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How To Sell To The Feds
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Article 5: Tips For Contractors
There is much to learn in the world of federal contracts. A few tips:
Don’t try to improve on the contract’s specs. It probably won’t be accepted. Ensure the right materials are on hand to meet your deadline. Place subcontracts and schedule delivery promptly. Notify the administration office immediately if you can’t meet the schedule. Contracts can be canceled for failure to deliver on time. List your firm on a General Services Administration (GSA) schedule. Many agencies contract directly from these, making it easier to reach you. The GSA Schedules program establishes long-term government-wide contracts with 4 million commercial services and products that can be ordered directly from schedule contractors. Here’s the Web site: http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/home.do?tabId=3. Join contracting officers’ organizations such as the National Contract Management Association, www.ncmahq.org. Membership fosters informal contacts and non-adversarial relationships. If you qualify as a Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone), take advantage of its “empowerment” contracting program. Find out if you qualify at http://www.sba.gov/hubzone. If your company is denied a contract for being incapable of fulfilling its requirements, appeal through the Certificate of Competency (COC) program. SBA industrial and financial specialists review your company’s capabilities. If they determine your business can perform the work, the SBA issues a COC requiring that the contract be awarded. There are requirements for vendors to provide accessible technology for people with disabilities. The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) industry group provides the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template to help bidders determine if their products qualify as “electronic and information technology” meeting accessibility standards. The template is a voluntary mechanism to make preliminary assessments. Find it at www.itic.org/policy/vpat.html.
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