Office of Small Business Utilization

The New England Region's Office of Small Business Utilization (OSBU) serves as GSA's regional liaison and advocate for small businesses within Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. As an advocate for small business owners, it is the mission of the OSBU to promote increased access to GSA's nationwide procurement opportunities. 

GSA, like all federal agencies, has procurement preference goals for contracting with small businesses, see the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 19 - Small Business Programs. Procurement preference goals are a performance measure that GSA strives to achieve through its various programs. 

The procurement preference goal categories are:

• Small Business (SB)
• Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB)
• 8(a) Business Development (8(a) BD),
• Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB)
• Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB)
• Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone)
• Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB) 
• Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB)

The OSBU promotes programs and activities for small business owners that provide access to GSA and other federal agencies by:

• working with GSA contracting officers to highlight small businesses for specific contracts
• partnering with federal, state and local agencies to assist potential vendors
• providing information and guidance regarding the agency’s procurement forecast, contracting opportunities and programs to potential vendors
• participating in outreach activities such as networking sessions, forums, events, conferences, workshops and trade shows

Please Note: Effective July 30, 2012, the System Award Management (SAM) has replaced the Central Contractor Registration (CCR)/Federal Agency Registration (FedReg), the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA) and the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS). Please visit the SAM website at https://www.sam.gov/sam/ for additional information and updates. 

The shortcut for this page is www.gsa.gov/r1osbu.