Do I Have To Have Insurance To Respond To An Atm
No, generally insurance is not required at the time of responding to an ATM. However, having insurance will likely be a requirement of fulfilling a contract.
The type and level of insurance cover required for a contact will be dependent on the value of the procurement and the risks determined by the government buyer when dealing with your business, to reduce the overall risk to the Australian Government.
It is your decision, as a business, whether you want to have insurance before you tender and if so, the type and amount of insurance that you think is suitable for your business.
Some common types of insurance include public liability insurance, product liability insurance, professional indemnity insurance and workers compensation insurance.
Reducing the risk to the Australian Government in doing business with you can help represent better value for money in your tender response. Having your business obtain and maintain suitable insurance is one way of demonstrating risk reduction. However, there are other ways to demonstrate a reduced risk in contracting with your business besides holding insurance, such as through: financial bonds warranties or obligations to repair, maintain, or make-good.
Understanding Historical Agency Buying Patterns
Knowing what Agencies have procured in the past can help determine what they may be interested in procuring in the future. The General Services Administration’s Integrated Award Environment operates and maintains the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation. The FPDS is the central repository of statistical information on federal contracting and can be a very useful tool for market research. The system contains detailed information on contract actions over $25,000 and summary data on procurements of less than $25,000. The system identifies who bought what, from whom, for how much, when and where. The FPDS maintains historical contracting information dating back to 1981.
Get Help Winning Foreign Government Contracts
The Advocacy Center helps U.S. companies to win government contracts across the globe. It coordinates U.S. government-wide advocacy efforts on behalf of U.S. companies and works closely with ITAs U.S. Commercial Service and its commercial liaisons to multilateral development banks. As soon as you take interest in a potential project, contact the Advocacy Center.
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Learn How To Prepare A Bid
Every tender is unique, as are the bid requirements, so you should understand the general steps to prepare a bid:
- Review the solicitation document: Learn to ask the right questions, understand the security requirements, and learn about mandatory and point-rated evaluation criteria and the types of selection methods
- : Understand if you can meet the requirements, whether you are eligible to supply, and if you can accept the terms and conditions and basis of payment
- Collect information and follow the tender: Get your security clearance through the contracting authority, prepare your certifications, and sign up for a web feed to follow the tender to stay on top of any amendments
- Prepare your bid: Make it easy for buyers to evaluate your bid and learn more about the technical, management and financial sections
- Submit your bid: Remember to submit on time, with the right number of copies and signatures and follow all instructions
Anyone Can Sell To The Federal Government
Small businesses looking to increase their revenues might want to consider taking on a new type of customer, the federal government.
The federal government is the worlds largest purchaser of goods and services. However, in working with small-business owners, I find many who think government contracts are mostly about military and construction related products and services.
But the federal government purchases pretty much any product or service you could imagine and spends more than $425 billion a year, so dont count yourself out until you have done some research. And small businesses are particularly encouraged to bid on contracts, with federal agencies having contracting goals concerning selling to smaller companies.
One step you will need to take as you seek to sell to the government is to register your business in the governments System for Award Management at www.sam.gov. But you cant just list your business there and sit back and watch the money roll in.
Just as you should be working hard to develop profitable relationships with your other customers, you will have to actively pursue a profitable relationship with your new customer, the federal government.
Before you start bidding on contracts, you need to be sure that your business has the ability to fulfill the governments needs and can financially support the performance of the contract.
The Small Business Administration lists the following tips on their Web site concerning selling to the federal government:
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Why Would I Want To Partner With Another Business
These strategic business relationships can take a number of forms and can offer substantial benefits. For example, by forming a consortium to pool resources and capabilities and submit a joint bid, you can reduce your tender costs and participate in projects you could not bid for individually.
Probably more common than joint bids are prime/sub-contractor arrangements. Under these arrangements, suppliers who are awarded prime contractor status use sub-contractors to perform some or all of the services required by the government organisation. Developing relationships with these prime contractors can be a relatively simple and attractive way to access the government market.
