of seven regional zones in which task orders will be competed based upon the principal place of performance. These awards contain provisions to set aside requirements for small businesses, service disabled veteran owned small businesses, 8a business development program and historically under-utilized business zone small businesses. Under these multiple award contracts, each contractor will be provided a fair opportunity to compete for individual task orders solicited within their zone or zones of performance. These contracts were competitively procured via Navy Electronic Commerce Online, with 358 offers received and 333 contracts awarded. Contract funds will be obligated at the time of task order award and as such, multiple funding types (with varying expiration dates) may be used, consistent with the purpose for which the funds were appropriated. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, Dahlgren, Va. is the contracting activity (N00178-11-D-6408-N00178-11-D-6740).

The list of contractors involved are: 1st American Systems and Services, LLC*, Proctorville, Ohio; 1st Choice Staffing, LLC, dba 1st Choice Government Solutions*, Silver Spring, Md.; 22nd Century Technologies, Inc.*, Somerset, N.J.; AASKI Technologies*, Ocean, N.J.; Abex Systems, LLC*, Vienna, Va.; About Web, LLC*, Rockville, Md.; Acquisition Logistics, LLC*, Richmond, Va.; Advance Career Development*, San Jose, Calif.; Advanced Facility Management Services, dba AFMS*, Greencastle, Pa.; Advanced Integrated Technologies, LLC*, Norfolk, Va.; Advanced Resources Technologies, Inc.*, Alexandria, Va.; AEG Group Inc.*, Grayslake, Ill.; Agile Business Concepts, LLC*, Reston, Va.; Agilis Group, Inc., dba AgilisIT*, San Diego, Calif.; Ahrens Consulting Group, LLC*, Dayton, Ohio; Airtec, Inc.*, California, Md.; Alainn, LLC*, Arlington, Va.; Alakai, LLC*, McLean, Va.; Alatec, Inc.*, Huntsville, Ala.; Allied Associates International*, Warrenton, Va.; Alpha Omega Technologies, Inc. *, Rockville, Md.; Alpha-Omega Change Engineering, Inc.*, Hampton, Va.; AMDEX Corp.*, Silver Spring, Md.; American Maritime International, Inc., dba AMI International*, Bremerton, Wash.; American Technology Solutions International*, Stafford, Va.; AMSEC, LLC, Virginia Beach, Va.; Amvet Technologies, LLC*, Las Vegas, Nev.; Anacapa Micro Products, Inc.*, Ventura, Calif.; Analycis, LLC*, Evansville, Ind.; Analysis Design and Diagnostics, dba AD&D*, Jacksonville, Fla.; Analysis, Integration and Design, Inc.*, Melbourne, Fla.; Analytical Services, Inc.*, Columbia, Md.; Apex Skills Group*, Virginia Beach, Va.; Applied Environmental, Inc.*, Herndon, Va.; Applied EnviroSolutions, Inc.*, Tempe, Ariz.; Applied Marine Solutions, LP*, Kailua, Hawaii; Applied Systems and Technology Transfer, LLC*, Youngstown, Ohio; Apprio, Inc.*, Highland, Md.; Arcata Associates, Inc., Las Vegas, Nev.; Ardent Management Consulting, Inc.*, Reston, Va.; ARES Solutions, Inc.*, Fredericksburg, Va.; Arete Enterprises*, Richmond, Va.; ARMEC Corp.*, Knoxville, Tenn.; Armed Forces Services Corp.*, Arlington, Va.; Arnold-Hanafin Corp.*, Boca Raton, Fla.; ASR International Corp., dba ASR Management and Technical Services*, Hauppage, N.Y.; Async-Nu Microsystems*, Fredericksburg, Va.; A-Team Solutions*, Fulton, Md.; Athena Consulting Group, LLC*, North Charleston, S.C.; Atlas North America, LLC, Virginia Beach, Va.; Atmospheric And Environmental Research, Lexington, Mass.; Atteloir, Inc.*, Germantown, Md.; Aveshka, Inc.*, McLean, Va.; Avitecture*, Sterling, Va.; Aviture, Inc.*, Irving, Texas; Aya Associates, Inc., dba COMP U FLOOR*, Maitland, Fla.; Azimuth Corp.*, Dayton, Ohio; Back Country Driving School, Inc.*, Roanoke, Va.; Bay State Computers, Inc.*, Bowie, Md.; Betis Group, Inc.*, Cape Charles, Va.; BizTech Fusion, LLC*, Laurel, Md.; Blanchard's Contracting, LLC*, Washington, D.C.; Blue Canopy Group, LLC*, Reston, Va.; Bluemont Technology & Research, Inc.*, Bluemont, Va.; Bluestone Logic, LLC*, McLean, Va.; BPC Group, Inc., dba BP Consulting Group*, Orlando, Fla.; Brayman Technical Services*, Alexandria, Va.; Brillient Corp.*, Reston, Va.; Bronico, Inc.*, Vacaville, Calif.; Burgos Group, LLC*, Albuquerque, N.M.; Business Integra Technology Solutions, Inc., dba Business Integra*, Greenbelt, Md.; CANA, LLC*, Gainesville, Va.; Capriccio Software*, Fredericksburg, Va.; Capricorn Systems, Inc.*, Tucker, Ga.; Cardinal Engineering, LLC*, Washington, D.C.; Cardinal Point Captains, LLC*, Carlsbad, Calif.; Carter Safety Consultants, Inc.*, Fayetteville, Tenn.; Celerity IT, LLC, McLean, Va.; CENTRA Technology, Inc., Burlington, Mass.; Centuria Corp.*, Reston, Va.; CET, LLC*, Earth City, Mo.; Cetacean Marine, Inc.*, Dania Beach, Fla.; CH2M Hill, Inc., Englewood, Colo.; Chaos Consulting, Inc.*, Fairfax, Va.; The Chigosi Co.*, San Diego, Calif.; Childs Engineering Corp.*, Medfield, Mass.; Chronos Systems, Inc.*, Camp Springs, Md.; Chugach Federal Solutions, Inc*, Anchorage, Alaska; Circinus, LLC, dba Circinus*, Fredericksburg, Va.; CKSolutions, LLC*, Solomons, Md.; Clarke House Technologies, Inc.*, Midland Park, N.J.; Client Network Services, Inc., dba CNSI, Gaithersburg, Md.; Compendium Federal Technologies, LLC*, Lexington Park, Md.; Component Sourcing Group*, Laguna Hills, Calif.; CompQsoft, Inc.*, Houston, Texas; Computer Systems Center, Inc., dba CSCI*, Springfield, Va.; Concept Analysis and Integration*, Silver Spring, Md.; Consolidated Networks Corp.*, Oklahoma City, Okla.; Consumer Management Solutions, LLC*, Dumfries, Va.; Consummate Computer Consultants Systems, LLC, dba C3 Systems*, Lusby, Md.; Costech Inc.*, Winter Springs, Fla.; CPN-Network, LLC*, Washington, D.C.; Craytek, Inc*, Arlington, Va.; Creoal Consulting*, Rockville, Md.; Critigen, LLC, Greenwood Village, Colo.; Croop-LaFrance, Inc.*, Vistor, N.Y.; Cyber Security Research and Solutions Corp., dba CSRS*, La Plata, Md.; Cyberdata Technologies, Inc.*, Herndon, Va.; DanSources Technical Services, Inc.*, Rockville, Md.; Datawiz Corp.*, Vienna , Va.; Davis Strategic Innovations, Inc., dba DSI*, Grant, Ala.; Dennis Millican & Associates, Inc.*, Coral Springs, Fla.; Dependable Global Solutions, Inc.*, Arlington, Va.; The Desilets Group, Inc.*, Bristow, Va.; Dfuse Technologies, Inc., dba Dfusetech.com*, Ashburn, Va.; DIGITALiBiz, Inc.*, Rockville, Md.; Diligent Consulting, Inc.*, San Antonio, Texas; DKJ Technologies, Inc.*, Beavercreek, Ohio; DMP Services*, El Cajon, Calif.; Donald L Blount and Associates*, Chesapeake, Va.; Driven Engineering, Inc.*, Semmes, Ala.; DSD Laboratories, Inc.*, Sudbury, Mass.; DSU Staffing, Inc.*, Raleigh, N.C.; Dunhill Personnel of Hawaii, dba Dunhill Professional Staffing of Hawaii*, Honolulu, Hawaii; Dyonyx, LP*, Houston, Texas; EclecTek, LLC*, California City, Calif.; EDC Consulting, LLC*, Washington, D.C.; Edwards Industries, dba Edwards Project Solutions*, Hanover, Md.; The Electronic On-Ramp, Inc.*, Rockville, Md.; Ellumen, Inc.*, Arlington, Va.; Elusive Solutions, Inc.*, King George, Va.; Emtec Federal, Springfield, N.J.; EnergySolutions Government Group, Inc., Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Engineering & Computer Simulations, Inc.*, Orlando, Fla.; ER Williams, Inc.*, Silver Spring, Md.; Escape Communications, Inc.*, Torrance, Calif.; ETSVETS, Inc.*, Enterprise, Ala.; Federal Program Integrators, LLC*, Indian Island, Maine; Financial Systems Consultants, Inc., dba FSC*, Cape Charles, Va.; Forwardyne Systems, Inc.*, San Diego, Calif.; FT Technologies, LLC*, Olney, Md.; Fulcrum Technology, LLC*, Bedford, Ind.; Fuse Integration, Inc.*, Long Beach, Calif.; Futech Technolgies, Inc.*, Baltimore, Md.; G2 Ops, Inc.*, Sierra Vista, Ariz.; Gale Force Software Corp.*, Indianapolis, Ind.; Gallup, Inc., dba The Gallup Organization, Washington, D.C.; Garud Technology Services, Inc.*, Ellicott City, Md.; GBTI Solutions, Inc.*, Herndon, Va.; Gella, LLC*, Johnstown, Pa.; Global Resource Management, Inc.*, Suwanee, Ga.; Global Resource Solutions, Inc.*, Olympia, Wash.; Government Technology & Business Services, Inc., dba GTBS*, Falls Church, Va.; GTANGIBLE*, Alexandria, Va.; The Hambrick Group, Inc.*, Los Angeles, Calif.; Hazard Management Solutions, Inc.