Major Shift in Government-Vendor Interface

Some major news in government contracting has been receiving little attention.  The General Services Administration (GSA) is leading an effort to roll up several major government systems into one single interface:  the System for Award Management (SAM).

The unassuming acronym belies a major shift in the way government agencies interact with each other and vendors.  This new system will supplant nine existing federal systems for government-vendor relations:

• Central Contractor Registry (CCR)
• Federal Agency Registration (FedReg)
• Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA)
• Excluded Parties List System (EPLS)
• Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System (eSRS)
• Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Subaward Reporting System (FSRS)
• Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA)
• Federal Business Opportunities (FBO)
• Wage Determination (WDOL)
• Federal Procurement Data System – Next Generation (FPDS-NG)
• Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS)

GSA describes the benefits of SAM as “streamlined and integrated processes, elimination of data redundancies, and reduced costs while providing improved capability.”  The system, if implemented as planned, would certainly accomplish those benefits.  For vendors, maintaining a single login is benefit enough, but the rollup also means that there will be one place to update company info.  And while the backend systems are not visible to the public, there would appear to be quite a few efficiencies to be realized there as well.

Although SAM represents a welcome shift toward efficiency, it should be noted that the launch of SAM has been pushed back several months. The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Here’s hoping that the delay is not a forbearer of difficulty for SAM.

The rollout of SAM has been organized into four phases, each with a group of legacy system that will be assimilated:

Phase 1 – May 2012 (now July 2012)

• CCR
• FedReg
• ORCA
• EPLS

Phase 2a – Dec 2012 /June 2013

• eSRS
• FSRS
• CFDA

Phase 2b – TBD

•  FBO
• WDOL

Phase 3 – TBD

• FPDS-NG

The SAM site (www.SAM.gov) has a number of resources to help users prepare for the change.  For vendors, all previous information will be rolled over into the new system.  The only action necessary will be to create a new login. 

Free and Open Internet

Educate yourself about PIPA and SOPA, then voice your opinion to your senator or representative.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_IP_Act

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Tool Tips: Intro

In the "Tool Tips" series, we will give helpful hints on using tools common to federal business.  Tools might include work processors, contact management software, websites, or spreadsheets.  We may even introduce new tools to help you succeed in federal contracting.

Tool Tips: Page Numbers

One of the most frustrating aspects of preparing a proposal or other document is page numbering. Anyone who has wrestled with page numbers will attest: you can do more harm than good if you don't know what you're doing. Part of the problem is that there are a few features in play here, which makes it difficult because they all inter-relate. In this article, we will discuss how to number the pages in the body of your document differently than other sections such as the table of contents or appendix.

Note: Menus and key strokes apply to MS Word 2007 or 2010. Other word processors have equivalent features, but may go by different names.

The first concept you need to master is sections. Sections let you define completely different settings for different parts of your document. Settings you change in one section do not affect the rest of your document (usually, but more on that later). Start a new section by adding a section break. There are two commonly used types of section breaks: Continuous and Next Page. A continuous section break starts a new section on the same page; a next page section break starts a new section on the next page. To have different page number on different parts of the document, you will need to have the different parts of the document divided into sections. To keep everything straight, you will want to see your section breaks by pressing CTRL-SHFT-8. Add section breaks from the Page Layout menu.

By using sections you can do all sorts of cool things with your document besides page numbering. For instance, you could orient a single page in landscape to better fit a table. Sections can also cause headaches if you are not aware of them, though. If you are making changes to the format of your document that does not seem to be applying consistently, check to make sure that sections are not the culprit.

Headers and footers are where you want to put your numbers. This is where it can get confusing because headers and footers have some behavior that is not obvious. First, they can be linked across sections. Linked headers or footers means that even if the section changes, the header or footer for the new section will match the previous section. Use linked headers or footers if you want to change some settings (margins, orientation, etc.) between sections, but you want the header and/or footer to be consistent. If you want different page numbers, though, you will want to unlink them. Link or unlink headers and footers on the Header & Footer Tools menu (this menu appears when you are editing a header or footer) under Navigation. Remember that headers and footers operate independently of one another.

Also, headers and footers have the option to show different information on the first page of the section than the rest of the section. This is useful when you want to have a different header or footer on your title page, but don’t want to go to the trouble of setting up a whole new section. For most sections, you want to turn this option OFF (it’s on the Header & Footer Tools menu under options). Again, if your changes don't seem to be applying consistently to your document, make sure this option is turned off.

Page numbers make it even more complex. The best way I have found to insert a page number is to put the cursor where you want the page number to appear, go to Header & Footer Tools , select Page Number, select Current Position. Page numbers can continue from section to section, or they can start new in a section. To change this behavior, select the page number, go to Header & Footer Tools, select Page Number, select Format Page Number. Then you can select to continue numbers from the previous section, or specify you own number to start at. You can also change the number format. The number format feature, combined with sections, lets you put roman numerals on your table of contents/title page and Arabic numerals in the body of your document.

Artificial Questions on Federal Solicitations

You probably know that federal solicitations require a question and answer period.  This is the time when industry can submit questions to the government about the opportunity and RFP.  Answers to all questions are published for all interested parties to see, usually in the form of an RFP amendment.

What you may not know is that government officials will often insert their own dummy questions into the list so that they can then answer them and add information to the RFP that they may have left out the first time around.  Because questions are anonymous when the answers are posted, industry never knows the difference.

This peek behind the curtain came to us by way of a small business official at a large federal agency.  And while we have suspected the government of all sorts of behind-the-scenes tricks in solicitations, this one never occurred to us.

If you have a Q&A you think was created by the government, send it along and we will publish it here.

HUBZone changes

HUBZones have been reassessed based on the 2010 Census.  If  you are not familiar with the HUBZone program, you can visit the SBA site.  Basically, it is a program designed to assist small businesses in geographic areas experiencing economic distress.  The designated areas are determined based on a number of factors such as unemployment rate and average income.  

There are several benefits to participation, and they are all extremely valuable.  First, there are many set-aside and sole source opportunities for participants.  Second, participants get a 10% discount on their price for evaluation in full and open competitions. Ultimately, the goal is to award 3% of the federal contract dollars to HUBZone companies.  So, no big deal.  That's only $12 Billion.

If your business has been HUBZone certified in the past, be wary: the zones are shrinking.  614 counties nationwide are coming off the list in 2011; another 67 in 2012; 83 in 2013; and 168 in 2014.  This PDF lists them by state.  The reduction is pretty dramatic.  Check out these unofficial maps of Louisiana and Mississippi:

You have an opportunity to contest your de-certification if you fall into that category, so be on the look out for notification from the SBA.  And if you are not a HUBZone company, check out the list above to see if you qualify and visit this site to learn more.

Watch this space for more news on the HUBZone program.

FedBizHacks Dictionary

The dictionary is now up!  The dictionary is where we will try to decipher the code words, acronyms, and inside jokes you will run into while pursuing federal contracts.

Check it out and let us know what you think.  From time-to-time we will update the list, highlight a term, or answer reader questions via the blog.