House Subpoenas Four Agencies for Small-Business Non-Compliance

Four federal agencies were issued subpoenas by the House Small Business Committee on Oct. 20 for not complying with the Small Business Act’s procurement policies, according to a committee staffer.

The departments of Justice, Agriculture, Treasury and State were summoned to appear before the Small Business subcommittee on contracting and workforce on Nov. 1 to testify why they are in noncompliance.

At issue is the “structure” of these agencies’ Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Offices (OSDBU) and “the fact that they are not reporting to the agency head or deputy head.”

  

Small Business Subcontracting a Proposed Ruling by SBA

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA or Agency) is proposing to amend its regulations to implement provisions of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, which pertain to small business subcontracting. SBA is proposing to amend its regulations to provide for a “covered contract” (a contract for which a small business subcontracting plan is required, currently valued above $1.5 million for construction and $650,000 for all other contracts), a prime contractor must notify the contracting officer in writing whenever the prime contractor does not utilize a subcontractor used in preparing its bid or proposal during contract performance. SBA is also proposing to amend its regulations to require a prime contractor to notify a contracting officer in writing whenever the prime contractor reduces payments to a subcontractor or when payments to a subcontractor are 90 days or more past due.

In addition, SBA is proposing to clarify that the contracting officer is responsible for monitoring and evaluating small business subcontracting plan performance. SBA is also proposing to clarify which subcontracts must be included in subcontracting data reporting, which subcontracts should be excluded, and the way subcontracting data is reported.


SBA is also proposing to make other changes to update its subcontracting regulations, including changing subcontracting plan thresholds and referencing the electronic subcontracting reporting system (eSRS). Some of the SBA's proposed changes would require the contracting officer to review subcontracting plan reports within 60 days of the report ending date. 


Finally, SBA is also proposing to address how subcontracting plan requirements and credit towards subcontracting goals can be implemented in connection with Multi-agency, Federal Supply Schedule, Multiple Award Schedule and Government-wide Acquisition indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts.

New On-Line Government Forum Created for Small Businesses

The House Small Business Committee has launched “Small Biz Open Mic” as a forum for small business owner to speak directly to Congress about government policies affecting them.

Committee Chairman Rep. Sam Graves describes the site as a:

“… new media forum that encourages blog-type comments and testimonials from small business owners across America regarding government policies, and allows participants to comment on Committee news, legislation, hearings, and news stories that relate to small business growth and development. Comments from participants about legislation and policies that impact small businesses will be used to help the Committee conduct its official business.”

Small business owners can upload videos and leave comments at http://smallbusiness.house.gov/OpenMic/SubmitFeedback.aspx

OMB Urges Agencies to Pay Small Business Contracts Faster

Federal agencies must accelerate their payments to small business contractors, according to an Office of Management and Budget memorandum released Wednesday. The new guideline cuts the recommended payment time in half. Previously, under the 1982 Prompt Payment Act, agencies had to make payments within 30 days from when an invoice was received. 


Now, agencies should make payments within 15 days, or as soon as practicable.
With the government spending nearly $100 billion a year in small business contracts, OMB predicts this will boost cash-flow for small businesses and help create economic growth. “This will benefit tens of thousands of small businesses by getting money into their hands faster. The late payment interest penalty will not change, however. A provision in the Prompt Payment Act, the penalty is triggered when an agency does not pay within the 30-day mark.

Initial reaction from the National Small Business Association is positive.


Agencies are expected to notify OMB by Nov. 1 when they can begin making accelerated payments.

The End of Year Spending

The end-of-year spending spree, a time-honored tradition in the federal government, appears to show no sign of abating.

Although in theory agencies take a more strategic approach to information technology spending than they did, say, a decade ago, most still end the fiscal with a flurry spending in effort to use the last of their appropriated funds. As always, they fear having their budgets reduced in the next fiscal year if they do not use all the money available in the current one. In other words, use or lose it.

The End of the fiscal year is not as close as many would be expecting, normally the end of the fiscal year will be September 30^th, midnight. What this mean is all agencies must spend their budget prior to midnight September 30^th. As I’ve continued to share with you, spending nearly 600B in 5 months is just about impossible. Recently the House voted early Friday 219-203 to pass a continuing resolution that funds the government through Nov. 18, setting up a battle with the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Continue to position your companies for ongoing fiscal year 2011 spending at least through Nov. 18.  