*, Arlington, Va.; Hickory Ground Solutions*, Heathsville, Va.; Hi-Tec Systems, Inc., dba Hi-Tec Systems*, Egg Harbor Township, N.J.; Hooah, LLC*, Winter Park, Fla.; HVF West, LLC, Tucson, Ariz.; iAccess Technologies, Inc.*, Long Beach, Calif.; Icube Systems, Inc.*, Clifton, Va.; Ideogenics, LLC*, Washington, D.C.; iGouge, LLC*, Carlsbad, Calif.; Imagine Media Group, LLC, dba IMG Networks*, Chula Vista, Calif.; Impres Technology Solutions, Inc.*, Santa Fe Springs, Calif.; Infinity Technology, LLC*, McLean, Va.; Information Engineering Services, Inc., dba IES*, Alexandria, Va.; Information Technology Coalition, Inc., dba IT Coalition*, Alexandria, Va.; Information Technology Solutions & Consulting, LLC*, Falls Church, Va.; Ingenium Corp.*, Greenbelt, Md.; Integrated Technologies of Kansas, Inc.*, Wichita, Kan.; Integrity Management Consulting, Inc.*, McLean, Va.; IntellecTechs, Inc.*, Virginia Beach, Va.; Intelligence, Communications and Engineering, Inc., dba ICE-PS*, Sierra Vista, Ariz.; Intelligent Payload Solutions, Inc.*, Colorado Springs, Colo.; Intelligent Software Solutions, Inc., Colorado Springs, Colo.; Intelligent Systems Research, Inc.*, Agoura, Calif.; Intrinsyx Technologies Corp.*, Moffett Field, Calif.; iParametrics, LLC*, Alpharetta, Ga.; Ironhawk Technologies, Inc.*, Los Angeles, Calif.; Isomorphic Systems, LLC*, Trinidad, Colo.; IST Research, LLC*, Fredericksburg, Va.; IT Strategic Performance Firm*, San Antonio, Texas; ITCS, LLC*, Purcellville, Va.; ITechnology Group, LLC, dba ITGROUP*, Wayne, N.J.; J.L. Marshall & Associates, Inc.*, Virginia Beach, Va.; Jacer*, Fairfax, Va.; JRC Integrated Systems, Inc.*, Vienna, Va.; Kairos Consulting Worldwide, LLC*, Chicago, Ill.; Katmai Information Technologies, LLC*, Anchorage, Alaska; KEMA, Inc., Burlington, Mass.; KineTexas, Inc.*, Tempe, Ariz.; KNWEBS, Inc.*, Oklahoma City, Okla.; KORE Federal, Inc.*, Falls Church, Va.; Krozak Information Technologies, Inc.*, Silver Spring, Md.; La Jolla Logic*, San Diego, Calif.; Laxton Consulting, LLC*, Springfield, Va.; Level 4 Press, Inc., dba Level 4 Ventures, Inc.*, Jamul, Calif.; Levick Strategic Communications*, Washington, D.C.; Liberty Solutions*, Alpine, Calif.; Linium, LLC*, Albany, N.Y.; LinkVisum Consulting Group, Inc.*, Leesburg, Va.; Lion-Vallen, LP, dba LVI, Dayton, Ohio; Management Science and Innovation, Inc., dba 6 Sigma Technology Group*, Chantilly, Va.; Marc Enviro Services, Inc.*, Omaha, Neb.; The Mayvin Consulting Group, Inc.*, Alexandria, Va.; McNeal Professional Services, dba McNeal Wireless Services*, Kennesaw, Ga.; MedPacs, LLC*, Seattle, Wash.; Mega-Tech*, McLean, Va.; Metro Productions Government Services, LLC*, Hampton, Va.; MicroSys, LLC*, Manassas, Va.; Mission Assurance International, dba MAI*, Tampa, Fla.; Modus21*, Mount Pleasant, S.C.; MOSAIC Technologies Group, Inc.*, Fulton, Md.; Mustang Technical Services, LLC*, Fredericksburg, Va.; National Defense Advisors, Inc.*, Fairfax Station, Va.; The NAVSYS Corp.*, Colorado Springs, Colo.; Net Esolutions Corp.*, McLean, Va.; Neubrain, LLC*, Rockville, Md.; New River Systems Corp.*, Reston, Va.; Newmoyer Geospatial Solutions, LLC*, Mount Pleasant, S.C.; Nexus Technologies, Inc.*, Reston, Va.; Noise Control Engineering, Inc.*, Billerica, Mass.; Novus Origo, LLC*, Vista, Calif.; NucoreVision, Inc.*, Lanham, Md.; NVision Solutions, Inc.*, Bay St. Louis, Miss.; Occam Solutions, Inc.*, McLean, Va.; Occoquan Crew Technologies, Inc.*, Dumfries, Va.; Oceanit Laboratories, Inc., dba OCEANIT*, Honolulu, Hawaii; Octo Consulting Group, Inc.*, Vienna, Va.; Odyssian Technology, LLC*, South Bend, Ind.; Old Dominion University Research Foundation, Norfolk, Va.; Olusys, Inc.*, Camarillo, Calif.; Omitron, Inc.*, Beltsville, Md.; OmniPulse Technology Corp.*, San Diego, Calif.; Organon Advisors, Inc.*, Silver Spring, Md.; Osen-Hunter Defense Systems, LLC*, Madison, Va.; Ostari, Inc.*, Los Gatos, Calif.; OT Training Solutions, Inc.*, Orlando, Fla.; Performance Aircraft Services, dba Performance Aircraft Fuel Systems*, Grapevine, Texas; Phigenics, LLC*, Naperville, Ill.; Pierson Computing Connection, Inc..*, Mechanicsburg, Pa.; The Pierson Group, LLC*, Washington, D.C.; Precision Computing Intelligence, LLC*, Sierra Vista, Ariz.; Precision Task Group*, Houston, Texas; Premier Consulting & Management Services, Inc., dba PCMS*, Atlanta, Ga.; PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, McLean, Va.; Professional Solutions Delivered, LLC, Professional Services*, King Georga, Va.; Qi Tech, LLC*, Vienna, Va.; Quantell, Inc.*, Grantsville, Md.; Quantum Technology Sciences, Inc., dba QTSI*, Cocoa Beach, Fla.; R.H. Shackelford, Inc.*, San Antonio, Texas; R3 Strategic Support Group*, Coronado, Calif.; RedHawk IT Solutions, LLC, dba RedHawk IT*, Woodbridge, Va.; Reefpoint Group, LLC, dba Reefpoint Group*, Annapolis, Md.; RoundTurn, LLC*, Richmond, Va.; S. H. Huber and Associates, Inc.*, Oxnard, Calif.; SA Technical Services, Inc.*, Niceville, Fla.; Sabio Systems, LLC*, Albuquerque, N.M.; Saras America, Inc.*, Farmington Hills, Mich.; Schultz-Creehan Holdings, Inc.*, Blacksburg, Va.; Seawolf Solutions, Inc.*, McLean, Va.; Selsoft, Inc.*, Allen, Texas; Sensis Corp., East Syracuse, N.Y.; Sericore, LLC, dba Sericore Technologies*, Hanover, Md.; Shackleton Group, Inc.*, Lakewood, Colo.; Shipley, Inc., dba Isolated Ground*, Glendale, Calif.; Sierra Cybernetics, Inc.*, Anaheim Hills, Calif.; Sierra Infosys, Inc.*, Houston, Texas; Sierra Nevada Corp.*, Sparks, Nev.; SilverRhino, LLC*, Rockville, Md.; SNR Systems, LLC*, Leesburg, Va.; Software Professional Solutions, Inc.*, Farmingdale, N.J.; Sparc, LLC*, Charleston, S.C.; Spartan Management, LLC*, Manassas, Va.; Standard Technology, Inc.*, Warner Robins, Ga.; Statscom, Inc.*, Ashburn, Va.; Stealth Network Communications*, Scotts Valley, Calif.; Strategic Applications and Technologies, Inc.*, Columbia, Md.; Submergence Group, LLC*, Chester, Conn.; Superior Communication Solutions, Inc.*, Moultrie, Ga.; Swanson Services, LLC, dba Swanson Security Guard & Patrol Services*, Richmond, Va.; Symphony Consulting Group, Inc.*, Herndon, Va.; Synergy Technology Services, Inc.*, Eddystone, Pa.; Systems Software Solutions, Inc., dba 3S USA*, Bloomingdale, Ill.; TAF & Associates, Inc.*, Fairfax, Va.; Talentscale, LLC*, Lake Elsinore, Calif.; TeamStaff Government Solutions, Loganville, Ga.; Technical Automation & Management, Inc., dba TEAM*, Falls Church, Va.; Technology Blue, Inc.*, Cranberry Township, Pa.; Technology Concepts & Design, Inc.*, Reston, Va.; Telnet, Inc.*, Rockville, Md.; TeraLogics, LLC*, Ashburn, Va.; TeraThink Corp.*, Reston, Va.; Texeltek, Inc.*, Annapolis Junction, Md.; Thermopylae Sciences & Technology, LLC*, Arlington, Va.; Thor Solutions*, Annandale, Va.; Three S Consulting, Inc.*, San Francisco, Calif.; Tiber Creek Consulting, Inc.*, Farifax, Va.; Titanium Cobra Solutions, LLC*, San Diego, Calif.; Torknet, LLC*, Suitland, Md.; Total Computer Solutions, Inc.*, Arlington, Va.; TRAX International Corp., Las Vegas, Nev.; Tri Com Enterprises, Inc.*, Va Beach, Va.; Trinuc, LLC*, Buffalo Grove, Ill.; Tritus Technologies, Inc.*, Gainesville, Va.; Triune Solutions, LLC*, Washington, D.C.; Troika Solutions, LLC*, Arlington, Va.; Troy Networks, Inc.*, Lovettsville, Va.; Trusted Intelligence Support Services Corp.*, Scottssboro, Ala.; TurningPoint Global Solutions, LLC, dba TurningPoint*, Rockville, Md.; U.S. Information Technologies*, Chantilly, Va.; United Federal Systems, Inc.*, Reston, Va.; USmax Corp.*, Gambrills, Md.; Valicore Technologies, Inc., dba Valicore*, Irvine, Calif.; Vantage11, LP*, Tinton Falls, N.J.; Varilog Research, Inc.*, Beltsville, Md.; VariQ Corp.*, Washington, D.C.; Vetegrity, LLC*, Annapolis, Md.; Virsys, LLC*, Dunn Loring, Va.; VisionOnline.com, LLC, dba VOL*, Reston, Va.; Watershed Security, LLC*, Chesapeake, Va.; Web and Writing Solutions Co.*, Pasadena, Md.; Wight & Company, dba Wight Construction, Darien, Ill.; Windwalker Corp.*, McLean, Va.; Wittenberg Weiner Consulting, LLC*, Tampa, Fla.; Wolf Technical Services, Inc.*, Indianapolis, Ind.; Xeeto, Inc.*, Miami, Fla.; Yearround Accounting Taxes, LLC, dba McKinley Group*, Gaithersburg, Md.; Z and A Infotek Corp., dba Xeon Info*, Parsippany, N.J.; The Zanfer Group, LLC*, Lusby, Md.; Zantech IT Services, Inc.*, McLean, Va.

