Small Businesses Take Giant Step in Competitive Federal Contracting Arena

Working aggressively and strategically, a group of small businesses win portion of $987M opportunity.

Join the National Procurement Council™ and the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce™ on December 9, 2004 as we launch a new series for small business owners called - We Can Compete.

We will learn how an innovative, competitive group of small business owners came together in a strong strategic relationship to participate in a $987 Million federal contracting opportunity.

This David and Goliath story marks the beginning of a new era of competitiveness for small business and will help small business owners and federal contracting professionals learn how small businesses can be truly competitive in today's federal contracting arena.

For additional details of this collaboration, see below.

Date/Time: December 9, 2004 from 9 - 11 a.m.

Location: The historic Hotel Washington at 15th & Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.  Click here for directions. (The Hotel Washington is near the Metro Center subway station.)

>>>Registration: NPC and USWCC members $15 - register here.  Non-members $30 - register here.

Details of the small business "win" that we will learn about on December 9th.

On October 6, 2003, Defense Contracting Command - Washington [on behalf of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army, Manpower and Reserve Affairs (OASA(M&RA)] issued a Sources Sought Notice in accordance with FAR Part 10.001 to determine the extent of Small Business participation and capability to perform a requirement to obtain a wide range of Human Resources (HR) services in accordance with Federal law and Army regulations and policies.  The 5 year contract had an overall estimated value of $987 million, of which only $25 million was being set-aside for small business!

Gretchen McCracken, President of the Golden Key Group, was among those who received this notice. She immediately reached out to all of those who received the notice and called for a collective, unified stand on behalf of ALL small businesses. within 24 hours, 58 companies answered her call for unification, and on Monday, October 13, 2003, the Columbus Solutions Group was officially launched.  Its purpose:  to create a unified voice on behalf of all its participating small businesses.  By November 19, 2003, Columbus Solutions Group was successful in its efforts, and DCCW realigned the Pending RFP to allow for more small business participation.

On October 1, 2004, almost one year after they started, Team Sygnetics (which was comprised of members from Columbus Solutions Group) successfully won the small business contract for Recruiting and Retention. 

Please join us as we discuss the strategic approach, collaboration of companies and the results that have been achieved to date.

On hand will be Gretchen McCracken (Acting Director/CEO - Columbus Solutions Group and CEO of Golden Key Group), Dr. Angela Wilson (President and CEO of SEKON), and other members of the Columbus Solutions Group team.