North Dakota Procurement Technical Assistance Center

  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 […]

Being on the hunt for government contracts can seem like a snipe hunt. Not familiar with a snipe hunt. As early as the 1840s in North America, a snipe hunt was duping an unsuspected person into hunting for a nonexistent animal called a snipe. Surprise, a snipe is real; it is a North American bird.  […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

  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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]