Working with the government

“Small businesses are the engines that drive the economy and bring a depth of experience to a job.” – Mary Parks, GSA

“Working together, our staff and our small business partners bring extraordinary strength to creating solutions to our country’s complex problems.” – Lynn Livengood, Battelle Memorial Institute

By Sue Marquette Poremba
Contributing Editor

You might consider the General Services Administration (GSA, Washington, DC) the broker for the federal government. Its job is to leverage the buying power of the Fed to ensure best value for federal customers and, of course, the taxpayers. As the Fed’s central procurement office, GSA manages 11 percent of the government’s procurement dollars through a variety of programs.

The agency also manages $24 billion worth of federal assets, including government-owned or -leased buildings and the federal fleet of cars and trucks.

“As you can imagine, managing that many assets takes a lot of resources from the contractor community,” says Mary Parks, acting associate administrator of the GSA. Actually, GSA works with some 16,000 contractors. “Eighty percent of them are small businesses, and about five percent of the small businesses are women-owned,” Parks reports.

Small and HUB zone businesses
Most of the government’s small business programs are covered by the Small Business Act, which requires a certain percentage of procurement dollars to be spent with small businesses. There are other goals as well, Parks notes: “While twenty-three percent of procurement dollars has to go to small businesses, five percent of that goes to small disadvantaged businesses, five percent to woman-owned businesses, three percent to businesses owned by veterans disabled in the line of duty, and three percent to historically underutilized business (HUB) zones.”

To be certified as a HUB zone employer, a company has to be hiring thirty-six percent of its employees from the HUB- zone area. “It’s a program that tries to revitalize the economy in those underutilized areas,” Parks says.

Small businesses, she continues, are the engines that drive the economy and bring a depth
of experience to a job. “As a federal agency, it’s important for us to take a role in fully representing the community of contractors that are out there. And it’s a lot easier for them to take on a job than it is for the government.”

Networking and training
GSA has regional offices around the country, each with a small business rep. “They offer networking and matchmaking opportunities,” says Parks. “We all hold Webinars and make other educational efforts to show small businesses how to work with the government.”

Sometimes a business will get a contract but not know how best to home in on the project. GSA offers training and feedback on how to manage the entire process. Some regional offices do their own outreach: putting on networking breakfasts, for example, that let federal agencies in the area meet businesses in their own communities.

“We’re the front door for small businesses into a federal agency,” Parks declares. “We talk to the businesses and find out what they have to offer. If there seems to be an opportunity for them in our agency, we help nurture the relationship between the business and the agency program office.”

Working with the Port Authority
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PA, New York, NY) has a longstanding commitment to women- and minority-owned businesses, says Lash Green, director of the Office of Business and Job Opportunities (OBJO). “We have the corporate responsibility to ensure that all construction projects, RFPs and engineering agreements have good-faith MWBE participation goals in the bid solicitation documents.”

Green sends his office staff to sit in on pre-award meetings to find MWBE opportunities in upcoming bids. They also get involved in developing an annual diversity plan for construction projects. “We have a very comprehensive program,” says Green.

As part of its diversity plan, the PA holds networking exchanges in each of its major procurement areas: construction, architectural and engineering services, and goods and services. There are workshops for vendors in each area.

“For the construction contractors exchange, for example, we invite women- and minority-owned firms that are qualified as construction contractors. We also invite the largest construction firms with current PA contracts to the event. It’s an opportunity for the small companies to meet with the larger companies and hopefully make a match.”

Updating and mentoring
At the buyers’ exchange for goods and services firms, procurement staff makes presentations to bring companies up-to-date on upcoming PA solicitation plans and alert them to the opportunity to bid directly with the agency. These events attract hundreds of small, minority- and women-owned companies. In addition, the PA attends similar sessions held by other government agencies, expanding its pool of suppliers. In all, OBJO reaches out to thousands
of interested businesses, Green believes.

Besides networking events, the PA’s engineering department co-sponsors a mentor-protégé program with OBJO. “It’s another component of the larger diversity outreach program,” says Green. Between fifteen and twenty qualified women- and minority-owned businesses are matched with mentors: large, successful construction companies holding contracts with the PA. “The companies that get into the program do quite well,” Green notes. “Some companies that had never been able to get a contract in the past begin to compete successfully after they’re mentored.”

The contracts the PA gives its small and diverse suppliers are an important element in the local economy. In 2008, half a billion dollars in contract awards created some 5,000 new jobs and generated $910 million in wages, Green says. And the economic factors go hand-in-hand with other benefits of working with diverse businesses.

“These businesses are a very important part of getting our work done, particularly the many specialty trades that are involved,” says Green. “Large businesses depend on these smaller companies.”

Armand Corp works for the PA
Barbara Armand began her construction management firm in her home eighteen years ago. Today, Armand Corp (Cherry Hill, NJ) has nineteen employees, seventeen of them engineers, and two offices.

“We started out doing public agency work in Philadelphia,” Armand says. “The first contract was my project alone, but soon the projects got bigger and we were subcontractors as part of a bigger team.”