5 Things You Need to Know to Close Deals as Fiscal Year Ends

Just a few weeks remain in the most turbulent federal fourth quarter in memory. On Oct. 1, a new fiscal year will launch without a budget of its own. In the meantime, you’ve still got fiscal 2011 to close out. At this point, your sales group must swerve into expediting mode in order to close as much business as possible in the remaining month until the end of the fiscal year. While marketing and business development really can’t do much for the current fiscal year, you still have time to close sales.


Here’s how: Concentrate your expediting activities on making sure contracting officers receive complete, sign able packages they’ll be willing to move on. Keep in mind, they are in a mode of only signing and moving packages entailing the least friction for them.


To ensure closure, make sure you can affirm the following statements...

How Sept. 11 Changed Government Contracting Forever

When terrorists hijacked four planes to use them as weapons and killed thousands of innocent people in the process, a chain reaction started that quickly swept across the country. Today we live with many of those changes, from heightened security checkpoints at airports to more requirements to get a driver’s license. Government contractors saw their market changed overnight, with a rush of government spending on new security priorities, creating an abundance of business opportunities. Ten years later, contractors still feel the impact, including the types of business opportunities available, the role of the financial markets and the relationship between contractors and government agencies. But other changes have been at work as well. Some are counteractions to the reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks. Others would have happened anyway. Either way, contractors have been in a near-constant state of evolution over the past decade. That condition is likely to extend well into the next decade.


A Need for Speed
The biggest game-changer was the sudden awareness of the security vulnerabilities that threatened the United States and the need to address those vulnerabilities. Before the attacks, terrorism was thought of as something that happened somewhere else. “What Sept. 11 brought home was that we were vulnerable. The government reaction was to rapidly start addressing security issues, which meant the allocation of funds and the awarding of contracts. First, there was the creation of the Transportation Security Administration and then the Homeland Security Department. Other agencies such as the Justice and State departments increased their spending on security. More money also began flowing to state and local governments in the form of grants. The heightened security concerns also led the United States to launch the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and supporting those efforts also helped fuel an explosion of spending with government contractors. In fiscal 2000, the contractors on Washington Technology’s Top 100 rankings had an aggregate of $26.8 billion in prime contracts. In fiscal 2010, the number had climbed to $132 billion. Much of that growth was driven by the need to support warfighters and to support intelligence and homeland security initiatives. “The clock speed of contracts and task orders increased significantly,” “With 9/11, money moved very quickly, and companies had to adjust and modify their business development efforts and response times.”The government wholly embraced the use of indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts because agencies could move quickly to address a need. That trend has become a fact of life in the government market as these large task-order contracts have become the vehicle of choice for buying services and products. “The increased use of IDIQ contracts and the quicker turnaround of those activities has changed how we do contracting,”

DOD Urged to Speed up Small Business Contracting

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned the Defense Department's senior leaders that they will not reach the small business contracting goal for the fiscal year if they keep moving at the current pace.

“With only six weeks left in this fiscal year, we are falling short of meeting our departmentwide small business contracting goal of 22.3 percent,” he wrote in a memo on Aug. 24. “Secretary Panetta urge senior leaders and everyone in their organization who is involved in the acquisition process to review all planned acquisitions for the remainder of the year to identify opportunities for increased contracting with small businesses."

Ashton Carter, under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, would issue more guidance, Panetta also wrote.

“Dynamic small businesses play a central role in strengthening the Department of Defense industrial base and improving our acquisition outcomes,” he wrote. “Small businesses not only lead the nation in innovation, they are also proven drivers of competition and incubators for business growth.”

In a letter sent to Panetta on Sept. 2, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), chairwoman of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, offered her full support because Panetta had made small-business contracting a priority. She recommended that DOD consider small businesses when officials write policies that influence how acquisition officials and program managers interact with contractors.

Small Business Jobs Act of 2010

On Sept. 27, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Small Business Jobs Act, the most significant piece of small business legislation in over a decade. The new law is providing critical resources to help small businesses continue to drive economic recovery and create jobs. The new law extended the successful SBA enhanced loan provisions while offering billions more in lending support, tax cuts, and other opportunities for entrepreneurs and small business owners.

