PTAC director announces exciting training events, requests your assistance in reporting contract dollars

There are several exciting training events coming in the near future that will be of great value to you as a vendor to the federal government. The first is a series of three sessions conducted by Defense Supply Center - Columbus. The other is Marketplace 2007. Both of these events are covered elsewhere in the newsletter and are on the PTAC website. Please take a look at these events and plan to attend. At this time of the year, I am making my usual plea. The PTAC Awards Survey will be emailed to each of you soon. Please take a few minutes, complete the survey and return it to me. All information is kept “confidential” and the aggregate numbers are sent to DoD as part of a required report. So, please help us by reporting your contract awards for the last half of 2006. Read More...

2/6/07: How to Do Business with the Government Greenville       2/8/07: Government Purchase Card (GPC) Trade Fair Fayetteville         2/13/07: Machining Your Marketing Skills for Selling to a Defense Supply Center Hickory   Many more events...

National Stock Numbers: Do I need one?

One of the frequently asked questions that a PTAC Counselor gets concerns National Stock Numbers (NSN). Firms want to know if they need to get one assigned for their product and where they should go to get one.

An NSN is simply an official label assigned to an item that is bought and used often by the federal government. When an NSN is assigned, the government locks in an official description of the item along with manufacturer's part number, price history, plus physical and performance characteristics. 

Does each item have its own separate NSN? No, items from different manufacturers having the same characteristics, the same function and the same size, share the same NSN. Therefore, the NSN for a two-inch, stainless steel screw may include numerous different manufacturers of this item.  The solicitation to restock this item need only cite the NSN in order to define the characteristics and specifications for the item.

Learn more...

Sole-Source: A FAR’s Eye View

During our normal day-to-day counseling we address numerous issues on how to do business with the federal government and once in awhile we will have a client ask about Sole-Source.  Let’s see how the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) addresses Sole-Source.  Let’s start with PART 6 – Competition Requirements and then flip the pages over to Subpart 6.3 – Other Than Full and Open Competition.

Read more...

The Key to Obtaining Information About an Opportunity: The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) provides the public access to information that would otherwise be unobtainable from the federal government.  This act, signed into law in 1966, and subsequently strengthened throughout its existence, allows access to any federal agency record, excluding Congress, the federal courts and elements of the Executive Office.  So why could FOIA be important to your business?

Read more to find out why...

Client Success: Cecil Budd Tire Company

In today’s computerized, web-based, and networking world any business relationship is subject to becoming badly jammed.  A new regulation, technology, or protocol intended to improve transactions sometimes have the opposite effect.  It happened to Michael Budd of Cecil Budd Tire Company.

“I’ve never run into anything like this in thirty-seven years in the tire business. I
didn’t think I should sell the retreaded tires in the commercial market because
they were, after all, government property. Even if I could have sold them in the
commercial market, the tires were of extremely limited use – they were not
common sizes. I had paid for the rubber tread, I had paid for the manufacturing
labor and overhead, including warehousing, but had received nothing.”

Retreaded tires processed by his firm for the federal government back in 2003
remained stacked in his warehouse in Siler City, NC, when government buying
procedures abruptly changed. Was this change a simple jam-up or a
monumental roadblock? It took three years to find a way out and he would still
be deep in the dilemma if he hadn’t attended a NC Procurement Technical
Assistance Center (PTAC) workshop and met a Procurement Counselor.

Read more...

Marketplace 2007

May 30th at the Sheraton Imperial in Research Triangle Park!

Mark your calendars for the largest government procurement trade show in the Triangle.  With over fifty vendors representing numerous government agencies and large prime contractors, this reverse trade show is designed with your business in mind.  Seminars and networking events will provide you direct contact with purchasing officers and experts within with each agency.  For more information, visit the Marketplace 2007 web site.

Machining Your Marketing Skills

Attention all machine shop companies!  Eleanor Holland, Director of the Defense Supply Center Columbus’ (DSCC) Small Business Office will be touring North Carolina in February with stops in Hickory, Durham, and Greenville.  If you are interested in learning more about machine shop opportunities with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), download the DSCC event flyer and call for reservations.

GSA Small Business Workshop and Matchmaking Event

The General Services Administration (GSA) will be offering a workshop that combines education, networking and business matchmaking through face-to-face appoint­ments with key agency decision-makers.  It will be held in the Cone University Center at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on Wednesday, February 14, 2007, from 9 AM until 3:30 PM.  For more information regarding this event and how to register, please review the event flyer.