Your state's procurement portal will have a master list of statewide term contracts and cooperative purchasing agreements that you should check...

Luis, school districts in Texas also use statewide term contracts for services, which means they can buy off pre-approved vendor lists without a new...

NASPO ValuePoint is a cooperative purchasing program that state and local governments use to buy goods and services. A small firm can realistically...

Keisha is right, a county can use cooperative purchasing, but you need to check the original contract to see if it allows other government entities...

You get the full bid tabulations for county and school contracts by following each entity's specific public records request process.

There is no central repository for winning proposals at the state or local level, and you will need to file a public records request for each one....

When a debrief request landed on my desk, it always triggered a scramble. I was the contracting officer for a federal agency, handling services...

You should file an agency-level protest first. An agency-level protest based on an apparent solicitation impropriety must be filed before bid opening...

I'm trying to get ahead of the game on a big federal grounds maintenance contract I found on USAspending. The prime contractor has the current award...

FPDS is still the system for reporting federal contract award data, but it is accessed through SAM.gov. Marcus is right about the reporting...

A strength in a technical volume looks like an aspect of your proposal that exceeds the requirements of the performance work statement in a way that...

My firm is a staffing agency, and we usually work commercial contracts. We received an RFQ for an IT services contract with the state of Maryland....

The executive summary of a proposal should highlight your key discriminators and value proposition, and yes, evaluators do read it. For this 8(a)...

A basis of estimate (BOE) explains how you calculated your proposed price, and for a firm-fixed-price bid, it needs to be detailed enough to show...

I'm looking at a state agency Request for Proposal (RFP) for IT services, specifically 541511, and trying to decide on a bid or no-bid. The incumbent...

We are a software support company, and we have been providing help desk services for hospitals and banks for years. We found an RFP for federal help...

A compliance matrix also helps you identify what the contracting officer looks for first: the "go/no-go" requirements in Section L that can make your...

Nadia is right that capture management looks different for a smaller firm, but the goal is the same: to get eyes on the requirements before the...

My company, a landscaping firm, has only ever done fixed-price contracts for city parks and school grounds. We just got a call from a prime...

The contracting officer will incorporate the correct wage determination into the solicitation, and if it is missing, you should request it from them...

Your performance bond rate will drop once you have a few jobs done, especially if they are similar in size and scope to the city park project. The...

The health and welfare fringe benefit listed on the wage determination is a set hourly rate that must be paid for all hours worked or paid, up to 40...

City and county governments do not require SAM.gov registration; it is primarily a federal requirement for federal contracts. The SAM.gov entity...

The certification process for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) status moved from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to the...

My firm is a woman-owned management consulting company with eight employees. We're looking at federal contracts and I keep seeing references to WOSB...