Four companies have won parts of a $480 million Veterans Affairs contract to provide IT services.

The companies will compete for task orders under the Veterans Relationship Management IT Solutions and Support Services contract, according to a VA announcement on FedBizOpps.

The contract is a multiple-award, task-order contract.

The winners are:

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Services
SRA International
Insignia Technology Services
VetsAmerica Business Consulting Inc.
In its solicitation, VA said it would use the contract to improve communications between VA and veterans, no matter what technology they are using to reach the agency. This includes phone, web, e-mail and social media.

The contract has several “work streams” as VA calls them: voice access modernization, customer relationship management, unified desktop, Web/self service, knowledge management, and member and integration services.  Read full article.

Contractors lured to task-order contracts by the promise of a big payoff...

In sports parlance, it’s known as going for the gold. The term also applies in government contracting, as more and more companies are seeking the gold to be found in the large federal indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract vehicles.

“Come July and August, the IDIQs light up like Christmas trees,” said Paul Strasser, senior vice president and general manager of Dynamics Research Corp.’s federal group. “There are task orders going out like crazy because, with the continuing resolutions, agencies are trying to spend the money they have allocated. The IDIQ has become by far the vehicle of choice. So you have to prepare.”

“The smarter smaller companies are looking at the vehicles earlier and seeing what resources it’s going to take to win,” said Mark Amtower, co-founder of the Government Market Master certificate program at the George Mason University School of Management and a Washington Technology contributor. “The large companies have two avenues. They can buy a company that owns the IDIQ or wait until the recompete and try to win it. However, there are no guarantees for the recompete.” Read full article.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) released the Small Business Procurement Scorecard for all agencies reflecting each agency’s contracting accomplishments for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010. The Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) is pleased to announce DOT received an “A” rating for its FY 2010 small business efforts. This is the second consecutive year DOT has received an “A” rating for its small business contracting achievements.

“We’re extremely proud to earn an “A” rating from SBA for small business contracting. It takes a dedicated team, led by Secretary LaHood, the modal administrators, small business specialists, and our regional staff to achieve this level of success,” remarked Brandon Neal, OSDBU Director.

The annual Scorecard is an assessment tool to (1) measure how well federal agencies reach their small business and socio-economic prime contracting and subcontracting goals, (2) provide accurate and transparent contracting data and (3) report agency-specific progress. The prime and subcontracting component goals include goals for small businesses, small businesses owned by women, small and disadvantaged businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, and small businesses located in Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZones).  Reference article

The “A” rating reflects the Department’s ongoing commitment to providing the small business community the greatest access to federal contracting opportunities and to ensure that DOT’s procurement officers have the information and tools needed to connect with these innovative small businesses.

DLA Land & Maritime, Small Business Programs Office will be conducting a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) Webinar on July 21, 2011 from 2:30PM until 3:30PM to instruct SDVOSBs how to do business with DLA Land & Maritime as we are searching for an unlimited number of SDVSOB Manufacturers that are interested in finding opportunities in manufacturing weapon system spare parts for land & maritime vehicles, electronics, and gun parts for the U.S. military.  We will be conducting a series of 1 hour seminars on a monthly basis and also will be there to answer your questions on any facet of not only doing business with us, but also with the DLA Troop Support in Philadelphia, PA and DLA Aviation in Richmond, VA.
Contracting Office Address:
P O Box 3990
Columbus, Ohio 43218-3990
United States
Place of Performance:
DLA Land & Maritime, Small Business Programs Office
3990 East Broad Street

Columbus, Ohio 43218
United States
Primary Point of Contact.:
Dwight deWeaver
dwight.deweaver@dla.mil
Phone: 6146927935
Fax: 6146926892
Secondary Point of Contact:
Vikki Hawthorne
vikki.hawthorne@dla.mil
Phone: 6146924864
Fax: 6146926892
 www.fbo.gov/index

The Defense Intelligence Agency will host outreach events for small concerns interested in teaming on DIA contracts. These events will be held August 8, 11, and 12, 2011, in Conference Center Side B of the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center, Building 6000, Joint Base Bolling, Washington, DC, 20340. The events will be separated into eight 1.5 hour sessions. Each of the eight sessions will exhibit a DIA prime contractor. The purpose is to explain the primes’ processes for selecting team members, as well as describing what capabilities small firms should possess in order to be successful subcontractors. All small firms are welcome. However the focus will be HUBZone small businesses. Each session is limited to 2 representatives per firm with a maximum of 60 individuals.

The sessions are scheduled as follows:

Monday, August 8:

* Session M1: SAIC, 10:00 – 11:30 am

* Session M2: BAE, 12:30 – 2:00 pm

* Session M3: L-3, 2:30 – 4:00 pm

Thursday, August 11:

* Session T1: BAH, 10:00 – 11:30 am

* Session T2: CACI, 12:30 – 2:00 pm

* Session T3: SRA, 2:30 – 4:00 pm

Friday, August 12:

* Session F1: Northrop Grumman, 10:00 – 11:30 am

* Session F2: CTC, 12:30 – 2:00 pm

Please respond to this announcement by COB Monday, August 1, 2011, via email to primary POC. State which session you would like to attend in your response. You are welcome to attend as many sessions as you like, provided they are still open.

