Expert Advice

State and Local Agency Contracting – A Missed Opportunity

When considering opportunities in the government marketplace, clients will often only focus on Federal agencies (e.g., Department of Defense, GSA, etc.), overlooking those available with State and local agencies. 

While the Federal government is clearly a huge consumer of goods, services, and capital improvements (FY 2017 awards in California alone exceeded $200B), State and local agencies also spent tens of billions on the public’s behalf.

Consider for example:

  • California’s GNP is now the fifth largest in the world, surpassing the UK.
  • There are 1,000’s of local government agencies in the State, ranging from cities and counties, to special districts, public utilities, and higher education.
  • As a matter of policy and to retain businesses within their communities, many agencies have local small business preferences (also known as local business enterprises), ranging up to ten percent.
  • Federal and State-funded projects often require agencies to meet aggressive small business contract and subcontract award targets.
  • Registering online as a vendor or contractor with local agencies tends to be more straightforward than the process required by the Federal government’s portal, SAM.gov.
  • eProcurement solutions used by many agencies have become more mainstream, increasingly sophisticated, and are highly-effective in managing the solicitation process.  Regardless, searching for bid opportunities can prove time-consuming and ineffective, resulting in lost opportunities, too.

The solution: 

The Norcal PTAC affords our clients access to a proven bid-match service.  In a nutshell, working with the client, staff will develop a contractor profile (based upon the product or service offered), using key words and descriptive information, as well as a short and concise “elevator pitch.”  Approximately 1,600 Federal, State, and local agencies channel their solicitations through this service.  When matched to client profiles, email notifications provide links to the solicitations.  As a result, clients can quickly review the summary or synopsis, making an immediate go/no go decision, precluding the need to constantly search databases.

As with all PTAC services, there’s no fee or commitment.  Requiring minimal time and effort, bid-matching has proven exceptionally popular.  If you’ve not already signed up, we encourage you to consider doing so.

Written by: Cameron Langner, Norcal PTAC Procurement Specialist