·       New Law Puts More Capital in the Hands of Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners

·       New Law Strengthens Small Businesses’ Ability to Compete for and Win Contracts, Including Implementing Recommendations from the President’s Task Force on Federal Contracting Opportunities for Small Business

·       New Law Promotes Small Business Exporting, Building on the President’s National Export Initiative

·       Law Expands Training and Counseling

·       New Law Provides $12 Billion in Tax Relief to Help Small Businesses Invest in their Firms, Create Jobs

·       Treasury Department Provisions

Please read more about the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 at the following link: http://www.sba.gov/content/small-business-jobs-act-2010

Congressman Questions Agencies on Small-Business Advocates’ Authority

Senior executives at several Cabinet-level departments received letters Aug. 5 that asked why their small-business advocacy offices have not been given the authority the law dictates.


Chairman of the Small Business Committee’s Contracting and Workforce Subcommittee, wants to know why departments’ office of small and disadvantaged business utilization (OSDBU) officials don’t have access to top officials to deal with small-business problems, such as contract bundling and paying firms promptly.


The Small Business Act requires that heads of a department’s OSDBU should “be responsible only to, or report directly to, the head of such agency or to the deputy of such head.”


It’s not happening, according to a Government Accountability Office report from June.

The Small Business Government Contracting “Past Performance” Challenge

As a small business begins the proposal submission process to federal government agencies or to prime contractors the past performance challenge is a major challenge. By definition a start-up company in government contracting has no direct government agency past performance projects to site in meeting the requirement in requests for proposals (RFP’s) for historical references to similar projects in terms of size, duration and complexity.

Past performance data must be specific to the enterprise bidding a contract. It cannot site historical references to performance of individuals now in the company when they were with other firms, achievements by predecessor companies or successful projects that the current company did not perform as its current entity. The purpose for this rigid perspective by the government is to avoid "Fronting" a new enterprise with misleading information to obtain a high past performance rating.

So how can a new organization or one that is new to government contracting muster a response to the past performance challenge?

One of the Steps that Supports Emerging Small Businesses in Doing Business with the Government is Identify and Analyze Opportunities and Risk.

Before you pursue an opportunity, you first need to analyze the elements of opportunity and risk to understand if it is a worthwhile. Companies do not  have infinite resources, so it is essential that your company employ a standardized methodology for all sales personnel to assess and prioritize opportunities. Having developed an understanding of the opportunity, you will next want to understand your competitors. You will want to identify each competitor or competitive team, what they plan to offer, and how they and their solution are viewed by your customer.

To be effective, you need to develop a “win strategy.” To do this, you need to answer two simple questions from the customer’s perspective: 1) “why us”, 2) “why not our competitor”. Part of this win strategy will also include a “customer positioning and contact plan” with specifics on who, when, and how to convey this message to key executives and decision-makers in the customer’s organization. The win strategy will also serve as the basis to develop the proposal win theme.

10 Tips for Better Contracting: Relationship Advice for Contract Managers

1. Learn about the program manager’s expectations and goals. Contractor and customer need to figure out milestones that point out progress.

2. Establish goals for the program that deal with cost, schedule, and performance with top management based on the contract’s requirements.

3. Get agreements in writing to be clear on issues.

4. Build a solid team in order to meet all parts of a contract, have a strong financial manager and strong contract specialist.

5. Arrange a schedule for meeting regularly, whether in person or otherwise, whichever fits the circumstance.

6. Meet the points of contact in the program manager’s office. Contractors need to develop more than arm’s length relationships. It’s also important to know the chain of command in the program office.

7. Realize that bad news doesn’t get any better with age,  a program manager—or anyone, for that matter—doesn’t want to be blindsided with problems.

8. Grow tough skin. Contractors need to learn patience, and when people get upset, they should take the high road.

9. Don’t take comments personally.

10. Finally, learn from the mistakes that were made.

BENEFITS of SMALL BUSINESS TEAMS

BENEFITS TO DoD

When small businesses compete as teams—DoD benefits. Specifically, by encouraging small business teams, DoD can do the following:

·       Consolidate requirements with a single contractor

·       Reduce the administrative burden

·       Have a single point of contact

·       Reduce program management

·       Support small business contractor development

·       Increase competition and expand opportunities for small business

·       Increase innovation

·       Reduce risks.

