The recent Ashley Madison hack doesn’t just have divorce attorneys and spouses scrambling. Federal, municipal and plenty of private sector employers are all on high alert. And they should be.

As a government contract holder, you need to understand that business won’t just fall into your lap - you must be proactive. But how can you be proactive, if you don’t know where to start?

The GSA Multiple Awards Schedule Program’s Professional Services Schedule (PSS) Migration, has been somewhat of a distant mirage over the last year. Since January, multiple stories and webinars have been released discussing the upcoming collapse of eight GSA schedule contracts into one. While some components of the PSS Migration have moved forward, in large part the migration has only resulted in pushing back deadlines. It appears however, that the GSA is finally ready to move forward.

While state and local governments are allowed to purchase services and products off the GSA Schedule Contract, often times, they have their other contracting vehicles and purchasing cooperatives they prefer to utilize. It is important to understand some of the different types of contract vehicles out there for state and local governments to procure from. Here are a few examples.

The two most common procurement platforms for small and emerging government contractors to find and compete for business are FedBizOpps and GSA eBuy. However, if you are relying solely on these two avenues you are missing the vast majority of the federal procurement picture.

Despite what some may think, the world of government contracting is not based on a survival of the fittest model. Instead, smaller members are given a helping hand, to ensure that they can be competitive in winning contracts when going up against larger, more well-known competitors. If you are a certified small business, small disadvantaged business, female-owned small business, HUBZone business, or a business owned by service-disabled veteran(s), your company could benefit from learning more about the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU).