Q4 of the federal government Fiscal Year is like Christmas Eve at a mall—a spending spree full of exciting opportunities for your company and all the chaos that comes with it. While this is the most important time of year for taking advantage of government business, it can come with its own set of challenges. During Q4, government agencies are rushing to spend the remainder of their budget and releasing scores of solicitations. This means while contractors will have a great opportunity to win business during this time, they often face increased competition, tight deadlines, lack of resources, and stringent compliance requirements.

GSA Schedule contract compliance is not an easy task--there are so many requirements to abide by and keep up with, and frankly, it can be overwhelming. GSA Schedule contracts can be a great asset to your company, but they require time and dedication. One of the most important parts of maintaining contract compliance is sales reporting. This is the General Services Administration’s (GSA) way of tracking how your company is performing as a contractor, and collecting data on the solutions that are being acquired through the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program.

The American federal government isn’t the only procurement landscape shifting its attention to denfence spending. The European Union (EU) is undergoing a significant transformation, with a stronger focus on military readiness. This includes organizations like the North American Treaty Organization (NATO), which is also leaning more into defence. As a result, we can expect to see emerging opportunities for both U.S. and EU contractors. In this blog, we’ll cover recent European/NATO defence initiatives so you can stay ahead of these future opportunities.

Entering the federal marketplace can be daunting. Especially if you are a small business with little to no resources on how to cut through the bureaucratic red tape and successfully secure a spot on a contract vehicle. What many businesses don’t know is you can approach your path to market in different ways. The Department of Defense (DoD) has a few innovation programs that are designed to help companies with innovative solutions gain access to critical funding and become visible to government buyers. These programs allow for technology development acceleration, innovative research and development, and give small businesses the opportunity to share their cutting-edge solutions with less barriers to market.

To busy government contractors, market research may seem like a trivial activity that can be pushed toward the bottom of their to-do list. Since it won't directly end in a contract award, it's not worth prioritizing, right? Wrong. Market research (often in the form of Requests for Information, or RFIs) is just as essential as Requests for Proposals (RFPs). Market research is generally used to build an RFP, so it's actually important to get your foot in the door early.

It’s almost our favorite time of the year—Q4 of federal government’s fiscal year. From July through September each year, the federal government goes on what is essentially a spending spree totaling approximately 1/3 of its annual discretionary spending. Regardless of the administration, it’s always going to be a quarter full of opportunities as agencies rush to spend the remainder of their budgets. However, the administration does drive where spending will be the most popular. Let’s look at where GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contractors can expect to see a focus on procurement in Q4 and beyond.