Open Dialogue on Improving How to Do Business with the Federal Government Ideas

What about an organization that is dedicated to helping small companies navigate the contracting process? In our experience, once you have fought the battle to gain certification (FedRamp or ATO), there is a bigger and more expensive hurdle of getting on the GSA price list and/or finding an appropriate contracting vehicle. Most companies end up working with a contracting partner like Carasoft or mmix who take a big ...more »

The time is right for a public policy discussion contrasting the SWOT for fully outsourcing government IT - no longer would government own, maintain, and upgrade IT infrastructure or application development, but instead private industry would provide government with secure cloud-based DaaS/SaaS that would accelerate commercial as well as government security, convenience, affordability, and trust compared to ownership. ...more »

If you really want to increase small biz participation, increase the use of Section 845 Other Transactions Agreements. It's a great way to encourage non-traditional small biz participation, eliminate a lot of DCAA accounting issues, and keep innovation flowing. The ones my company has been involved in have been very successful. Also, expand the OTA to allow for manufacturing as well as prototyping. Moving away from ...more »

Given the breadth of the complaints, perhaps it is time to create a new major panel similar to the Section 800 panel to address this issues in depth and systematically. Such a group could have the support of both the Congress and the Administration and the product of that group would be much more likely to obtain broad support, as FASA received overwhelming bi-partisan approval and resulted in significant change.

The PQDR process needs to be revised. Why does a contractor have to take extraordinary steps for the Government to remove a PQDR from the system that the contractor has proven was incorrect and the products meet the contract and requirements. The PQDR system is reviewed when a contracting officers is considering and award. False reports can impact getting awards.

Reenact the pre-award survey, not desk audits. This will illuminate contractors that can not perform , right up front, and not delay the procuring process and require re-solicitation.

Use of Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) source selection procedures has increased considerably in recent years and in many cases it is being used inappropriately when the government is not acquiring commodity goods and services. If the product or service cannot be well defined, so that all competitiors are effectively competing on supplying the same product or service, LPTA shouls not be used. Also, if there ...more »

The government may be able to increase the likelihood of new vendor participation (particularly among small businesses) if it lowers the ‘barrier of entry’ to doing business with the government through contractor registration simplification. One of the most common complaints from Sellers new to Federal procurement is the process of needing to register with multiple databases (DUNS, SAM, ORCA, IPP) before a vendor can ...more »

The government should be less reluctant to bar vendors with poor federal contract past performance from participating in federal business opportunities, or should otherwise provide a centralized resource for reporting and reviewing past performance on federal contracts. The bar for being placed on EPLS is alarmingly high. While it makes sense that the government would be cautious and judicious in adding a registered contractor ...more »

if Congress stopped requiring procurment to spend their full budget every year, gov't would be more creative with their spending and more careful. Now it's - we have the money, give it to them; and when the money ois gonem the project stops. When we negotiate, we should SAVE money to use on something else FOR something else to get more bang for the buck and spread more money around to small businesses.

Prime contractors would like to work with subs that bring new capabilities to agencies, and this may be the easiest way for new firms to enter the Federal market. But most believe, based on history with agency proposal reviews, that a non-Federal subcontractor’s lack of past Federal performance will count against them (or at least will have no impact). Guidance should be issued that past performance from teaming partners/subcontractors ...more »

If the USG did not pay for development, it has no skin in the game. Include a presumption under FAR 2.101 that an item is commercial if developed entirely at private expense. Such items can be purchased at firm fixed prices and with no schedule or development risk to the USG. These advantages are undercut, however, if such items cannot be purchased efficiently (or at all). The increased transaction costs and complex ...more »