Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

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5 tips for making winning bids

August 29, 2018 By Andrew Smith

After spending 30 years in the software business, Greg Mills was seeking a new challenge. That’s why two years ago, he acquired a brass and metal-fixtures manufacturer near Phoenix and renamed it M3 metals. He’s spent the majority of that time seeking ways to modernize and streamline the company, so it can find new customers in the increasingly competitive construction industry.

He isn’t alone. In fact, 34 percent of construction companies said their biggest challenge in their first through fourth years in business was finding new customers, according to a Kabbage® study. That’s more than the 30 percent combined who said they were most concerned with managing cash flow, dealing with regulations, and finding and retaining employees.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.constructiondive.com/news/5-tips-for-making-winning-bids/530192/

Filed Under: Contracting Tips Tagged With: best value, bid, competitive bid, market research, professionalism, registration, reputation, responsibility, subcontracting

Bipartisan Senate bill introduced to protect small businesses from contracting fraud

May 4, 2017 By Andrew Smith

U.S. Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) are introducing bipartisan legislation to help protect small businesses from falling victim to fraud when they register as vendors for federal contracts.

The Procurement Fraud Prevention Act would require small businesses to be notified that free assistance is available for help in procuring federal contracts through federal programs, including Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs), the Small Business Administration (SBA), and the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA).  Many business owners are unaware these resources exist and fall victim to scams that mislead them into paying high sums of money for contract procurement assistance.

All small businesses applying for federal contracting opportunities must register in the General Services Administration’s System for Award Management (SAM). Unfortunately, bad actors obtain businesses’ contact information from this public database and then email business owners asking for high sums of money in return for registration and contracting assistance. Some scammers impersonate government officials in order to mislead businesses into paying for these services.  As a result, many small businesses unwittingly sign up for services they were not seeking at the cost of hundreds or thousands of dollars. While various firms provide legitimate contracting assistance, bad actors intentionally use predatory tactics to drain money from small businesses.

The Procurement Fraud Prevention Act will require GSA and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ensure that any direct communication to a small business about its registration in a procurement system, including SAM, contains information about cost-free federal procurement technical assistance services available through PTACs, SBA, MBDA, and other programs. These services — like those offered by the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC) — are readily available to help small businesses succeed.

PTACs across the country, including GTPAC, regularly report small businesses coming to them after these fraudulent encounters, seeking corrective action, with some PTACs reporting up to 10 fraudulent solicitations per week.  The Georgia Tech PTAC serves 2,200 businesses across Georgia through offices in Atlanta, Gainesville, Carrollton, Athens, Augusta, Savannah, Albany, and Warner Robins.

“The nation’s small businesses are being exploited by fraudulent operators who mislead federal contracting newcomers into believing that they must pay exorbitant registration fees in order to be eligible for government contracts,” said Terri Bennett, president of the Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC).  “The legislation introduced by Senator Gary Peters and Senator Susan Collins will require federal agencies to be proactive in notifying small businesses that the help they need is available at no cost through programs like the nationwide network of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs).  This should go a long way to stop the exploitation of small businesses.”

“Small businesses would benefit greatly from the Procurement Fraud Prevention Act,” said John Arensmeyer, Founder & CEO of Small Business Majority. “Many small businesses are falling victim to scams after they register with the System for Award Management to compete for a contract because they do not realize they are entitled to free registration and procurement assistance through existing federal programs. Small business owners have enough to worry about without scammers making them think they need to pay additional fees to compete, and we encourage lawmakers to approve the Procurement Fraud Prevention Act in order to make the federal contract procurement process as painless as possible for small firms.”

Filed Under: Contracting News Tagged With: abuse, APTAC, DSBS, federal contracting, fraud, free instruction, free SAM assistance, free SAM help, free SAM registration, GLS, GSA, GTPAC, MBDA, OMB, Pro-Net, registration, SAM, sam is free, SBA, small business

It’s a mistake to rush into the SAM vendor registration process!

August 1, 2012 By ei2admin

If you want to successfully pursue a government contract, it is essential that you register your business in the federal government’s vendor database.  The database is called SAM – System for Award Management – and it’s important for you to know that SAM registration is free and is something you can do yourself.

You may have received an advertisement from someone who is offering to register your business – for a fee – in a vendor database.  But before you rush to register – and certainly before you pay someone to register for you – you should learn what the registration process is all about, and how you can do it yourself – at no cost.

The federal government’s vendor database used to be known as CCR – Central Contractor Registration.  But on July 30, 2012, CCR went away.  It was replaced by SAM.  If you were registered in CCR, your company’s information migrated over to SAM.  This migration covers even firms whose CCR registration information wasn’t kept up to date.  But the information that migrated into the SAM database must be checked and updated by vendors – at least annually.

You can access SAM at https://www.sam.gov.   Note that this is a “.gov” website, not a “.com” site.   Be wary of “.com” sites which are not government-operated websites and which will charge you a fee for registration services.  Again, SAM registration is free – and something you can do yourself.  Assistance with the SAM registration process is free, too.  For details, read on.

SAM logoBefore you start the SAM registration process (or update your existing record), it is very important to “get ready” by thoroughly acquainting yourself with SAM’s purpose and the information you’re expected to know in order to register properly.

We don’t want you to learn the hard way that registering in SAM with incorrect or incomplete information is worse than not registering at all.

Help Is Available To You

The Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC) provides advice to Georgia businesses – literally every day – on the subject of proper vendor registration. In the course of providing this assistance, our Procurement Counselors review many existing registrations and registrations in progress. Based on our reviews, GTPAC estimates that at least 20 percent of the 600,000 firms presently registered in SAM have errors in their records. The mistakes range from misspelled words to empty data fields, to incomplete entries, to selection of incorrect procurement codes, and other flaws. As a result, these vendors can miss-out on government contract opportunities either because they are screened-out for not exhibiting proper attention-to-detail or – because of incomplete information – they cannot be identified by government buyers.

(Incidentally, if your business is located outside the state of Georgia, no-cost help with SAM is available to you, too.  For details, see the last paragraph of this article.)

What Is SAM?

SAM is the federal government’s primary source for identifying potential vendors. Every federal agency, both civilian and military, utilizes the SAM database. Many federal contract officers initially determine whether a contract should be set-aside exclusively for 8(a), HUBZone, woman-owned, or service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses based on firms identifying themselves with these designations in SAM. Prime contractors also use SAM to identify potential subcontractors and suppliers, with emphasis on the various small business socio-economic categories like those just mentioned.  Even state and local governments sometimes consult the federal database to find potential vendors who are interested in the broader governmental marketplace. In addition, all businesses, non-profits, and units of state and local government must be registered in SAM in order to receive federal payments and disbursements against contracts and grants.

Are you beginning to see proper registration in SAM in a new light, including what an important tool SAM is to effectively market yourself to the government?  Truly, SAM is much more than a mere task to quickly get out of the way!   

SAM Preparation Steps

In preparation for registration in SAM, there are several steps you should take.  Among these steps are:

  1. Obtain a TIN/EIN for your business from the IRS. (Even if your business is a sole proprietorship, it’s important — because of identity-theft considerations — that you do not operate your business using your Social Security number.)
  2. Research and identify the PSC/FSC and NAICS codes most appropriate to your business. (Every product and service is classified by these federal numbering systems, and it’s essential that you accurately identify the codes that are applicable to your business.)
  3. Obtain a DUNS number for your business. (Don’t pay anyone for this; a DUNS number can be obtained from Dunn & Bradstreet (D&B) at no cost via the web within a day or two.  Go to: https://fedgov.dnb.com/webform.)
  4. Determine whether your business meets the SBA’s small business size standard. (Most federal contracts valued at less than $150,000 are awarded to small businesses, so you need to know if you qualify.)
  5. Write a brief capabilities statement. (You must have a grammatically-correct, short description of what your company does.)
  6. Identify “key words” associated with the nature of your business. (These words should be crafted from a government buyer’s perspective; in other words, think about what the government might ”call” what it is you do or sell.)
  7. Make a list of business references. (Be prepared to provide company name, contact person, dollar value, and date range of work.)

These are not all of the preparatory steps, but they are the most important ones.  Plan ahead!  It can take five days or more for your SAM registration to take effect because the SAM database must synchronize with D&B and IRS databases before activating your registration.

SBA Database

On the “back end” of the SAM registration system there’s a link that enables you to register in the Small Business Administration’s database.  It’s referred to as DSBS – Dynamic Small Business Search.  If you are a small business, it’s very important that you register here, too.  (This is free, too.)  DSBS is used by government agencies to identify small businesses.  Prime contractors also use it to identify potential subcontractors.  Don’t overlook the link in SAM to DSBS, and make sure you populate all of the fields in DSBS.  Below is a screenshot that shows the button to click in SAM to be linked to the DSBS database.

SAM Handoff to DSBS

Once You’re Registered

Remember, SAM and DSBS are public databases.  Anyone can access portions of the information you provided.  (Some information, such as your banking information, is not publicly available.)   Therefore, once you are registered in SAM and/or DSBS, you can expect to receive phone calls, faxes, and emails from other companies.  Some of these contacts may be completely legitimate – for example, other companies may be looking for potential subcontractors or teaming partners.  But in other instances, scam artists may try to sell you services that are completely unnecessary.   (Some of these operators are out-and-out frauds – click here for details.)   Always explore no-cost alternatives to anything that is being offered to you at a fee.  A great source of free government contracting services can be tapped into through your local Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC).

Our Services

If you have questions or need help with any aspect of SAM, please consider taking advantage of GTPAC’s services in a comprehensive way.  GTPAC is a PTAC that provides assistance to help Georgia firms get ready as well as find and pursue contracting opportunities in federal, state, and local government markets.  All of our assistance is provided free of charge.  Complete details on how to access GTPAC’s services can be found on our ABOUT US page.

And a great way to learn about how you can develop each of the 7 items listed above is by attending GTPAC’s “Introduction to Government Contracting” class or “Fundamentals of Working with the Government” briefing.  Click here to see the dates and locations of these no-cost training opportunities.  More and more of GTPAC’s training seminars are live webinars, so you can attend without having to travel to one of our office locations.

What if your business is outside the state of Georgia?   Take heart!  Expert, no-cost assistance with SAM and every other aspect of government contacting is available to companies – small and large – all across the United States (plus Guam and Puerto Rico) through the network of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs).  To find the PTAC nearest you, simply click here: http://www.aptac-us.org/new/Govt_Contracting/find.php.

For the latest news involving SAM, please visit: http://gtpac.org/tag/sam

© 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 – Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center – All Rights Reserved.

Filed Under: Contracting Tips Tagged With: CCR, fraud, free SAM assistance, free SAM help, free SAM registration, registration, SAM, SAM assistance, sam is free, SAM registration, sam.gov, scam, System for Award Management, vendor, vendor database

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