For individuals who do not possess a community badge or TS/SCI clearance, please provide your full name, company name, date of birth, social security number, and country of citizenship in your response.
Contracting Office Address:
Bolling AFB, Bldg. 6000
AE-2
Washington, District of Columbia 20340-5100
Place of Performance:
Washington, District of Columbia 20340
United States
Primary Point of Contact.:
Kenneth Hartwell
kenneth.hartwell@dia.mil
Phone: 2022312166
 www.fbo.gov/index

While Washington, D.C., swelters under scorching heat, Denver offered cool, pleasant weather and unusual heavy rains for the 1,300 people who journeyed to the city for the big annual meeting of the professional association of contracting professionals in industry and government., the National Contract Management Association World Congress.

The overall atmosphere here reflects a fairly sour mood about the state of government contracting. Partly, the contractors (most contractors in NCMA are from the defense industry, and some are from IT) are realizing that contracting dollars are going to be really tight given the budget situation. But there also seems to be a feeling — among the government people as well as industry — that the system is still in a mode, dating to the George W. Bush years, of laying on more regulations, requirements and burdens that are hard for the government to meet given limited resources.

Industry resents such regulations as attacks on their integrity and their bottom line. Read More.

The FOSE Conference serves the federal, state and local government technology market as well as the broader international and commercial technology community as a forum for bridging ideas and innovations between the public and private sector—and provides forward-looking view of upcoming federal IT initiatives that impact the private sector.

Maximizing End of FY Sales: 30 Tips in 60 Minutes

When: Thursday, July 21
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Government Solutions Theater #2
FREE TO ATTEND

In good times, the end of the Federal FY is a time to reap the rewards of hard work done during the year. During an FY with a perpetual continuing resolution, the end of FY represents a time when you truly need to maximize your share of the much smaller pie. The tactics used during the final months of the FY will determine your success or failure for the year. Those attending this session will hear from seasoned veterans on how to achieve the maximum results in an otherwise tough year.  Check out all of the Free workshops.

Antonio Hunter, the director of D.C.'s Department of Small and Local Business Development, who was confirmed by the D.C. Council in April, is leaving for a job with a division of Magic Johnson Enterprises, the Washington Business Journal has learned. His resignation is effective at the end of July, an agency official said.

Hunter did not return calls and emails for comment.

I'm told his exit was simply a matter of a job opportunity he couldn't pass up, not one related to his job performance. That said, Hunter hadn't generated much momentum for small and local businesses in his brief stint, small business leaders say. How could he, in only seven months? Read Full Article

Research is the first key to success. When you are on the outside looking in, you might often wonder what it takes to get from where you are (Point A) to where those, say, on Washington Technology’s annual Top 100 and Fast 50 lists are (Point B). All companies, large and small, have to start somewhere, but you don’t start out on any of those lists.

When you boil it down to its basic elements, there are Three R's that are the keys to success in this government market: research, resources and relationships. While this may be over-simplifying things, the three remain basic building blocks for the market. I’ll devote this article to the first R — research.

Regardless whether you are just getting started or bidding on your 100th contract, research is critical.

The problem for the novice is where to start. Although there are both paid and free research tools, some better than others, some harder to find, and most who are new to the market are overwhelmed by how many tools there really are. They often don’t know which to use or how to use those they select. So it’s better to start with some good, free resources to determine some things about your company before you start paying for resources you may not need.

For the novice, the research must start with answering the question "Does the government buy what you sell?"  Read full article.

Washington Technology's annual Fast 50 rankings is generally a celebration of the achievements of some of the best small businesses in the market.

This year is no exception. The companies making the list have had extraordinary growth, starting with No. 1 company, SAVA Workforce Solutions, which achieved a five-year compound annual growth rate of 326.05 percent.

The small businesses on this list have shown an ability to adapt and change with the market. Many are taking advantage of various small business programs to build businesses that will stand the test of time.

The types of companies that populate the Fast 50 range from resellers to consultants and IT services providers to research and development firms. The list is entrepreneur heavy with most companies having a founder or team of founders at the helm.

The aggregate value of 2010 revenue for the Fast 50 is $1.4 billion. The No. 50 company NextPoint Group, came in with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 62.49 percent. Not too shabby. Read More.

Don't miss this powerful one day conference featuring procurement and marketing workshops, an opportunity for you to meet and network with GSA program managers, building managers, leasing specialists, senior procurement associates, as well as small business advocates from DOD and other Federal agencies. Attendees will also be exposed to prime contractors seeking to partner with experienced small businesses to help meet and exceed their company's Subcontracting Plan goals.

Date:
October 6, 2011
Registration opens at 8:00 a.m.
Location:
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004

Don't miss the afternoon Prime Introduction and Networking Session!

Access to Success will close out the day by giving small businesses the chance to hear directly from large prime companies looking for small business subcontractors. These large businesses currently have contracts for major projects with the GSA and other Federal agencies. Prime representatives will introduce their firms in the open forum before they break out into individual meeting rooms. Learn about subcontracting opportunities and their vetting process for selecting small business subcontractors. The Prime participants will include: Clark Construction, Verizon, Level 3, General Dynamics and more. Plan to stay all day; great things don't just happen before lunch! Learn more.

Let’s make this clear: The price reduction clause is forever.

The General Services Administration couldn't endure giving up the clause that goes hand-in-hand with its Multiple Award Schedules contracts.

Officials say the clause guarantees that companies don’t overcharge the government. It's intended to ensure that the government gets a price as good as, if not better than, a company’s commercial clients for what’s being sold on the schedules. If a company lowers a price for a client, it has to give the government that price or better. Otherwise, it faces the consequences.

The clause causes headaches for companies and customers, yet officials cannot part with it.

“Because the pricing clause is a mechanism GSA uses to ensure the government is getting at least as good a price as a contractor’s private-sector clients, it is not feasible to change the collection process,” GSA officials wrote in their new report on reviewing the agency’s regulations.

The White House-ordered review of regulations had officials from all agencies hunting for ways to revoke some of their rules, which continue to pile up higher and higher on companies each year. Read full article.

Are you ready to expand beyond America’s borders? Doing business in other countries will expand your potential customer base, but there are associated challenges you need to tackle first. SBA provides the following resources:

International Travel Resources, Tips and Advisories :  Provides must-read resources if you are planning to go overseas to conduct business. Country-specific resources include current travel advisories, tips for international travel and document requirements.

International Business FAQs :Lists answers to frequently asked questions about doing business abroad, facilitating overseas investment, trade restrictions and assisting foreign companies.

Department of State Office of Authentications: Outlines the Department of State's Authentications Office, which is responsible for signing and issuing certificates under the Seal of the U.S. Department of State. The Authentications Office also verifies business documents that will be used overseas, including company bylaws, powers of attorney, trademarks, diplomas, transcripts, distributorship agreements, articles of incorporation, good standing certificates, home studies and letters of reference. The Office also ensures that the requested information will serve in the interest of justice and is not contrary to U.S. policy.

Guidelines for Foreign Business Travel: Offers guidelines for exporters, or those thinking of selling abroad. These individuals often visit foreign countries to research market conditions and understand cultural nuances. This checklist, including information ranging from "A Basic Guide" to exporting, details the required steps you should take when traveling abroad, and some practical tips as well.

Passports: Supplies information and services to American citizens who need to obtain, replace or change a passport.

Want to learn more about GSA's State and Local programs? Join the webinar for a brief overview.

Webinar: Introduction to GSA State and Local Programs

Want to learn more about GSA's State and Local programs? Join the webinar to get a brief overview on:

Cooperative Purchasing
1122 Program
Disaster Recovery Purchasing
Public Health Emergencies

Date/Time: SEP 8, 2011 - 1:00pm EST

Instructions:
1. Simply click on http://gsafas.adobeconnect.com/schedules to Join.
2. Turn up your computer speakers for sound, and chat in any questions you have.
3. OPTIONAL: You may Dial 1/877-783-3073, passcode 1967262 if you need to speak and do not have a computer microphone/headset.

If you have questions about the Webinar please email david.orcutt@gsa.gov. Click here to register online.

Boeing Co.'s satellite production facility in El Segundo won a $1 billion Air Force contract to build a military communications satellite, the Department of Defense said Thursday.

The contract is for the seventh Wideband Global Satcom, or WGS, satellite, part of a series of spacecraft that are dramatically improving U.S. military communications, from troops in the field to fighter jets overhead.

The DoD announced the contract award in a statement that included contracts to other companies. The statement was sparse on details.

The Boeing contract also includes advance procurement for the eighth WGS satellite, as well as an option for production and launch of WGS No. 9.

The Air Force contract pegged the value at $1,099,800,000.

A Boeing official declined to comment on the contract and referred media questions to the Air Force.