 BENEFITS TO SMALL BUSINESSES

Just as large businesses regularly team in the federal marketplace to achieve certain benefits, small businesses can achieve the same benefits and expand their prime contract (and subcontract) procurement opportunities. Specifically, by forming teams, small businesses can do the following:

·       Take advantage of relaxed SBA affiliation rules

·       Maximize complementary skills, resources, and capabilities

·       Minimize risks

·       Develop a direct relationship with DoD

·       Fill gaps in past performance

·       Eliminate barriers (for example, supporting requirements that are geographically dispersed)

·       Increase competitiveness.

Government gets a B in 2010 Small-Business Contracting

The Small Business Administration gave the government a B grade for its attempts to reach small-business contracting goals, including the annual 23 percent overall goal.

The government awarded 22.7 percent of its contracting dollars to small companies in fiscal 2010, compared to 21.9 percent the previous year. It awarded $97.9 billion to small businesses in 2010, compared with $96.8 billion in 2009, a $1.1 billion increase.

The B grade means that the government met 90 percent to 99 percent of its goals for the year.

In 2010, the government improved in four of the five categories of small businesses compared to SBA’s previous score card. There were increases in contract dollars and performance against statutory goals, except in the Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) category.

Contract Compliance Agency seeks more Data

The agency that ensures federal contractors are meeting federal employment rules is seeking more information from contractors.

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) says the changes should make the process easier on contractors while also providing better data for their evaluations.

But corporate law firms and consultant groups are alerting contractors via their blogs and websites that the additional data OFCCP wants will actually be a new burden for them.

OFCCP, which checks contractors’ compliance with federal affirmative action and equal employment opportunity requirements, sends what’s called a Scheduling Letter to contractors selected for a compliance evaluation. That letter lists what data the contractor is required to submit so OFCCP can perform its evaluation.

The current form of the Scheduling Letter is set to expire on Sept. 30, prompting the proposed changes by the OFCCP which are posted at regulations.gov.

7 Do's and 1 Don't for Avoiding Conflicts of Interest

How companies can avoid organizational conflicts of interest? Experts have narrowed down the to-do’s to a few don'ts

·     Do understand the organizational conflicts of interest (OCI) rules and the different categories of OCIs.

·       Do be particularly attuned to “impaired objectivity” OCIs.

·       Do think broadly. OCIs are created at a companywide level, not simply a division or sector level.

·       Do consider the long-range business plan for a particular procurement.

·       Do be aware that winning a small, preliminary award could create conflicts on a massive, future award.

·       Do be aware of the potential restrictions on follow-on contracts that might accompany system engineering and technical assistance work.

·       Do ensure that every proposal considers and, as required, implements an OCI mitigation plan.

·       Do not simply ignore an institutional competitive advantage when preparing a proposal.

Proposal Development Strategies and Writing Tips

1. Use outline formats and listings whenever possible to break up narrative texts.

2. Use visuals to enhance and explain abstract concepts and relationships. (Do not overuse.)

3. Don't overkill a point. State it, support it, and move on to the next point.

4. Use forecasting and internal summaries to help the reader know where they are and where they are going.

5. Be generous with transitions as they will help the reader to know where they have been and where they are going.

Best Practices for Collecting and Using Current and Past Performance Information

The Federal Government is in a continuous process to reinvent itself, with a goal of becoming a government that works better and costs less.  The Government is the largest acquisition organization in the world with expenditures of about  $200 Billion a year for commercial goods and services.  This is one third of the Federal discretionary budget of about $600 Billion.  How well the Government’s acquisition teams administer in-process contracts and discuss with contractors their current performance, determines to a great extent how well agencies can achieve their missions and provide value to the taxpayers.  By increasing attention to contractor performance on in-process contracts and ensuring past performance data is readily available for source selection teams, agencies are reaping two benefits:  

(1) better current performance because of the active dialog between the contractor and the government; and (2) better ability to select high quality contractors for new contracts, because contractors know the assessments will be used in future award decisions.

5 Steps to Sharpening your Marketing Strategy

Targeting your market efforts to specific audience is critical to success, as we approach the end of fiscal 2010, targeting your marketing efforts to specific audiences and opportunities becomes even more important. The information provided starts a “checklist” that will continue in future Monday Morning Contracting Tips...

Checklist item 1: For several years I have recommended focusing on one or two agencies to grow your government business. Even if you have been in the market for a while, maximizing the value of one agency before moving to a new one is important. If you are focusing on specific agencies, there is some homework for sales, marketing and business development staff. Agency homework includes:

Get agency and office organization charts – know the food chain

-The organization charts allow you to see your agency’s entry point (initial customer or prospect), where he or she is in the management food chain, and determine who else might be involved in the buying decision process. It also provides a “bigger picture” as to how your agency penetration strategy is working and identifies other offices.

 Obtain and read the agency budget filings to see where the money is likely to be spent

-The agency filings allow you to see where it wants to spend available funds

 Ask your contacts for referrals

-Asking your current customers for referrals seems obvious, but it does not happen as often as it should.  Asking for referrals should be a part of the normal sales process

   

Ensure that you request the proper individuals, (executives, engineers, etc.) for meetings

-Issues that require technical staff involvement make sure they are there

Check for any agency events coming up; you need face time

-When selected properly events are always important as they provide more opportunities for face-to-face contact. In-house agency events and other agency-specific activities are beneficial for growing your business.

Welcome to the New Era of Business Development

It’s no secret that there are fewer new opportunities in the government market, thanks to looming budget cuts and an increasing trend away from the use of new contract awards in favor of established governmentwide acquisition contracts.

However, companies can increase their ability to compete and even boost their win rates and revenues if they invest in and optimize their business development and capture management processes and tools.

More companies are fighting for smaller pieces of business out here in the market, but those companies that invest and work hard to build and optimize their processes will do better in competition. Making the decision to invest is easy, but implementing it is not.

The Key to Long Lasting Organizational Change

The key to long-lasting organizational change is transforming the ingrained attitudes, beliefs, values or mindset of personnel by embracing these four strategies.

·   Solidify management’s commitment to the new objectives, methodology, expectations or roles and behaviors. Change starts at the top of an organization. Leadership has to buy into every aspect of the need to change the status quo. Management must exhibit the desire for change and actively promote follow-though if a transformation is going to last.

·   Communicate to everyone that roles and expectations are changing, behavior has to change, and, likewise, their thinking also must change. To make a substantial change, you have to transform the organizational mindset. Changing a mindset needs to be done at the role level. People need to introspectively evaluate their mindset in light of the role they’ve been working in, as well as the role they are now being asked to move to and function in the transformed organization.

·   Install reinforcement and support systems to bolster changes, such as ongoing refinement of processes, training in new systems, strong leaders who dive in, exemplify and promote the change.

·   Provide training and insights into how personnel can adjust their thinking if they want to succeed in a new role. Not everyone is prepared to change. How can you deal with this? The best way is to encourage de-volunteering. You should communicate the expectations in the new role, the methodology, the requirements and the behavior; provide support training for people who have difficulty adopting these changes; and allow people to make their own decision to move ahead and embrace the changes or not. Ultimately, only they can make change happen for them. Everyone says they’re for change — they just don’t want to be changed.

Understanding HOW your proposal is selected

FAR Part 15 - Source Selection Processes and Techniques

Best value continuum

An agency can obtain best value in negotiated acquisitions by using any one or a combination of source selection approaches. In different types of acquisitions, the relative importance of cost or price may vary. For example, in acquisitions where the requirement is clearly definable and the risk of unsuccessful contract performance is minimal, cost or price may play a dominant role in source selection. The less definitive the requirement, the more development work required, or the greater the performance risk, the more technical or past performance considerations may play a dominant role in source selection.

Tradeoff process

A tradeoff process is appropriate when it may be in the best interest of the Government to consider award to other than the lowest priced offeror or other than the highest technically rated offeror.

Lowest price technically acceptable source selection process

The lowest price technically acceptable source selection process is appropriate when best value is expected to result from selection of the technically acceptable proposal with the lowest evaluated price.

Oral presentations

Oral presentations by offerors as requested by the Government may substitute for, or augment, written information. Use of oral presentations as a substitute for portions of a proposal can be effective in streamlining the source selection process. Oral presentations may occur at any time in the acquisition process, and are subject to the same restrictions as written information, regarding timing (see 15.208) and content (see 15.306). Oral presentations provide an opportunity for dialogue among the parties. Pre-recorded videotaped presentations that lack real-time interactive dialogue are not considered oral presentations for the purposes of this section, although they may be included in offeror submissions, when appropriate.