The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) is a comprehensive document containing acquisition policies and procedures for federal agencies. Two common acquisition methods outlined in the FAR are Subpart 8.4 and Part 15. Both parts 8.4 and 15 are used for acquiring goods and services, leading to confusion over which guidance to follow. For instance, some procurements could be handled under either regulation, depending on the complexity and particular needs of the agency.

As a government contractor, you have likely become familiar with SAM.gov. There are a number of features in SAM, but arguably the most important is the entity registration feature. Since registering your entity in SAM.gov is required in order to do things like apply for contracts or receive grants from the federal government, this creates a database of thousands of companies. Not only that, but these registrations require resubmission every year in order to remain active. However, the process of updating SAM can be fraught with downfalls that can jeopardize your compliance status and contract opportunities.

The General Services Administration (GSA) recently published a new emerging technology framework for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) prioritizing generative Artificial Intelligence, or AI. This means that contractors who offer generative AI capabilities will be given priority to be expedited through the FedRAMP authorization process. Since AI has grown exponentially over the past few years, there has been a race between the need to rapidly acquire emerging AI technologies in the federal government, and the assurance that AI will be developed and used safely as well as securely. This is the first time FedRAMP will have a framework prioritizing one technology over another. In this blog, we’ll dig into FedRAMP and what the new emerging technology framework will look like for contractors.

Now that it’s officially Q4, the solicitations will start rolling in—are you prepared? Many contractors aren’t taking advantage of all the opportunities coming across their desk because they don’t have an organized system or a recipe for proposal success. In this blog, we’ll cover the major highlights from our recent webinar on how to ace your next winning federal proposal. Whether you have a dedicated proposal team or not, these 10 tips will help you nail your next federal proposal.

Requests for Proposals (RFPs) are a crucial part of your business development as a contractor, but they are not an easy task. There’s a lot that goes into an RFP response, from the early market research stages, to reading over the sections, and leading an in-depth review so your team can submit a successful response. Not only do you have to read, draft, and submit a winning response, but learn all the terminology that goes along with it.

One way that contractors can report their GSA sales is through the Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) pilot program. First rolled out in 2016, the TDR program is still evolving, and GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) is preparing to make some updates to the program this fiscal year.