In August 2010, Boeing won a $182 million Air Force contract to begin so-called long-lead procurement and work on WGS No. 7.

The Australian military is also participating in the WGS system.

Boeing's first three WGS satellites are also orbiting the Earth.

The others will be launched in coming years.

This latest contract is large by satellite industry standards, but was not a surprise.

Boeing had been in discussions with the Air Force over the contract for the past several weeks.

Still, the contract award comes as good news for Boeing's El Segundo facility, which this month celebrated the 50th anniversary of its satellite facility.

The El Segundo operation has been buffeted with layoffs over the past decade. Today, the business employs about 6,400 people, about half the number that worked there in the late 1990s.

While not specifically commenting on Thursday's award, Craig Cooning, the Boeing executive in charge of the El Segundo operations, earlier this month said that employment at the satellite business was stable, with no planned layoffs, despite expected Pentagon belt tightening.

By contrast, Northrop Grumman Corp. announced last week that it would cut 500 jobs at its Redondo Beach-based Aerospace Systems sector.

Source: Contra Costa Times

http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_18807912

Hurricane Irene has left serious damage in its path from the caribbean to Maine along the East Coast that will require cleanup, repair and relief efforts. Government agencies will begin to release contracts for recovery in the days ahead as emergency crews and regional utilities require additional assistance to quickly restore power and essential services to areas affected by wind damage and serious flooding.

Government contracts can be found using the OnDemand Government Contract Leads System offered by the National Association of Government Contractors.

Construction and utility contractors will see a spike in contract availability as damage is assessed and reconstruction begins. Some estimates of reconstruction costs have exceeded $12 billion. Most of those dollars will be spent on cleanup and construction activity.

The Small Business Administration has deployed a team from the Office of Disaster Assistance in Puerto Rico, to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Irene. In addition to the 900 employees already on board, SBA has 500 reservists ready to be deployed immediately. The SBA team is already on the ground working with FEMA in Regional Communications Centers.  Reference Article

Business owners in the affected areas can find advice and assistance with reopening their business from ReadyBusiness.gov

Unified Combatant Command Spotlight: EUCOM | September 7, 2011

WHO?

The United States European Command (EUCOM) is one of ten Unified Combatant Commands of the United States military, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. Its area of focus covers 21,000,000 square miles (54,000,000 km2) and 51 countries and territories, including Europe, Russia, Iceland, Greenland, and Israel. The Commander of EUCOM simultaneously serves as the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR) within NATO.  The current Commander of EUCOM is Admiral James G. Stavridis.

WHAT?

With national and international partners, U.S. European Command’s primary purpose to conduct military operations, international military partnering, and interagency partnering to enhance transatlantic security and defend the United States forward.

WHERE?

In early 1951, NATO established Allied Command Europe and the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). General Dwight D. Eisenhower was called from retirement to become the first Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). The United States sent massive reinforcements to Europe designed to deter the Soviet Union.  The EUCOM was formed shortly in 1952.

During the Cold War and the Kosovo War, EUCOM was the lead command for potential operations. During the Gulf War and Operation Northern Watch, EUCOM controlled the forces flying from Incirlik Air Base.

WHEN?

EUCOM was established on 1 August 1952, to provide "unified command and authority" over all United States forces in Europe.

WHY?

America's rapid post-war demobilization, followed by the end of the occupation of Germany in 1949, led many to question the United States' commitment to defend Western Europe against the spread of communism. Western nations questioned how they could provide for the common defense and simultaneously questioned America's role in such defense. In 1948–1949, the Berlin Blockade motivated Western Europe and the United States to create a military alliance. In 1949, the allies established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

From 1950 to 1953 United States military personnel in Europe grew from 120,000 to over 400,000. 

EUCOM and its components continued to provide military assistance throughout Europe, as well as humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, noncombatant evacuation, support to peacekeeping operations, and other non-traditional missions in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. For example, after the Congo became independent in 1960, EUCOM joined in several multinational operations in that country, including peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, and noncombatant evacuation in 1960, 1964, 1967 and again in 1978. In the Middle East, EUCOM provided military assistance to Israel as well as noncombatant evacuation of American citizens in 1967, 1973, and 1982–1984.

Join Unanet Technologies for this Free Webinar
Tuesday, September 13
1:00 - 2:00 PM EST

This free web seminar for consulting and services organizations will show the benefits of a web-based Time and Expense Reporting solution that reduces administration effort by 90% and enables compliance with Federal Government DCAA (Defense Contract Audit Agency) reporting requirements.

More than 750 organizations use Unanet with QuickBooks, Deltek, Microsoft Dynamics and other accounting systems to achieve visibility in real-time into project hours, costs and comments. In addition to reducing administrative and approval effort and satisfying reporting rules for DCAA auditors, Unanet ensures correct Per Diem expense reporting based on geography.

Unanet also supports Earned Value (EVMS), resource planning and forecasting, and provides performance management for your projects and people.

Unanet software is accessed via your web browser and hosted in either our secure data center or on your own servers, and can be deployed within just a few weeks.

After registration, you will receive an email confirmation with your login information for joining the webinar.

To Register, click here.

Sep 08 2011: This Request for Offers (RFO) transmits the Filing Instructions (FI) for the submission of Emergency.  Response rate offers on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other Federal civilian agencies that require transportation services for Federal disasters and emergencies. Rate offers filed in response to this RFO and its FI will be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the GSA Standard Tender of Service (STOS) and this RFO and its FI. Please note in some instances this RFO and its FI will deviate from and will supersede certain provisions and requirements published in the STOS. Rate offers accepted in response to this RFO and its FI are due by 10:00 PM Central  Standard Time (CST), October 7, 2011. Rate offers submitted and accepted for the traffic identified in  Section 9 will be for the time period November 1, 2011 through October 31, 2012. Rate offers submitted and accepted and for the traffic identified in Section 10 will be for the period November 1,  2011 through October 31, 2012 with the Government’s option to extend from November 1, 2012 through October 31, 2013.

Traffic to be included under this RFO and its FI will be freight-all-kinds (FAK) shipments moving via closed van for less than truckload and truckload, and for flatbed, single/double drop, lowboy and power  only units. The transport of travel trailers and mobile homes is also included.  Click here to request more information about this opportunity.

Top Twenty SubTeamPartners Features (1 of 2; numbers 20 through 11):

20.    A new and improved user interface
19.    Post Government Opportunities
18.    Search for teaming partners (Prime and Subcontractors)
17.    Retain your anonymity when searching for partners and opportunities
16.    Send private messages to other companies
15.    Ask questions and post topics in our forums
14.    Have multiple users (e-mail addresses) from the same company
13.    Receive notifications on new messages and opportunities updates
12.    Advertising opportunities to top primes and subcontractors
11.    Be featured "In the Spotlight' in our newsletter and on our homepage

DoD, GSA, and NASA are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to address the impact of the decision in Rothe Development Corporation vs. the DoD and the U.S. Department of the Air Force (USAF) on small disadvantaged business concerns and certain institutions of higher education.

DATES: Interested parties should submit written comments to the Regulatory Secretariat at one of the addresses shown below on or before November 8, 2011 to be considered in the formation of the final rule.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments in response to FAR Case 2009-016 by any of the following methods: Regulations.gov: http://www.regulations.gov. Submit comments via the Federal eRulemaking portal by inputting ``FAR Case 2009-016'' under the heading ``Enter Keyword or ID'' and selecting ``Search.'' Select the link ``Submit a Comment'' that corresponds with ``FAR Case 2009-016.'' Follow the instructions provided at the ``Submit a Comment'' screen. Please include your name, company name (if any), and ``FAR Case 2009-016'' on your attached document. Fax: (202) 501-4067. Mail: General Services Administration, Regulatory Secretariat (MVCB), Attn: Hada Flowers, 1275 First Street, NE., 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20417. Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite FAR Case 2009-016, in all correspondence related to this case. All comments received will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal and/or business confidential information provided.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Karlos Morgan, Procurement Analyst, at (202) 501-2364, for clarification of content. For information pertaining to status or publication schedules, contact the Regulatory Secretariat at (202) 501-4755. Please cite FAR Case 2009-016.  Reference notice.

s the federal government one of your customers? Last year more than 80 federal agencies and departments purchased in excess of $275 million in goods and services from 235 New Hampshire based small businesses. 109 of these companies were owned by veterans and they accounted for sales to federal agencies totaling more than $50 million.

These purchases had values from the hundreds of dollars up into the millions. As the world's largest buyer of products and services the U.S. government is committed to purchasing a portion of these from veteran owned and service disabled veteran owned businesses. How do veterans get to participate in marketing and selling to federal agencies?

While it can seem like a daunting task to add the federal government as a key customer, it is being done by more and more businesses each year. More importantly, help is available to guide you through the process of identifying and responding to sales opportunities.