The key is to build relationships with other businesses in your industry and related industries, and make full use of your business networks. Networking can be the best way to find other suppliers to work with, but industry associations and business consultants can also act as brokers on your behalf. It is important to plan aheadit is much easier to develop your relationships before a tender is announced rather than during the bidding process.
Build Your Online Presence And Government Marketing Strategy
You have established what contract vehicle is right for your company, now what? The next step, which is extremely important, is to build your government marketing strategy. This is done through a variety of ways such as building out your companys website to include a government section, case studies and whitepapers, and increased presence on LinkedIn. Your website is the face of your company and is often a big investment, so make sure to include a section geared for your government and public sector offerings as it can greatly increase your brand awareness in the government marketplace. It’s a good idea to include case studies and whitepapers on your website, as well as trade shows and other government events when things return to normal. They help present your company as a subject matter expert and bring great value to the government when deciding how your product offering will help support their mission. The main goal for your website, content, and materials is to make it easy for government buyers to make a case for why youre the best supplier!
All social media channels can be valuable to utilize while looking to increase your government sales, however, LinkedIn generally seems to be the main outlet for government customers. Utilizing LinkedIn as a way to build your online presence will help you and your organization to connect and network with government officials, helping your company stand out from the crowd.
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Get A Supplier Debriefing On Your Bid
Following the award of a contract from a competitive process, you will have an opportunity to request supplier debriefing on your bid. It is important to know when an award is issued against a tender to ensure that you meet the deadline to request feedback.
Whether or not you were successful, feedback can help you improve your bid submissions skills and your chances of winning other submissions.
Tips For Selling To The Government
The federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars annually buying products and services from small businesses. Could your company be one of them? Here are 10 steps to breaking into the lucrative world of government contracting.
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Im A Small Business Can I Compete Successfully For Government Work
Most definitely. Many small businesses supply goods and services to the Australian Government. The Australian Government encourages small businesses to compete for government work and is committed to sourcing at least 20 per cent of procurement by value from Small and Medium Enterprises . We have also committed to sourcing at least 35 per cent of contracts up to $20 million from SMEs.
Under the Commonwealth Procurement Rules , which govern procurement decisions in government organisations, all potential suppliers to government must be treated equitably based on their commercial, legal, technical and financial abilities to perform. A government organisation must not discriminate against a potential supplier due to their size, degree of foreign affiliation or ownership, location, or the origin of their goods and services.
To ensure that SMEs can engage in fair competition for Australian Government business, the Australian Government requires public sector officials to apply procurement practices that do not unfairly discriminate against SMEs and provide appropriate opportunities for SMEs to compete. The Australian Government requires officials to consider, in the context of value for money:
Identify And Outsell Your Competition
You will always have competitors, that is simply avoidable. While a competitor might not offer the exact same solution or service, the variations between your company and your competitor help you stand out in the RFI/RFQ/RFP process by putting similar product offerings into the same level playing field. However, there are many ways to not only identify, but also outsell your competition. One of the ways, as mentioned above, is to build your online presence and government marketing strategy.
Identifying the differentiators that exist between you and your competition can greatly help you outsell your competitor. If you can make your company stand out from the crowd, you will be more likely to win an award as government buyers will have an easier way to identify the best solution possible to meet and exceed their needs. Remember that government buyers are considering several options and vendors when searching for a solution, and they often dont have time to extensively examine the nuances between all the offerings. Make it easy for them to see how your offering is different from all the others!
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Get In Front Of The Decision Makers
Goal: Boost your odds of winning a bid.
Despite all the rules and procedures, people ultimately make thebuying decisions. Finding the right people, hearing what they need, and tellingthem how you can help is essential, but its not easy. Itsvery difficult to get anyone from the government to respond, saysCrosley. Start by understanding that the contracting officer typicallyensures that buyers and sellers follow the procurement rules , while program officers, end users, and CIOs and thelike are the people who know what an agency needs and drive the buyingdecisions.
How do you find these decision makers? Tireless networking. Youcan go the traditional trade-show route, or you can go to events that they arehosting, says Collis Jones, director of business development withheavy-equipment manufacturer John Deere, which has over half a century ofexperience selling to the federal government.
Everything is supposed to be judged on the samecriteria. So if one company has a lot more graphics or they are using smallerfonts and can include more information than someone else, that could beconstrued as an advantage, says Dunn. Consider making it someonesjob to ensure that you dont lose out on a multimillion-dollarcontract because you overlooked the fine print.
Agency Upcoming Solicitation Previews
In addition to posting their Strategic Plans, agencies post procurement opportunities as early in the acquisition process as possible to help businesses identify opportunities that match their solutions. Using these portals, such as this Acquisition Planning Forecast System by DHS, can help you identify specific upcoming purchases and begin crafting a personalized response to the Agency. You can also subscribe based on your product keywords to receive alerts when new previews are posted.
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Access Portals To Selling Green Products To The Federal Government:
Federal Business Opportunities : Federal Business Opportunities, is the single point of universal electronic public access on the Internet for government-wide, federal procurement opportunities/solicitations that exceed $25,000. Government buyers post business opportunities on the FedBizOpps site. Commercial vendors seeking federal markets for their products and services can search, monitor and retrieve opportunities/solicitations posted by the entire federal contracting community through this portal. FedBizOpps also sends feedback to vendors through an e-mail notification service.
In FY2019, approximately $718 million in sales were made via GSA Advantage!®. Agencies can browse available Multiple Award Schedule and GSA Global Supply items and select the one that is the best value for their requirements. MAS vendors also have the opportunity to highlight their green products on GSA Advantage!® with environmental icons, allowing customers to quickly identify products that meet green purchasing requirements. Environmental icons are added to product listings by vendors via the Schedules Input Program . Documentation to substantiate the use of environmental attributes, or icons, in GSA Advantage!® may include:
- Product specifications
For more information on how to sell green products and services through a variety of GSA programs .
How Can I Get Information From Austender
One of AusTenders most useful features for any potential supplier to government is the subscription service that allows you to register your area of business interest. You can then receive free automatic email notifications of the latest opportunities as they are advertised. You will then be able to:
- view and download current ATM tender documentation
- lodge submissions in response to market approaches in a secure electronic environment.
When you register with AusTender, it is important to specify the widest range of relevant product categories to make sure you are notified of all possible opportunities.
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How To Sell To The Government
As the acquisition arm of the federal government, GSA plays a vital role in connecting the private sector with federal agencies fulfilling their business needs. GSA offers professional services, equipment, supplies, telecommunications, and information technology from commercial businesses to government organizations and the military through acquisition solutions from its Federal Acquisition Service .
GSA also provides workplaces to the government by constructing, managing, and preserving federal buildings, and by leasing and managing commercial real estate through its Public Buildings Service .
Things You Need To Know Before Selling To A City Government
The Smart Cities movement is creating the opportunity for city leadership to try new approaches in delivering services to residents and visitors. This era of experimentation could be a boon for small business owners who can bring a fresh perspective to solving civic challenges.
But selling to a city requires a different approach and often times a lot of patience. Every city is distinct so there is no one approach that fits all. Following is some insight and great advice from entrepreneurs and city administrators that can help you navigate this new space.
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How To Sell Product Ideas To The Military
Selling product ideas to the military involves fulfilling an existing need. The majority of products the U.S. Department of Defense purchases involve individual transactions of $100,000 or less, according to the department. Most business is conducted through purchase orders to local suppliers. For procurements costing more than $100,000, the Defense Department solicits sealed competitive bids.
Who Is Responsible For Government Purchases
Public Services and Procurement Canada is the department responsible for the vast majority of the buying the government does on behalf of other departments. This department supports purchases of everything from staplers, to temporary help services to ships to buildings.
Public Services and Procurement Canada also works with other departments to support effective, open and transparent processes that provide value for Canadians. Most of the processes on these pages describe Public Services and Procurement Canada’s processes.
However, certain types of purchases are managed by other departments where they have the expertise. Shared Services Canada for example is the department responsible for many large software purchases, printers, computers and more.
Also, all departments have the discretion to purchase goods and services themselves under certain dollar limits. These limits vary between $25,000 to $100,000 dollars, depending upon the good or service. You can find information on these low dollar value purchases in the proactive disclosure pages for each Government of Canada department.
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