While government contractors employee hundreds of thousands of people and operate in every state, the importance of maintaining those jobs and the economic impact they make is not a priority for many in Congress. That’s true whether the business is large or small, despite Congressional small business rhetoric to the contrary. Neither is the efficient running of government, even though it has long been shown that a government that can plan ahead and operate with a degree of certainty works better and costs less. This reality came to the forefront last week when Fitch Ratings downgraded US debt over concerns that constant Read more
Let’s stipulate up front that smart use of technology is generally a good thing. That doesn’t mean, though, that contracting professionals should cede all judgement to tech tools meant to help, but not supplant, their ability to make common sense business decisions. Talk to just about any GSA Schedule contractor today, though, and you’ll definitely walk away with the sense that the “HAL 9000” has taken over Schedule negotiations. This results in outcomes that frustrate contractors, limit customer choices and are not, ultimately, in the best interests of Read more
All too often contractor employees think they’ve got an opportunity sewn up and that they “really” know what the customer wants. Our experience shows, however, that the more certain an opportunity appears, the more questions a contractor should ask. We recently spoke with a company that lost out on what seemed like a sure thing because they didn’t talk to all of the customer agency stakeholders. While their main contacts had assured them that all was Read more
Although both the House and Senate are scheduled to begin their August recess next week, that doesn’t mean nothing’s happening now. Contractors definitely need to pay attention to what Congress is doing as it will impact their future business.
1. Increased Possibility of a Government Shutdown: House Freedom Caucus members turned up the heat on this issue this week with Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) saying, “We should not fear a government shutdown; most of what we do up here is bad anyway…” Good went on to say Read more
GSA received over 4,500 questions on its most recent Alliant 3 draft RFP. It will take some time for GSA to address each issue. GSA leaders should use that time to not only respond to questions but develop a sound Alliant 3 small business strategy. The agency’s current plan to issue one, unified RFP for businesses of all sizes comes with substantial risk. NIH’s NITAAC organization used the same approach for the CIOSP IV contract, only to be mired for years with hundreds of protests – so far – and no end in sight. That can’t happen with the Alliant program, one that has driven billions of dollars in IT purchases and has become one of the most popular IT acquisition methods. GSA’s OASIS+ team initially considered the same approach, but wisely broke that program into multiple RFP’s, with one for each small business Read more