To help you get started in the right direction in navigating the government contracting process, representatives from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) along the NH Procurement Technical Assistance Program (PTAP) will be presenting an overview of how the government contracting process works and how you can get started. These presentations will be made at four two-hour seminars in the months ahead. The seminars are presented for free to participants however due to space limitations pre-registration is required.

Dates & Locations:

— November 9, 2011 Hesser College -- Manchester (1:30 ¿ 3:30 p.m.)

— February 1, 2012 Hesser College -- Salem (1:30 ¿ 3:30 p.m.)

— May 2, 2012 Hesser College -- Portsmouth (1:30 ¿ 3:30 p.m.)

— June 20, 2012 Hesser College -- Nashua (1:30 ¿ 3:30 p.m.)

For registration, questions or additional information contact Rachael Roderick at the U.S. Small Business Administration office in Concord 603-225-1603, email: Rachael.roderick@sba.gov or Miguel Moralez at Miguel.Moralez@sba.gov or 603-225-1601.  For Details - Click Here.
 

Companies must make a realistic assessment of your chances to WIN a contract. It is important to make the bid/no bid decision early so time is not wasted. The decision should be made before or immediately following the release of the RFP.

When analyzing the probabilities, ask yourself...how well do you know the customer? Does the customer know you? Chances are, if you don't know the customer and vice a versa, you should not bid. Agencies must KNOW you in order to TRUST you are going to deliver. Their reputation is also at stake.

BID YES if:
• You know and have pre-sold the customer.
• You know the contract history and have information on your chances of successfully competing for the contract (competitive pricing, requirements and/or FOIA information)
• The incumbent has a marginal or poor past performance record.
• You have conducted a site survey and understand the requirements
• Your capabilities meet or exceed the requirements outlined in the RFP. (Teaming relationships help with providing a full service solution)

NO BID if:
• You have NO prior knowledge of the RFP prior to its' release on fbo.gov
• The only information you have is contained in the RFP with no market intelligence or research of the agency needs..
• The requirements are beyond your scope of capabilities and you have no identified teaming partners to include with your technical response.
• There is an incumbent contractor who has continued to provide good or exceptional services. Most (not all) incumbents re-win their contracts if they have maintained a good performance record and relationship with the customer. You shouldn't bid unless you know the customer is unhappy or you have special knowledge of the procurement.
• If you don't KNOW then NO

GovTip: Spend time, resources and money doing your homework in order to make the right decision. No one likes to lose...time, money or business!  Need help?
 

Last year, the federal government spent more than $40 billion through the GSA Schedules program. This year it may well spend even more. A GSA Schedule contract is, quite simply, the easiest point-of-entry into government contracting – the most effective way to get your products or services in front of the world's largest buyer of products and services.

A GSA Schedules contract gives you access to more than 260 federal, state and local government buyers who have an easier time buying from you than they do your competition.

If you know that, you've already applied, or you're planning to.

After all, it seems hard to fail once you have that contract in hand. Yet a remarkable number of companies do just that.

That's not just a one-time missed opportunity. It can mean the end of future opportunities as well. The GSA requires schedule-holders to do at least $25,000 worth of business through their contract in the first two years they hold it, and another $25,000 every year thereafter. Fall short of that number, and they may terminate your contract. Full article.

FAIRFAX, Va., Sep 28, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The American Council for Technology (ACT) - Industry Advisory Council (IAC) and the U.S. General Services Administration today announced that they will jointly host Acquisition Excellence 2012 to provide a collaborative forum to discuss and develop actionable ideas on federal information technology acquisition, policy, and program management issues in these challenging budget times. The collaborative forum will expand and refocus the goals of the Interagency Resources Management Conference, commonly known as IRMCO, and will maintain a two-to-one government to industry ratio. More than 500 government and industry executives are expected to attend the forum on March 29, 2012 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C.

"GSA is committed to a collaborative process where government and industry work to improve the government's acquisition and use of IT," said Kathleen Turco, GSA's associate administrator for Governmentwide Policy and Acquisition Excellence 2012 government chair. "GSA selected ACT-IAC, a non-profit educational organization, as our partner for the spring conference based on their proven public-private partnership outreach with the federal IT community. ACT-IAC will be key to helping us transform this event to provide an open and collaborative environment to continue our role in assisting agencies meet IT and acquisition management challenges." Read Full Article

Out go all the U.S. troops by year’s end, President Obama said Friday about Iraq. And in go the contractors, along with some familiar contracting problems, say other government officials and independent experts.

As the United States pulls out its remaining 50,000 or so troops after a decade of conflict costing around $1 trillion, many of the soldiers’ non-fighting functions will be pursued by a force of State Department-funded government contractors expected to near 15,000.

That preliminary estimate, now being circulated by the administration among lawmakers on Capitol Hill, would represent an overwhelming share of the official remaining U.S. presence in the unsettled country. But even after wide publicity about past contracting abuses and waste, new scandals may trail behind this persistent deployment, according to a commission created by Congress to study the missteps so far.

“After a decade of war, the government remains unable to ensure that taxpayers and warfighters are getting good value for contract dollars spent,” Dov S. Zakheim, a former Pentagon comptroller and a member of the congressionally-created Commission on Wartime Contracting, told the Senate Armed Services committee a day before Obama’s announcement.

In an August report, prepared after a three-year study of contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the commission estimated that between $30 billion and $60 billion has been lost to waste and fraud so far in those conflicts, representing 15 to 30 percent of all that Washington has spent on contractor-provided security, civil reconstruction, training, and other nation-building work. Read Full Article

With Congress poised to slash spending to cut the deficit, more large companies are seeking an edge in the competition for federal dollars by acquiring small contractors.

Acquisitions of small government vendors rose by 22.4% last year to 71, the highest level since 2000, according to calculations by Houlihan Lokey, an investment bank in Los Angeles.

Last year was "the most transactions in this space ever," and this year's acquisitions are on pace to match it, said Jean Stack, a managing director at Houlihan Lokey. Read Full Article

A proposed rule to curb agencies’ little used capacity to offer higher payments to needier contractors “will have no impact on the government’s ability or commitment to drive contracting opportunities for small disadvantaged businesses,” Dan Gordon, administrator of the White House Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said Friday.

In a blog post for the Office of Management and Budget, Gordon sought to reassure some in the minority business community that a proposed regulation issued in September by the Small Business Administration is a routine “housekeeping” tool designed to catch the law up with a 2008 court ruling that declared such price premiums unconstitutional.

“The proposed rule in no way changes the fundamental policies, practices or programs that agencies have been using in recent years to achieve strong SDB participation in the federal marketplace, including the goal of awarding 5 percent of federal procurement dollars to SDBs,” Gordon wrote.

The affected agencies — the Defense Department, NASA and the U.S. Coast Guard — have not used price premiums to attract disadvantaged small contractors in years, Gordon noted. But the administration has “been working with the Minority Business Development Agency to strengthen the bond between contracting, small business and program offices at every agency,” Gordon wrote. “Since the beginning of [fiscal] 2009, agencies have awarded more than $85 billion in contracts to SDBs, exceeding the goal of awarding at least 5 percent of contract dollars to SDBs.” In fiscal 2010, he added, contract awards to small disadvantaged businesses accounted for 7.95 percent of all eligible contract dollars, “well above the goal.”

Gordon’s clarification came as the Obama administration readied a new set of executive actions designed to spur job creation in large and small businesses  while Congress debates the president’s larger proposed jobs package.

The perception among some that ending premium payments to disadvantaged businesses was a pullback in the administration’s commitment was rejected by Molly Brogan, vice president of public affairs for the National Small Business Association. “At the end of the day, small businesses just want a level playing field,” she told Government Executive. “Ensuring that small businesses — including SDB businesses — have a fair opportunity to compete for federal  dollars ought to be the No. 1 goal. We don’t believe this new rule will change [that] in any way.”

Raul Espinosa, founder of a Jacksonville, Fla. – based university nonprofit called the Fairness in Procurement Alliance, which has been pressing for stronger rules on accelerating payments to small disadvantaged businesses, said he was grateful for the administration’s overall effort, but worries it might be “lip service.” Changes “will mean nothing unless they’re codified into the federal acquisition regulation and referred to in actual contracts,” he said. Reference Article

The Defense Information Systems Agency has a new director: Air Force Maj. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins will succeed Lt. Gen. Carroll Pollett as the agency's leader, according to a release from the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Hawkins returns to DISA after a brief stint at the Pentagon as the Joint Staff's deputy director, command, control, communications and computer systems, a role he has filled since July. Prior to his Joint Staff assignment, Hawkins was DISA's vice director under Pollett.

He will be based at DISA's Ft. Meade, Md., headquarters. Reference Article

OSDBU is pleased to make the Fall DOT Biz Journal available for download. This issue is chock full of highlights on several small business programs and events that have been held recently by the OSDBU across the country, as well as important information on planned and potential procurement opportunities for federal and state transportation-related contracts. Recent and ongoing programs highlighted include several DOT Safety Days hosted by the OSDBU’s Small Business Transportation Centers and the continuation and expansion of the hugely successful Bonding Education Program in its second year into several cities around the nation.

