.0 Introduction
The American Federal Government spends large sums of money every year on purchases of various products and services. Most of the products and services are items sourced from the different American small businesses. This developed the need to develop an avenue by which the small businesses can be able to apply for the Federal Government tender. Indeed, the American Federal Government spends about $500 billion on purchasing products and services every year. Half of the value of the products and services bought by the Federal Government comes from the American small businesses, and this necessitated the need for the Government to find ways that it can link with the small businesses. One of the effective ways that was established was the creation of the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website.
The website has addressed a number of concerns. They include the need for awareness of the items that the Federal Government needs from the small business owners. It helps the small business owners to be aware of the items that the American Government wants from the people. In this sense, it acts an avenue for matching the demand of products and services by the Federal Government, and the items produced by the American businesses. The website has been an avenue that the American business owners can log, and get information on the products and services, they can supply to the Government. In other words, it creates an opportunity by which businesspersons can find an opportunity for business by applying for contracts with the Federal Government.
The website (FedBizOpps) came into a form because of the need for the federal Government to engage high-tech government contracting means of awarding contracts. The need to consider disadvantaged groups and small business owners in awarding Federal contracts has characterized its services. This is because the US Federal Government purchases anything from basic items such as cloth to other sophisticated items such as satellite systems from private businesses. The website facilitates the sale and purchase of over thirteen million services and products, which the Federal Government purchases each year. This paper will analyze the design, roles, and operation of (FedBizOpps) website.
2.0 FedBizOpps
Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) refers to a web-based computer system that allows business owners to post solicitations, and procurement applications for consideration by the Federal Government. The website allows the businesspersons to solicit and apply for contracts for supply of various services and products. The applications are forwarded to the Federal Government departments through the internet. This internet site was designed and enacted by the Federal Acquisition Regulation. The use of the site in applying for Federal Contracts became mandatory for the Government business opportunities that exceeded $25,000.
The website allows all the American contract specialists to post their synopses. In addition, it allows these contract specialists to post relevant procurement documents. These documents may include award notifications to a given common index, solicitations, and amendments. The common index gives the vendors an opportunity to conduct advanced search on databases, which may have relevant information from many federal agencies. In this regard, through the common index, the business contract specialists may access relevant information from the State agencies that make them well placed in applying for Federal Government contracts.
The website is designed in such a manner that vendors may subscribe to the website (FedBizOpps) for daily email notifications. These notifications may include the procurement announcements from selected organizations. The website has also been structured with product-service classifications. These classifications enable users to access the relevant information in their search. The users of the website may also use the solicitation number in conducting their search and soliciting for contracts from the Federal Government.
FedBizOpps & Opportunities for Minorities
The FedBizOpps plays a pivotal role in enhancing the opportunities for minorities. This is evident considering how the minorities are disadvantaged in applying for Federal contracts. The Minorities for a long period have been disadvantaged in the past because they lacked a media of communication for business with Federal Government. In addition, they lacked information on the available business opportunities offered by the Federal Government. They were also disadvantaged by the fact that they had a relatively smaller economic muscle in contesting for contracts, as compared to the large business organizations.
However, the creation of the FedBizOpps website will enhance the opportunities for minorities in various ways. First, it has made the process of applying for Federal Government much easier. In this sense, the website has increased the accessibility of minorities to Federal Government business opportunities. Unlike in the previous times, where persons applying for Federal contracts underwent the government maze to understand the processes of the federal government contracting; today, minorities can also understand these processes and apply for the federal government business opportunities through the website.
Secondly, the website has enhanced opportunities for minorities by its sister services that make it easier for minorities to access information on the business opportunities offered by the Federal Government. In this regard, these sister services reduce the cost of accessing information from the Federal Government. For instance, the website has a bid match service that may be used by minorities, who may not have the time to visit the site every day. The bid match service is useful in facilitating one in establishing, which of the Federal Government project is fit for applying for a contract.
Thirdly, the FedBizOpps website will enhance the opportunities for minorities, through its link with the General Service Administration (GSA) website. The website is linked to the GSA website to offer its users with information on the small business contracts. This works in the context of the American way of awarding contracts. In this case, the biggest government agencies help other agencies in the process of acquisition of advice, services, products, and resources needed (Hearn, 2011).
In addition, the minorities get an opportunity to apply for the opportunities offered by the FedBizOpps website. In this case, Federal agencies through the FedBizOpps website publicize solicitations to all the people. The solicitations seek bids and proposals on the websites. This gives the minority an opportunity to apply for bids and contracts offered to create an opportunity for them. On overall, the website enhances the opportunities for the minorities for minority starters, who intent to sell or offer services to the US Federal Government (Frey, 2008).
Several factors were considered by the by the Government developing the design and building this website. One was the need to allow the website simple for users, who would want to gather information on the opportunities offered by the Federal Government. The FedBizOpps website (FedBizOpps.gov) is structured a data source with information on contracting opportunities and purchases the US government exceeding $25,000.
The other factor was the need to be specific on the opportunities available by the Federal Government. The Government wanted the website address the opportunities among its agencies. In order to ensure that this is done, the website embraced the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS). This system has classified various work opportunities offered by the Federal government. Thirdly, the government considered the locations by which the Federal Government opportunities are found. The need for users of the website to know the location where an opportunity is available was considered in the design of the website. In this case, the website was designed with the CAGE codes system. This system may be defined as a standardized technique used in finding a facility service in a given location. This system has acted as a unique identifier by the potential distributors and suppliers, who intend to supply their services to the Federal Government.
Various improvements may be applied to the FedBizOpps Web site in the future. These may be embraced to improve its efficiency in serving the Federal Government, and the business owners. The improvements may include limiting the number of web pages in the vendors guide index page of the FedBizOpps website. This will make it easy for suppliers and distributors to identify what they require. This is as opposed to the current state, which has many web pages, which requires much effort to access the opportunities of the business. In the future, there may also be need to create definite web pages for minority groups. This will increase the number of participants in the process of contracting and procurement. Improving the search system may be another improvement that may be made on the website.
The website offers many services for the public. The first one is publicizing bids. The website system is designed with an email notification system that lets businesses, fill out a subscription form. Once they have filled the subscription form, the subscribers are sent an email notification with new bids matching the criteria they set. Government buyers may post bids in the process of soliciting for products and services they need to supply to Federal Government (Corbin, 2007).
The second service offered is the management of Procurements. The website facilitates the process of managing procurements. This is because it used by all the federal procurement offices in announcing all the proposed procurement actions, which exceed a value of $25,000. This is because services that exceed $25,000 are likely to attract subcontracting.
The services also include facilitating the allocation of contracts to disadvantaged groups. Through the website, many procurement announcements have been reserved for the many small businesses, and for minority groups. Through the website, the minority owned businesses have an opportunity to apply for the contracts from the Federal Government. It is evident, that the website has the potential to increase the number of businesses that participate in the Government contracting process.
Conclusion
On overall, it is clear that American Government has embraced high technology government contracting means in the processes of procurement allocations. The creation of the FedBizOpps Web site is vital in the process of opening up the processes of allocating Federal contracts to business people. In addition, the website has given the minority an upper hand in participating in the process of Government contracting.
References
Corbin, J. (2007). The Beginners Guide to Government Contracting. New York: Lulu.
Frey, F. (2008). Successful Proposal Strategies for Small Businesses. New York: Artech House.
Hearn, E. (2011). Federal acquisition and contract management. (7th ed.) Los Altos, CA: Hearn
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