Government Contracting Blog

Although GSA’s Industrial Operations Analysts (IOAs) conduct contractor assessments throughout the entire year, for some reason we see an increase in these right around this time every year. Contractor Assessments, previously called Contractor Assistance Visits (CAVs), are GSA’s way of periodically checking GSA Schedule Holders’ compliance with their agreed upon terms and conditions of their contract.

Client Spotlight – Sayres and Associates Corporation, a Veteran and Native American Owned Small Business. As we continue celebrating National Military Appreciation Month, we spoke to representatives from Sayres and Associates Corporation (Sayres), a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB). Hank Miranda, Information and Security Director and Brennan Roy, Director of Business Development explained to us how John Sayres successfully positioned his company to win federal contracts while competing against larger corporations. John Sayres founded his namesake company in 2001 to provide management, technical and administrative services. Working in the realms of program management, acquisition support, logistics, business financial management, cyber security, counterintelligence analysis and much more, helped cultivate brand credibility with the federal government.

In observance of National Military Appreciation month as well as Memorial Day, Winvale is highlighting Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (VOSBs) and topics relevant to them. We will be starting with five key things that veteran small business owners Star #1 should know: The United States Code defines a veteran as someone who has served in the active military, naval or air service, and who was discharged or released under any conditions other than a dishonorable discharge. Federal Agencies spend an estimated 5% of their budget on VOSBs. With an estimated $179 Billion awarded a year, veteran owned opperations can potentially generate $8.9 billion worth of business. Here are three key requirements to becoming a VOSB: 51% of your company needs to be owned by one or more Veterans. If your business is publicly traded, the same criteria needs to be met for shareholders. Management and daily business operations are controlled by you or other veteran colleagues as well. Your VOSB needs to be categorized as “small” under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to the procurement.

In our blog last week, Women in Business: WOSB and EDWOSB Sole Source Advantage, we discussed the competitive advantage the WOSB and EDWOSB programs give Women-Owned Small Businesses. This week we’re going to focus on who and how you should be marketing to the federal government. An agencies past performance can be a good indicator of future needs, so we will also take a look at some agencies’ spending patterns related to the Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs) and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Businesses (EDWOSBs) programs.

For a GSA Schedule contractor, a contract extension is an important process that should be completed without any delay. The GSA Schedule is a five-year contract with three additional five-year option periods for a total of 20 years. After each five-year period, every GSA Schedule contractor has to complete a contract extension prior to their contract’s expiration date in order to extend their contract for another five years. Although it is common to have your contract extended, GSA Schedule contractors should be as proactive as possible during this process to make sure there is no delay in being awarded the next option period.

The time has finally come for the release of GSA’s Professional Services Schedule (PSS). We have been following the news closely on this new consolidated contract combining eight current GSA Solicitations into one.