North Dakota Procurement Technical Assistance Center

A resource for assisting North Dakota businesses in obtaining federal, state, and local government contracts.

January 2023: Best Practices for Preparing Quality Bids and Proposals

Categories: Getting Started with Contracting, State of ND Contracting

  By: Abby Dschaak and Sherry Neas, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), State Procurement Office   Responding to government solicitations can be challenging – attention to detail is imperative! When preparing a response to a solicitation, the first step is to read the entire solicitation from beginning to end to understand what the entity […]

November 2022: Marching Toward #VetBiz Success National Veteran Small Business Week 2022

Categories: National Veterans Business Week

National Veteran Small Business Week is here, and we look forward to honoring and celebrating the contributions veterans have made to small businesses across the nation. During the week of October 31-November 4, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and their resource partners, like VBOC of the Dakotas, PTAC, SBDC, WBC, and SCORE, will provide […]

Oct 2022: Is Your Company Secure?

Categories: Cybersecurity

Security breaches are rising with targets on small businesses; nothing new. Cybersecurity requirements are also on the rise and a must for people and businesses; nothing new. Two-factor authentication is becoming a standard; nothing new. Companies are still not doing enough to protect their data; nothing new. All businesses in all industries need to take […]

September 2022: National PTAC Day, Come on, Celebrate with Us!

Categories: National PTAC Day

Thirty-seven years ago, Congress authorized an effort to expand the number of businesses capable of participating in the government marketplace. Since then, Procurement Technical Assistance Centers, or PTACs, have been available to assist businesses to get them ready to work with local, state, and federal government agencies at no cost. On the 21st of this […]

August 2022: Why a Proposal Fails

Categories: Small business contracting

Every solicitation generally receives multiple proposals. One area that should be discussed is why your proposal failed. How can you increase your competitive edge to win a contract? Not a pleasant subject; however, there are good topics to learn, discuss, and apply. Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) gives reasons that can cause a […]

July 2022: Getting the Job Done with Teaming, Joint Ventures, and Mentor-Protégé Relationships

Categories: Partnerships

  Do you ever worry that your business does not have the means of independently completing a prospective contract? The government does not expect that each of their contracts will be fulfilled by one business alone. Relationships and taking advantage of each other’s strengths are encouraged in federal contracting. There are three significant categories of […]

June 2022 -SAM.gov

Categories: SAM.GOV

ND PTAC is sharing information from GSA Interact regarding entity matching in SAM.gov. On April 4, 2022, the federal government implemented a new process in SAM.gov to validate entities as a first step in requesting a Unique Entity ID and for completing a SAM.gov entity registration. This entity validation process includes checking that your entity […]

May 2022: Interview with Graham Pritchett, 319th Contracting Squadron

Categories: Solicitations

I had the opportunity to chat with Graham Pritchett, the Director of Business Operations and Small Business Professional with the 319th Contracting Squadron out of Grand Forks AFB. In 2008, his squadron was awarded the Air Force’s Special Achievement Award for their small business practices. Graham was named P-T Small Business Professional of the Year […]

April 2022: Bidding Basics for RFPs

Categories: Solicitations

A request for proposal (RFP) is a document that asks for bids on a given project to which qualified businesses will enter competing offers. The requesting firm then selects which organization it sees most fit and capable to undertake the task in question. RFPs appear to demand a complicated and daunting bidding process, but with […]