Working with public entities is a smart business move, Armand believes. “They tend to be repeat clients, and capital budgets tend to increase.”

Armand has worked as a sub-consultant on some PA projects. One of them was with American Airlines, as part of the management team working on a new international terminal at JFK Airport.

She recently finished two smaller projects at JFK as a sub-consultant to another firm, working on retail and restaurant space. Armand used this experience to learn about the Port Authority and give them a chance to learn about her company. She’s waiting to hear back on a proposal she recently submitted to the agency.

“You can always use what you learn on one project to help you with another project,” she says. “Agencies expect you to do a good job, and they expect you to have back-office support with invoicing, accounting and QA programs. I always make the effort to become qualified in anything necessary to meet the requirements, because if you don’t meet the requirements,
you don’t get the work.”

Public agencies, she adds, are very good at laying out what is needed to get a contract and how to get a foot in the door. “It’s a pretty simple process,” she says. “It’s just a matter of doing everything properly.”

Contracts with the U.S. DOT
The Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT, Washington, DC) makes sure small businesses get a fair shake competing for contract dollars. “We provide opportunities, technical assistance and financial services to the small business community,” says Brandon Neal, director of the office.

Neal’s department works with small, disadvantaged, women-owned, HUB-zone and disabled-veteran-owned businesses. In addition to a procurement division, the office has a financial division, which offers short-term loans to diverse businesses and provides capital to help small businesses grow and participate in the bidding process for DOT projects.

DOT’s regional partnership division works with small, diverse companies on a state and local level. Finally, the national information clearinghouse supplies information about procurement, answers questions and helps with marketing.

Stimulus aid
DOT’s OSDBU has just announced a bond reimbursement program through the stimulus package. Some $20 million is available to help small businesses get off the ground and compete for DOT projects, Neal says. “We’ll reimburse them for the fees associated with the process,” he explains. “We’re excited to be able to help people.”

DOT works with a lot of technology companies. “We provide them with some direction on what the big companies are looking for,” Neal says. One way DOT does it is through a vendor day. “We partner with the Office of the CIO,” he explains. “The day is geared for IT and related consulting services the DOT purchases.”

The other departments within DOT provide their forecasts for the upcoming year, and Neal’s office tries to help them all hire the right companies to fit their needs.

“Our office is dedicated to making sure small business is at the negotiating table,” Neal says. “We can help people realize the American dream and help the DOT work better at the same time.”

Document Managers stores the paperwork
There’s a lot of paperwork involved for any government agency. Many of
those documents are now being stored electronically. Document Managers (Washington, DC), in business since 2001, provides document management and imaging services to a number of government agencies.

“We make it possible for the agencies and the public to retrieve vital information,” says Darryl Wiggins, president and CEO. “It can be anything from an employment claim application to a birth certificate.”

The firm has been working with the DOT since early 2009. “Like every government agency, DOT has the custodial requirement to maintain information,” Wiggins says. “They have to provide that information in a quick and timely manner when asked, and paper does not facilitate that process. We thought we could make a great business partner with the DOT.”

Wiggins believes that one of the greatest benefits of his relationship with DOT and other government agencies is the transparency of information he can provide. “Government has to tell you where the information is and who maintains it,” Wiggins explains.

Working with DOT’s office of small and disadvantaged business utilization, Wiggins has a direct line to business opportunities. “The office doesn’t put us in position to be awarded contracts, but it does let us know who the CIOs are in the different departments. Once we establish that contact, it helps us work with them to show our capabilities.”

Working with Battelle
The mission of Battelle Memorial Institute (Columbus, OH) is to explore emerging areas of science and develop and commercialize technology. Battelle also manages or co-manages nine national labs for the Department of Energy, and the nation’s premier biological threat characterization and bioforensic analysis research facility for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“Through our staff diversity initiatives, we recognize that great ideas often come from people with different talents and experiences working together,” says Lynn Livengood, Battelle’s manager of supplier diversity programs. “By working together, our staff and our small business partners bring extraordinary strength and depth of expertise to creating solutions to our country’s most complex problems.”

Battelle and the small business community often partner on subcontract opportunities, Livengood adds. “We look for small businesses that complement our capabilities, have an outstanding performance record and are financially secure. We’re also looking for ‘set-aside’ opportunities where we can strengthen the entire small business team.”

Fostering long-term relationships
To make sure small businesses are guided in establishing links with Battelle, the institute established an office of supplier diversity. Its prime directive is to foster long-term strategic relationships between Battelle’s project staff and qualified small, diverse suppliers. “Our office pairs program managers with small businesses that meet technical project needs and fill the categories needed to meet contract goals,” says Livengood.

“It’s our philosophy to augment and enhance our capabilities where necessary to provide innovative, professional and cost-effective support. If Battelle does not possess the subject matter expertise for a client requirement, we want to search out that expertise, evaluate our mutual compatibility, negotiate competitive pricing, and enter into a contractual agreement.”

D/C

Sue Marquette Poremba is an engineering and construction writer in State College, PA.

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