White House and GSA Launch New Program to Give Companies a Leg Up in Federal Contracting
New GSA program to help companies secure and keep government contracts
GSA # 10780
March 10, 2011
Contact: Sara Merriam, 202-501-1231
sara.merriam@gsa.gov
WASHINGTON – Today the Obama Administration and the U.S. General Services Administration unveiled Business Breakthrough, a new GSA program to arm businesses with information that will help them compete for the nearly $50 billion of federal purchases that flow through GSA each year.
“Our ability to out-compete the rest of the world relies on the success of large and small businesses here at home. It’s these businesses that will secure America’s future prosperity,” said Jiyoung Park, Associate Administrator at the U.S. General Services Administration's Office of Small Business Utilization. “GSA’s Business Breakthrough program is a vital next step in our efforts to maintain an open dialogue with the business community and provide innovative companies with the tools to grow and create new jobs.”
While participation in Business Breakthrough will be available to a range of companies, GSA envisions the program being particularly useful to companies that are too large to qualify for small business procurement advantages, but not large enough to successfully compete with the nation’s largest corporations.
The Business Breakthrough program will offer workshops for companies with varying levels of experience with federal contracting to give participating companies access to information on how to succeed in federal contracting through GSA’s contracting vehicles. Business Breakthrough will also feature GSA’s Mentor-Protégé program,which assists protégé businesses while providing contracting advantages to both the mentor and protégé companies.
“GSA is positioned at the crossroads of business and government. Our work touches 14 percent of all federal contracts, about $50 billion worth of business each year. Business Breakthrough will help companies maximize their competitiveness to tap into this market,” Park said.
GSA will pilot Business Breakthrough in two cities in May and launch the program nationally later in 2011.
Visit http://www.gsa.gov/businessbreakthrough>>
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As the federal government's workplace solutions provider, the U.S. General Services Administration works to foster an effective, sustainable and transparent government for the American people. GSA’s expertise in government workplace solutions include:
• Effective management of government assets including more than 9,600 government-owned or leased buildings and 210,000 vehicles in the federal fleet, and preservation of historic federal properties;
• Leveraging the government’s buying power through responsible acquisition of products and services making up more than 11 percent of the government’s total procurement dollars;
• Providing innovative technology solutions to enhance government efficiency and increase citizen engagement; and,
• Promoting responsible use of federal resources through development of governmentwide policies ranging from federal travel to property and management practices.
