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THREE THINGS TO FOCUS ON NOW

As we head into the last three months of the federal fiscal year, here are three common-sense tips contractors should follow right now:

1. Helping Your Customer Helps You:  Your federal customer may be juggling competing priorities right now, not only projects, but dealing with acquisition officials, colleagues, and superiors.  Can you help write the justification they need to move ahead on your project?  Can you bring your tech expert in to answer specific questions?  The more you can do for your customer, without doing so much that you disqualify yourself from the acquisition, the better off you’re going to be.

2.  Have A Strategy for Handling E-Buy and Other Electronically Posted RFQ’s:  Automated bid board, GSA E-Buy and related systems are all vital to pursuing as much business as possible right now.  You must, though, have a prepared strategy for how your team will identify and process these opportunities.  Not all are going to be good fits for you.  Be realistic and focused so that you pursue those opportunities where you have an actual shot at success.

3. Make Sure You Know With Whom You Are Doing Business:  Don’t be lured at the end of the FY by pitches from companies you’ve never heard of asking to do business with you because they have some hot lead you don’t know about.  A lot of unauthorized re-sellers and unregistered companies try to get in on government business at year-end.  They can do more harm than good.  Protect your reputation.  Do business with those you know and trust.

MAIL BAG: CAN A PRIME BUY FROM MY SCHEDULE CONTRACT?

Alert reader Richard Feder of Fort Lee, New Jersey writes:  “We sometimes work with a large systems integrator that insists they can buy from our GSA Schedule contract if they send us a letter on their letterhead authorizing it.  Is this accurate?”  Well, Mr. Feder, your systems integrator partner is half right.  Federal prime contractors can buy from you if they have a letter on government letterhead that authorizes them to buy from your Schedule as part of their Read more

JUST LIKE GEORGE, YOU NEED TO “WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE”

If you wasted a considerable amount of your youth watching cartoons like we did, you may recall “George of the Jungle”.  Well-meaning George was always trying to the right thing, but ended up in hot water (literally) and regularly ran into a tree while swinging from a vine.  This same thing can happen to well-meaning government contractors.  The tree your company can slam into is contract compliance and, just like George, you can end up in hot water.  Allen Federal can help your company navigate the jungle of government contract compliance.  Whether it’s a refresher course, help in up-dating a compliance program, or other contract review services, contact us at info@allenfederal.com to see what we can do for you.  We can even train Ursula and Shep.

GSA SHAKE-UP IMPACT ON CONTRACTORS

The departure of the Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service will likely result in the slowing of some FAS initiatives and potentially the reversal of others.  Overall, contractors and FAS staff can expect some confusion and delays as the reorganization dust settles.  Although the departure of FAS Commissioner Tom Sharpe had been expected, the simultaneous resignation of Deputy Kevin Youel Page caught many by surprise.  A new politically-appointed Commissioner, Alan Thomas, is slated to take over this Read more

DHS ADMISSION POINTS TO OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR CONTRACTORS

Department of Homeland Security acquisition officials get an “A” for honesty in discussing what went wrong with their recently-cancelled Flexible Agile Support for the Homeland (FLASH) procurement.  It’s not terrible to try and fail, especially in the name of innovation in a market that can be very risk averse.  One key admission, however, points out the challenges contractors face when offering state of the art solutions in the federal sector.  In addition to Read more