If you are an IT government contractor – this is for you! Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) are required to be FedRAMP certified by June 2014. Current deployments of cloud-based services in use by Federal agencies must be compliant with FedRAMP guidelines by June 2014. Commercial providers that offered cloud-based services to the Federal government or in the acquisition process prior to June 5, 2012, must have a FedRAMP P-ATO. Government agencies have to move one system to a cloud provider within 12 months of project start, and two more systems within 18 months of launch, by the end of 2015.

Expiring government contracts are a great way for government contractors to compete for government business. These are viable opportunities that are currently being funded. When reviewing an expiring contract, make sure to review and understand six specific contract areas:

1. Request for Proposals (RFPs) are a cog in the government procurement process. A company will write proposals in response to Federal solicitations. While successful proposals are expensive in terms of time, money, and stress on the staff, losing bids as a result of lack of knowledge in proposal writing is much worse. 2. In order to be successful, don’t waste your time bidding on each and every contract that seems appealable. Instead, focus only on projects that you have a good chance of winning. Don’t bid on a contract unless you have researched the proper agency and have developed a proven track record for the product and/or service your organization is offering in the proposal. 3. Hiring an experienced proposal manager can help to achieve a smooth writing process. The proposal manager’s role is to keep the proposal on track and assist the individual’s with completing the assigned sections. While smaller companies can simply designate an individual this responsibility, upper level management must fully support the internal or external proposal manager and provide adequate support to complete the process. 4. In terms of Federal contracting, proposal writing is one of the most important aspects of your business. Your sales team must work in a collaborative effort with the proposal writing team from the very beginning. This will produce an efficient and effective proposal writing process. 5. A technical writer is important when responding to proposals, especially if internal resources are limited for your company. Adding a technical writer to your proposal team will generate a more professional and successful proposal. 6. Good technical writers are one of your most important assets in winning government business. The technical section is typically one of the higher weighted sections. 7. As their title suggests, the proposal manager is more focused on the managerial aspects of the document. That is, the proposal manager organizes and develops the various parts of the document that need to be written. In addition, they often develop an outline and assign particular writing assignments for the team. They also establish deadlines and assist the technical experts assigned to the task. 8. Many companies make the common mistake of beginning the writing process before they have spent sufficient time planning and outlining the proposal and internal process. Outlining is the most essential part to winning a proposal and it should be a continuing effort. 9. Your proposal should be succinct, while still explaining in no uncertain terms your company’s capabilities. That is, don’t provide more than the government asked for in their specified criteria, while still providing improvements to the request. 10. Reviewing the proposal thoroughly is a necessary step in the submission process. Provide ample time for the final review and production in the process. If this step is missed, all the resources required to write the proposal will be wasted. View the 10 successful proposal writing steps every government contractor should know in this infograph,"Top 10 Proposal Tips."

On December 10, 2013 the congressional budget negotiators reached a compromise on 2014 Defense spending. The compromise allows for more clarity in defense spending for the current and next fiscal years (FY2014 and FY2015).

Government agencies are ditching their old habits and implementing new service desk software in hopes of more cost effective solutions to consolidate and optimize their help desk. The Department of Developmental Disabilities (DODD) based in Ohio, “The Buckeye State” was established to maintain applications for roughly 2,000 employees and provide customer support for over 10,000 customers. These customers ranged from county employees, developmentally disabled children and their parents, and service providers across the state.

If your company has ventured into traditional government procurement, you are probably well aware of the downfalls of the procurement processes. For years, traditional public sector procurement processes have been criticized for being slow, inflexible and for limiting the purchases of goods and services from a select amount of vendors by government agencies. These issues with traditional government procurement processes still persist today. To combat these downfalls, many organizations have devoted resources to improve the processes and overcome hurdles that are detrimental to government innovation and efficiency. If you currently are involved or interested in selling to the government, you should be aware of some of the improvements that are occurring in the government procurement process. The State of California is now implementing a redesigned Request for Proposal (RFP) and IT planning process to prevent backtracking and speed up the deployment of new projects. Traditional government RFPs with long timelines, complex rules, and tight guidelines around liability has discouraged some of the most innovative IT companies from entering the government marketplace. To help amend these restrictions and find better ways to procure technology, North Carolina plans to test products before purchasing them in the state’s new innovation center. This initiative will ensure that products can actually fulfill the statement of work and meet budget requirements. BidSync, a provider of eProcurement solutions, has created a vendor management portal to consolidate the entire procurement process called FastFWD. From soliciting vendors, receiving bid notifications, managing contracts and requesting purchases, this tool provides government agencies with greater ability to manage and grow their networks of qualified vendors, while reducing the amount of time and manpower needed to manage these relationships. FastFWD utilizes new startups to launch new projects and solve old problems from the lack of early engagement with vendors that have led to restrictive or limited solutions. To learn more about the improvements being made to the procurement process, read “5 New Approaches to Government Procurement.”