With the beginning of the fiscal year on October 1st, OSDBU released its FY 2012 Procurement Forecast and we provide an overview of how to search the online system for potential opportunities with the Department in the next 12 months. This edition also discusses some of the key transportation infrastructure proposals that are included in President Obama’s American Jobs Act presented to Congress in September. Also included are articles on the states of Illinois and Maine multi-year transportation plans which provide key insight into planned highway, bridge and transit projects in their states in the coming years as part of the regular Follow the Money feature. (Reference DOT electronic notifications 31 Oct 2011)

Click the following link to download the DOT Biz Journal [Download]

GSA Shakes Things Up a Bit  - A Small Business Quake

In an effort to encourage more small businesses to participate in the GSA’s multiple award contracts, it is instituting an interim rule that permits procurement officers to set aside a larger share of the awards to small, veteran owned, disadvantaged, minority, women owned businesses.  This new rule took effect in November 2, 2011, advising agencies to seriously consider setting aside task and delivery orders for small businesses. Changes in the FAR make clear that agencies can set aside orders for small businesses on blanket purchase agreements (BPA's), under the GSA's Multiple Award Schedules and  Contracts.

Trying to Maximize your GSA Schedule?  Consider a CTA

Contract Teaming Arrangements (CTA's) allow for GSA holders to respond to a GSA contract requirement which they would otherwise be unable to do were they to respond to the requirements on their own.   By using a CTA, ordering activities can procure a total solution rather than making separate buys for each part of a requirement and satisfy socio-economic procurement goals.

By forming a CTA, GSA contractors on different schedules can compete for orders for which they wouldn’t otherwise qualify, increase their market share, become more competitive, reduce risk by sharing responsibilities with other team members, focus on the products and services that best match their company’s resources and strengths, and find greater success as a small and/or disadvantaged business.  

The differences between a CTA and a prime/subcontracting arrangement, are that each member of the CTA is considered a prime and receives direct payment and performance evaluations from the GSA purchase agency. Once member is designated as the team lead for streamlined communications.

For small businesses, there are many perks for using the CTA.  The table below describes the differences between the new Contractor Team Arrangements and the Current Prime Contractor/ Subcontractor Arrangements.  Take a look and find out what works best for your organizational needs:

On 14 Nov 2011, OMB and SBA issued a memorandum to Procurement officials regarding the improvement of small business data.  Quality and timely Federal procurement data are essential to increasing Federal small business contract awards and achieving the agencies small business contracting goals. Actions are being taken to improve the quality of procurement data on small business contract awards.

As a result of these changes separate processes related to small business data quality are being aligned to increase awareness and attention on small business contracting data. Integrating small business data quality reviews into routine agency processes and procedures is expected to reduce burden on the acquisition workforce, facilitate improved acquisition planning, and increase data accuracy of awards made to small businesses.

Accordingly, OMB and SBA asks all procurement officials to increase the attention given to small business data quality as part of their ongoing data validation efforts. Reference memorandum.

Most small businesses feel intimidated when competing with larger businesses. If you review the Top 100 Government Prime Contractors List, published by Washington Technology.com, majority of the companies are large businesses. If you are a small business reviewing a government solicitation, you may come to the conclusion that the requirement is tailored for a large business. You may ask yourself, why bid? In most cases, you would not bid. The truth is, the government encourages large and small business participation. The small business set-aside programs are not only used for small businesses to respond, but the subcontracting plans that mandate large businesses to respond to a solicitation also require a planned percentage to be subcontracted or set-aside for small businesses. This seems to be fair for the small businesses, but the question is, is it fair to large businesses? Why are they required to share a piece of their pie with small businesses?

The federal government has an overall goal of setting aside 23% of prime contracts flowing to small businesses. Every federal government purchase anticipated to be valued from $2500 to $100,000 is automatically set-aside for small businesses as long as there are at least 2 companies that can provide the product/service. Contracts over $100,000 can be set aside if enough small businesses are qualified to do the work. Contracts over $500,000 have to include a small business subcontracting plan ensuring small businesses an opportunity to obtain work under these large contracts.

Without these set-aside programs, large companies would continue to dominate the federal market and the small businesses would go out of business, never get off the ground, or never be created due to the lack of projected demand. For years, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Boeing, and other prime contractors continued to capitalize on the federal marketplace. Without the small businesses set-aside programs, the small businesses would not be able to participate, gain financial stability, or grow into a medium to large size business. If the government had to choose between a Top 100 prime contractor and a small business, they would most likely pick the large prime. The set-aside programs ensure that the government gives the little guy a chance. This also benefits the government in the long run because the small guy is enabled and expanded to become a contender for other contract vehicles. This promotes efficient and effective competition. It also provides the government with competitive and responsible buying options.

The 8(a) program is a good example of a fair set-aside program, when properly executed. There is a certain time allotted for the small business to take advantage of set-aside contracts, learn the ropes, gain financial stability, capture commercial business to off-set the government revenue, and grow into a medium to large size company. This opens up a new slot for another small business, and enables your company to subcontract and help other small businesses. I guess you could call this the government’s small business circle of life. If rules are followed, it works for all parties involved. 

Contact GovPartners to find out how your organization can join the government's circle of life.

This analysis is a first-ever, in-depth review of the characteristics of women-owned firms in federal contracting and a comparison of those characteristics with those of all women-owned firms. It will enable public-policy makers, government procurement officials, women business owners themselves, and other interested parties to gain a greater understanding of the women entrepreneurs who are providing products and services to federal government agencies. Reference article.  Download analysis.

Forty-eight companies will vie for almost $6 billion in task orders as the Air Force unveils two indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity firm-fixed-price contracts for a variety of support services.

Twenty-nine companies have been named to two contractor pools worth a total of $4.7 billion: a full and open competition pool for large businesses and a small business pool. Both call for management and professional support services, studies, analyses and evaluations, and engineering and technical services, according to a Nov. 29 Defense Department announcement.

The task orders call for assistance for facilities at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, including Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command, Aeronautical Systems Center, Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Institute of Technology, and National Air and Space Intelligence Command.

The Acquisition Management Integration Center in Newport News, Va., is the contracting activity.

The large business awards go to:

Booz Allen Hamilton
CACI International Inc.
Computer Sciences Corp.
Cubic Applications Inc.
Jacobs Technology Inc./Tybrin Corp.
L-3 Services Inc.
MacAulay-Brown Inc.
Science Applications International Corp.
Spectrum Comm Inc.
The Analysis Group, L.L.C.
USFalcon Inc.

Small business awards go to:

Apogee Solutions Inc.
Avanco International Inc.
Blue Force L.L.C.
Catapult Consultants L.L.C.
ComCon Technologies Inc.
D3 Air and Space Operations
Decypher-PSI
ITility L.L.C.
Object CTalk Inc.
Phantom Eagle L.L.C.
Pioneer Technologies Corp.
Sawdey Solution Services Inc.
ZCSolutions L.L.C.
B3H Corp.
Insignia Technology Services L.L.C.
Prevailance Inc.
Quantell Inc.
R&K Enterprise Solutions

Under the second multiple-award contract, 19 companies will compete for a total maximum of $950 million in task orders.

These task orders also will provide support in the areas of management and professional support services, studies, analyses and evaluations; and engineering and technical services at the named facilities at Wright-Patterson AFB.

The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, is the contracting activity on this contract.

Contractors are:

Array Information Technology Inc.
BTAS Inc.
Centech Group Inc.
DCS Corp.
Enterprise Information Services, Inc.
ERC Inc.
Intelligent Decisions
Innovative Technologies Corp.
Leader Communications Inc.
Linquest Corp.
MCR Federal L.L.C.
National Technologies Associates Inc.
Oasis Systems
Paragon Technology Group Inc.
Peerless-MacB J.V.
PESystems Inc.
Quantech Services Inc.
Spectrum Comm Inc.
Sumaria

Reference Article

Current Events

8.         The US military unveiled its latest Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Boeing’s A160 Hummingbird, a helicopter drone which utilizes a 1.8 gigapixel color video camera.  These UAVs are scheduled to begin operations in Afghanistan as early as May of this year.

7.         A deal between the South Korean government and Northrop Grumman for RQ-4 Global Hawk UAVs has been placed on hold after disagreements over costs and delays in getting formal US government approval for the sale.

6.         During the same week, South Korea finalized a purchase with Dassault Aviation for two Falcon 2000 reconnaissance aircraft.  These aircraft will enter service around 2017 and will be the replacement for South Korea’s aging RC-800 (Hawker 800) aircraft.

5.         Russia handed a Nerpa class nuclear-powered attack submarine to India on a ten-year lease for $920 million.

4.         Beidou, China’s version of America’s Global Positioning System, becomes operational.  China becomes the third nation to develop its own satellite navigation system, after the United States and Russia.  Analysts worry that this satellite system will be used to strengthen China’s growing military capabilities. 

3.         U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta presented on Jan. 5 the results of the Pentagon’s strategic review of U.S. roles and missions worldwide in an era of budget cuts.  The news conference outlined how the U.S. will posture its military to address current and future challenges: its reduction of military personnel, its plans for increased flexibility and deployability, and a refocus onto the Asia-Pacific region.

2.         The Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Wednesday, January 04, 2012 that Iran planned to hold more military exercises right after its 10-day drill in the Persian Gulf.  In another escalation in rhetoric, Iran also threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz should an American aircraft carrier return to the Persian Gulf.  The U.S., which keeps a carrier in or near the gulf at all times, shrugged off the threat.

1.         The European Union agrees to embargo Iranian oil, while China has decreased its orders from Iran by more than half this month.  China and the EU are Iran’s largest and second largest purchasers of its oil, respectively.  These recent turn of events have increased the price of oil to nearly $114 per barrel.

It has been an interesting month of December.  For 2012, GovPartners will be releasing bi-weekly news updates from around the world which may be of interest to current (and potential) government contractors.  Below is a top-ten list of the news-worthy material which have dominated the headlines for the month of December:

10.          NATO vows to continue to carry out nighttime raids that target suspected insurgents.  The partnership with Afghan forces will also continue to increase as well, with Afghan special forces now take part in nearly all night raids.

9.            U.S. increasingly reliant on the three transit routes which snake through Central Asia, Russia and the Caucasus to ship non-military supplies and fuel into Afghanistan as the relationship between Washington and Pakistan continues to deteriorate.

8.            General John Allen reiterated that “the continued work beyond ’14 in terms of development of economic capability and governance will continue.  We will also see, probably, a U.S. military capability beyond ’14.”

7.            The U.S. military may have withdrawn from Iraq, but international companies continue to pour into the oil-rich country.  Earlier this month, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Mitsubishi Corp. signed a final $17.2 billion, 25-year contract with the country.  Some $12.8 billion would be spent on infrastructure and $4.4 billon on construction of a liquefied natural gas facility.

6.            Iraq cabinet okays 2012 budget at $100 billion.  The new budget forecasts total government expenditures at $68 billion, including $31.6 billion set for investment spending in 2012.

5.            U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and General Carter Ham, commander of the U.S. Africa Command, paid a visit to the country in mid-December and expressed their confidence and support in Libya’s transition to democracy.

4.            Afghanistan's government signed a deal with China's state-owned National Petroleum Corporation, allowing it to become the first foreign company to exploit the country's oil and natural gas reserves.  The deal, initially valued at $700 million, could end up being more than ten times this amount if more reserves are discovered and developed.

3.            The Department of Defense’s $662 billion budget for 2012 was approved by the U.S. Congress.  The lawmakers agreed on $518 billion for Pentagon operations and about $115 billion to cover the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

2.            Kim Jong-Il passes away, names his 27-28 (depending on source) year old son, Kim Jong-un as his successor.

1.            Iran threatens to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route in the Gulf where more than 1/3^rd of the world’s ship-borne oil passes. 

Current Events

For the Week Ending in 1/13/2012

1.    Western oil firms remain in Iraq even as the US exits.  Iraq has a goal of raising its oil production capacity to 12m barrels per day by 2017, which would place it in the top echelon of global producers.  Recently, BP and CNPC finalized the first new oil contract issued by Baghdad for the largest oil field in the country, the 17 billion barrel super giant Rumaila field.  ExxonMobil, with junior partner Royal Dutch Shell, won a bidding war against Russia's Lukoil (and junior partner ConocoPhillips) for the 8.7 billion barrel West Qurna Phase 1 project. Italy's Eni SpA, with California's Occidental Petroleum and the Korea Gas Corp, was awarded Iraq's Zubair oil field with estimated reserves of 4.4 billion barrels. Shell was the lead partner with Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd., or Petronas, winning a contract for the super-giant Majnoon field, one of the largest in the world, with estimated reserves of up to 25 billion.

2.    Iraq: Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the panel that the U.S. military will continue limited counterterrorism training with Iraqi forces at up to 10 camps around the country beyond the end of the year.  Panetta left open the possibility for continued negotiations with Baghdad over a force presence there.  The Pentagon chief also pointed out that the United States has some 40,000 troops in the region, including in Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

3.    Iran:  Iran has begun uranium enrichment at a new underground site built to withstand possible airstrikes.  One of the scientists working in the uranium enrichment project Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan Behdast, was also assassinated this week in a car blast.  These recent events, along with the positioning of a new aircraft carrier strike group in the Arabian Sea (and another on the way to the region) continues to increase the tension in the region.  

4.    A rotor-wing UAV makes its debut in Afghanistan.  The U.S. military is testing a revolutionary new drone for its arsenal, a pilotless helicopter intended to fly cargo missions to remote outposts where frequent roadside bombs threaten access by road convoys. The craft have flown 20 transport missions since the inaugural flight on Dec. 17.  They have delivered nearly 18 tons of cargo, mainly thousands of Meals Ready to Eat and spare parts needed at the forward operating bases.

5.    The popularity of the unmanned aircraft continues to soar, and its relevance is only predicted to continue to grow.  UAV missions in the military already include deploying missiles and bombs, performing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks, making cargo drops and more.  Combat air patrols by UAVs grew 660 percent from 2004 to 2009, according to the Air Force.  When President Obama rolled out his new military strategy earlier this month, he proposed more emphasis and resources on UAVs.

6.    China’s Pipelines in Myanmar In order to meet energy demands in its resource-crunched eastern, southern and central parts, China is constructing oil and gas pipelines in Myanmar, almost reaching to the seashores of Bay of Bengal. Currently, the CNPC, in agreement with the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) and the Myanmar state security forces, is engaged in laying a 982 km (620 miles) long crude oil pipeline from Kyaukpyu Port on the western coast of Arakan State linking Kunming after entering the border city of Ruili in Yunnan Province of China at a cost of US $2.5 billion. Concurrently, they are also constructing another gas pipeline, capable of delivering 12 bn cm of natural gas per year, from Shwe Gas off the Arakan coast up to Kunming. At the same time, a deep underwater crude oil unloading port and oil storage facility is being constructed at Maday Island (Arakan Coast) to serve as terminus for the tankers coming from West Asia and Africa.

7.    US Military to Help Build South Sudan.  The United States military is joining efforts to help build the newly independent nation of South Sudan.  U.S. Defense officials say they are dispatching five officers from the Army, Air Force, Navy, and the Marines starting January 13 on the orders of President Barack Obama.  The United States has been boosting its military assistance to Africa in recent months. In October, Obama announced the deployment of about 100 troops to Uganda and other parts of Central Africa to help armies in the region battle the Lord’s Resistance Army guerrilla group.

8.    The Marine Corps is slowly increasing its mission objectives in the African continent.  The 180 members of Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force 12 (SPMAGTF-12) are serving in the Trans-Sahel region of Africa, stretches across the center of the continent’s north along the Sahara Desert. The unit has also deployed farther east, in countries such as Djibouti.  SPMAGTF-12 will rotate out of Italy in the spring, and 3rd Force Recon will take over the command element. Rotations for fiscal 2013 “are being sourced,” Winnacker added.  While not expected grow to the level of a 2,300-member Marine expeditionary unit, the SPMAGTF could add Marines in order to be “as relevant as possible.”
 

Current Events

(for the Week Ending January 20, 2012)

5.            Government and African Union forces began a heavy offensive early on Friday against insurgent strongholds on the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu, trying to drive the Islamic militants they have long battled out of the city, officials and witnesses said.

Both U.S. and French special forces are believed to be helping with guidance and intelligence, while keeping low profiles.

4.            China’s top energy group and its partners Qatar Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell agreed to push ahead with plans for a $12.6 billion refinery and petrochemical complex in east China which is likely to start before similar rival facilities.

The project, which includes a 400,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery and a 1.2-million-tonne-per-year ethylene complex, is one of several joint-ventures that China, the world’s second biggest energy consumer, hopes will provide the fuel for its expanding economy.

3.            Israeli leaders held talks with the top U.S. military commander, General Martin Dempsey, following the postponement of a joint exercise that was to be the biggest ever for the two allies.

Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he stressed common interests and the important partnership between the U.S. and Israel in his meetings with Israeli counterpart Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and President Shimon Peres. He was also scheduled to hold talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

2.            France suspended its training operations in Afghanistan and threatened to withdraw its entire force from the country early, after an Afghan wearing an army uniform shot and killed four French troops Friday and wounded others.

1.            Major powers seeking to negotiate an end to Iran's suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons on Friday signaled their openness to renewed talks with Tehran but diplomats said the powers remain divided on their approach.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the group, issued a statement making clear that a diplomatic path remains open to Iran despite tougher sanctions and fresh speculation of a military strike on its nuclear facilities.